Chapter 6 - The Total Foreclosure
Cole looked around the parking lot in frantic desperation, watching his workers stand in a silent circle near the perimeter fence.
Not a single employee stepped forward to defend him.
For six years, they had seen who really signed the bonus checks, who remembered their children’s names, and who stayed up until midnight to fix payroll errors.
They knew Cole was an empty suit whose arrogance had finally hit a brick wall.
"Dave! Frank!" Cole shouted at two senior machinists. "Help me stop these trucks! We have contracts to deliver!"
Dave, a veteran machinist with grease-stained hands, crossed his arms and looked at the ground.
"Sorry, Cole," Dave muttered. "Maren paid for my hip replacement surgery two years ago when your insurance lapsed."
"We work for the woman who owns the tools. Not the man who trades his wife for a secretary."
Several workers laughed softly, nodding in agreement as they walked toward their personal trucks.
Brielle dropped her takeout tray, the plastic cups shattering against the asphalt, spilling brown liquid across her expensive sneakers.
"Cole, this is humiliating!" Brielle whined, tears ruining her heavy mascara.
"My father is the county commissioner! I'm calling him right now!"
"Call whoever you want, young lady," Deputy Miller interrupted sternly.
"A federal procurement judge signed this writ. Your father has zero jurisdiction over a civil replevin."
Cole dropped onto his knees right there in the muddy parking lot, his hands clutching the front bumper of his leased Porsche.
"Maren, please!" he sobbed openly, water dripping from his disheveled hair, ruining his expensive wool jacket.
"You're bankrupting me! The banks will call in my personal guarantees by noon!"
"My parents put their retirement savings into my working capital loan!"
"If you do this, they lose their house!"
I looked down at him, feeling the exact same profound, clean detachment I had felt when I laid the carving knife beside my plate.
"Your mother lifted her wineglass to new beginnings, Cole," I reminded him softly.
"She said I was just a stepping stone who couldn't keep up with where your life was going."
"Well, your life is currently standing in an empty parking lot in the rain."
"Enjoy your new beginning."
Ellis Mercer stepped forward, handing Cole a final certified document wrapped in red legal tape.
"This is the notice of eviction from the McKees Rocks industrial park," Ellis stated.
"Under the master lease held by Bennett Commercial Real Estate, Whitlock Precision has four hours to remove any non-leased furniture."
"At twelve o'clock noon, a commercial locksmith will change the perimeter gate codes and deadbolts."
"Any property remaining on site will be treated as abandoned inventory."
The heavy diesel engines of the six flatbeds roared to life in unison, their exhaust plumes rising into the gray morning air.
One by one, the massive trucks pulled out of the industrial lot, carrying seventy tons of ultra-precision aerospace equipment away toward a secure storage warehouse in Cranberry.
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Behind them remained only an empty concrete shell with oil stains on the floor.
Cole stayed on his knees in the puddle, weeping like a broken child, while Brielle slammed the passenger door of the Porsche and walked away toward the highway on foot.
