The living room of the Lynn Family estate was silent as a tomb.
Every face was ashen, drained of hope. Even the typically arrogant Caroline Lynn sat curled in a chair, her eyes wide and vacant. The sheer magnitude of the debt—thirty-five million dollars—hung over them like a guillotine blade. To pay it meant bankruptcy; to ignore it meant prison.
There wasn't a single person in the room with the constitution for jail. The mere thought had paralyzed them with terror.
Arthur Lynn seemed to age a decade in mere minutes. His shoulders slumped, and his voice was a ragged whisper. "Check the company accounts. Withdraw everything we have. Then... start calling everyone you know. Friends, distant relatives, business partners. We have to borrow whatever we can."
It was a humiliating command, bu
