Chapter 7 - The Project Went Bad for Ordinary Reasons

No fraud.
No fire.
No hidden corpse in a wall.
The market changed.
One house required:
foundation repairs.
Another had:
mold behind finished walls.
The third sat too long.
Interest costs grew.
Derek began missing:
cash calls.
Ryan injected his own savings.
Then used:
credit cards.
Then borrowed from Diane.
I did not know:
that.
The first property sold.
Small loss.
Second:
still listed.
Third:
unfinished.
The hard-money lender wanted:
an extension fee
and:
additional reserves.
Ryan needed:
$60,000
immediately.
That was the money he demanded at Diane’s table.
He had already used:
his cash,
Diane’s cash,
several credit lines.
If I refused, the lender might:
accelerate,
take control,
force sale.
That sounded catastrophic.
It was.
For Ryan.
Not for:
me.
The limited guarantee I had signed related to a different subordinate facility.
It did not require me to save:
the entire project.
My attorney, Samuel Greene, told me:
“Do not put another dollar in until there’s a full workout proposal.”
Ryan heard:
Rachel is letting me fail.
I heard:
risk needs to stop.
Diane heard:
Rachel has money and will not save her brother.
Three realities.
May you like
Only one had numbers behind it.
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