Me and My Sisters (23 page)

21

Sophie

Jack is due back today, thank God. I don’t know what on earth is going on with my bank account – I haven’t been able to get any money out for three days. I had to borrow from Mimi this morning to pay for my coffee.

I’d left several frantic messages for Jack, but his phone was permanently switched to voicemail. Eventually, after the sixth, when I asked him to please have the courtesy of letting me know if he was still alive, he sent a brief text saying he was up to his eyes but he’d be back home today at about eleven.

I’d put a sundress and a clutch-bag on hold in Harvey Nicks and I wanted to pick them up and pay for them this afternoon; I also wanted to pay back Victoria for the Missoni scarf. I didn’t like owing people money: it made me uncomfortable. I’d never borrowed money from anyone. I’d been working since I was eighteen, so I’d always had my own money, and then I’d married Jack. Since then I’d never had to think about it.

As I drove home after the coffee, my phone rang. It was Victoria.

‘Hi, Sophie. Listen, Gerry’s been trying to get in touch with Jack for days. He needs the cheque for our weekend in Venice. Everyone else has paid, so we’re just waiting on you guys.’

‘Sorry about that. He’s been in New York and completely swamped with work. I’ve barely heard from him myself.’

‘We really need the money by tomorrow.’

‘He’s due in this morning. In fact, I expect he’ll be home when I get back to the house. I’ll drop the cheque in to you this afternoon and the money I owe you for the scarf.’

‘Great, thanks.’

‘I can’t wait for Venice. The Cipriani is supposed to be incredible,’ I said.

‘It’s lovely. We’ve been there a few times. Gerry’s booked a suite for us.’

‘Oh, wow. Is the shopping good?’

‘You have to know where you’re going. I’ll show you around – I know Venice pretty well.’

‘Great! It’ll be nice to get away.’

‘I know – it’s been a month since I was in Paris and I badly need a change of scenery. It’s so dreary here, nothing but doom and gloom and recession talk.’

‘I agree. I’ll call you later. I’ve just arrived home and Jack’s car is here, so I’ll sort out the payment for you.’

‘I’ll see you later. ’Bye.’

I opened the door and walked into the kitchen. ‘Jack?’ I called.

The kitchen was empty, but his suitcase was lying on the floor.

‘Jack?’ I shouted.

Nothing. He must be in the shower. I began to go upstairs to find him when I heard a strange noise coming from his office. It sounded like … hiccuping. I opened the door and found my husband sitting at his desk, with his face in his hands … sobbing.

I froze. In all the years we had been together, I had never seen Jack cry. His whole body was shaking. I pulled myself together and ran over to him. ‘Jack! What’s wrong?’

He was too upset to speak.

‘Jack?’ I turned his chair to face me and knelt in front of him. ‘You have to calm down and talk to me. What is it? Oh, my God, is it Jess?’

He shook his head.

‘Well, then, what?’

‘I’m so sorry … I’m – uh – uh … sorry.’

‘Sorry for what?’ My heart was pounding – I was beginning to panic.

‘I’ve let you down … terrible mistake.’ His chest heaved up and down.

What had he done? He was having an affair. With whom? It must be one of those American girls. ‘Are you sleeping with one of those cheap tarts in work?’ I shouted.

He shook his head again. ‘No – I’m such a fuck-up … uh – uh … sorry, Sophie.’

‘Jesus, Jack, talk to me, I don’t understand. What did you do that’s so terrible? Did you have sex with another woman?’

‘No.’

‘Are you sick? Is it cancer? We can get over cancer – lots of people live long happy lives after cancer. I love you. I’ll nurse you back to health.’

‘I’m not sick.’

‘Is it your parents? Has someone died?’

‘No.’

‘Roger? Fiona? Grace?’

‘No one’s dead,’ he bawled.

I stood up and racked my brains. ‘Did you hurt someone? Oh, God – did you run someone over in your car? Did you kill someone?’

He shook his head a third time.

I grabbed his arm. ‘Well, what is it? Tell me. You’re really scaring me. Whatever it is, we can work it out. I promise. Talk to me, Jack.’

‘It’s – uh – uh – all – uh – uh – gone.’

‘What is?’

‘Everything.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’ve lost everything, Sophie,’ he said, staring down at his hands.

I put my hands gently on his shoulders. ‘Take a deep breath and tell me what the hell is going on.’

He looked at me for the first time. His eyes were completely bloodshot and his face was ashen. He had aged ten years. He took a long breath and said, ‘All of our money is gone.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The company invested in a Ponzi scheme.’

‘What the hell is that?’

‘It’s an investment fraud.’

‘So go to the police.’

‘It’s not that simple.’

‘Why not? If someone stole your money, report it and get it back.’

‘The guy has no money. There’s nothing to recoup. The whole thing was a scam.’

I frowned. ‘What guy? Who is he? Why did you trust him? Why did you give him the company money?’

‘It wasn’t just us.’ Jack defended GreenGem. ‘Half the hedge funds in New York were involved. It was a no-brainer, a sure thing.’

‘So what went wrong?’

‘We made a mistake. A huge one.’

‘Well, fix it.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

Jack sat back in his chair, wiped his eyes and tried to explain. ‘The guy’s name is Terence Hartley.’

‘I know that name. He’s the guy you and Brad were toasting that night in New York.’

‘Yes, we were. He had made us a lot of money, or so we thought. I met him four years ago at a party in New York. I’d heard about him through one of the other hedge-fund guys, Larry Holm. He said Hartley was a sure thing. Larry’s no idiot. He runs a well-established hedge fund and has years more experience than I do. I asked around about Hartley, and a couple of the other guys I know from the business vouched for him too. Hartley was one of the founders of the NASDAQ stock exchange, for Christ’s sake. So, one night at a party I managed to get introduced to him and we got chatting. I said I’d heard about his consistent returns and was interested in investing some money with him. He said he wasn’t taking on anyone else and made this big song and dance about not needing any more investors because he wanted to look after the ones he had.’

‘Why didn’t you walk away?’ I asked.

‘Because the guys who had invested with him were getting seven per cent returns every year without fail, despite the downturn. Hartley seemed to have the Midas touch. So I kept at him. Eventually he said he’d think about it and let me know. A week later he called and said I could come on board, but the minimum investment was a hundred million. I spoke to Brad about it, then introduced him to Hartley. He was impressed too. We decided that the GreenGem hedge fund would put up the money. We piled everything we had into it – we managed to come up with twenty million ourselves and borrowed eighty million from the bank. We were borrowing at three per cent and making returns of seven per cent for the first two years. It was a sure thing, a fail-safe.’

‘But what do you mean you put everything in? How could you put all the company’s money into one investment? I know nothing about this, but Dad always said you never put all your eggs in one basket.’

Why was Jack being such an idiot? Why did he keep saying we had lost everything? I didn’t understand what the hell was going on. We still had all his salary and bonuses in the bank. Didn’t we?

‘The investments were spread across lots of different financial streams. We were flying. Brad and I couldn’t believe our luck. Hartley was a genius.’

‘Well, why are you in here crying?’

‘Because the whole thing was a house of cards, and it started crashing a few weeks ago. We found out the full extent this week.’

‘How did it all crash?’

‘Hartley was using the money from new investors to pay old investors the returns he had promised. There were never any investments. He was just taking from new clients to pretend to old clients that their investments were going well.’

‘Why did he bother? What did he get out of it?’

‘He was taking a slice of every investment and living like a king.’

‘So why did it all crash?’

‘Because he ran out of new investors to cover his arse. The whole thing blew up in everyone’s faces. All of GreenGem’s previous good investments have been swallowed up by this Ponzi scheme.’

‘Jesus Christ, Jack, how could you trust this guy?’

‘Because everyone thought he was a genius and for the first two years he proved he was.’

‘Until you found out he was a cheat and a fraud?’

‘Yes.’

‘What about your bonuses? You still have those, don’t you? They were personal money, not company money?’

‘No, they were in there too.’

‘What do you mean? How? Why would you do that?’

‘Because Brad’s company policy for all the partners in GreenGem was that our bonuses had to be reinvested in the company for five years.’

‘What about your salary?’

‘Sophie, the GreenGem fund has shut down, the company has folded. It’s over.’

I took a step back. I felt as if I’d been shot. ‘So what is our situation? How much do we have left in the bank? What do we have to live on until this blows over?’

‘Sophie, you’re not listening to me. We have nothing left.’

I stared at him. I needed to try to stay calm. I needed to process this information. I needed to understand what was going on. I coughed to suppress the panic rising in my throat and bit my lip.

Jack held his arms out. I pushed him away. I didn’t want him near me. I felt suffocated. I had to think.

‘What about the house? It’s worth a lot,’ I said.

He looked at his shoes. ‘We bought it for three million, it’s now worth one. We’re mortgaged to the hilt. I borrowed two and half million to buy the house, which was fine because I had a big salary that we spent every month, but we didn’t save anything because I looked at the company fund as our savings.’

‘What are you saying? That we don’t own our house?’

‘Yes.’

‘But … how can we not own it? It’s ours – you bought it.’

‘Because we owe two million on it and it’s worth one.’

I began to shake. ‘So you’re telling me we’re one million in debt?’

His eyes welled up again. ‘Yes.’

‘What about my dad’s money? My rainy-day money? We can live on that until you get sorted.’

‘It’s gone too,’ he whispered.

‘
What
?’ I shouted. ‘Are you insane? You invested my money in some crazy scheme with a gangster you met at a party? That was
my
money. You had no right to do that.’

‘You told me to invest it. You said you wanted me to look after it for you.’

‘Yes, I did, but looking after it doesn’t mean throwing it away. What have you done, Jack? What’s going to happen to us now? There must be some money somewhere.’

‘I’m so sorry, Sophie.’

‘There has to be some money left. You can’t have given this guy every penny. Come on, Jack, think. You must have money in some account somewhere.’

‘My other investments were in Irish bank shares, which are worth nothing now either. I lost a fortune on them as well.’

I screamed at him, ‘Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you? Why didn’t you just leave it in a bank account where it was safe? Why did you have to invest in all these things that just lose money? I thought you were smart. I thought you knew what you were doing. How can we be rich one minute and have nothing the next?’ We couldn’t be poor. We couldn’t have no money at all. That was just not possible. I wouldn’t accept it. There had to be some tucked away somewhere – there just had to be.

‘Look, it’s not just me. Brad lost everything as well. So have hundreds of other people who invested with Hartley – smart guys, experienced guys, Ivy League guys. He fooled us all.’

‘There must be some way to get it back. We can’t live on air!’

Jack began to lose his temper. ‘I’ve spent the last week trying everything to get some of it back. I haven’t slept in days. Brad and I went over every single bit of paperwork, but it’s all gone. There is nothing left. I wish I could tell you different, Sophie, but I can’t. We looked into suing Terence Hartley for the money he lost us, but the case would take years and lots of legal fees and it’s pointless because he’s broke. The GreenGem fund has blown up. It’s over. I tried to protect you. I tried to fix it – I did everything I could.’

‘Protect me?’ I roared. ‘My credit card got refused in Harvey Nichols and you ignored all my calls. Now you come home and tell me we have nothing. How the hell can we live on nothing? What about Jess? What about our life?’

‘I don’t know. I need to try to figure it out.’

‘There’s nothing to figure out! We can’t live without money. What’s going to happen to us? Are we going to lose the house?’

‘I’m trying not to let that happen, but we may be forced out.’

I felt physically ill. I couldn’t process it all. How could we suddenly have nothing? This was my life, my house, my car, my clothes, my lifestyle. It was a happy life. I was happy, Jack was happy, Jess was happy. How could it all be snatched away? Where would we go? What was going to become of us?

Jack came over and wrapped his arms around me. ‘Come on, Sophie, we’ll be OK.’

I shoved him away forcefully. ‘What happens if we have to leave the house? Where will we live? Do you expect your daughter to sleep on the
street
?’

‘We might have to move in with your family for a little while,’ he said quietly.

‘Move in with my parents?’

‘I can’t afford rent.’

‘But what about my life? What about Venice and Marbella in the summer and –’

‘Jesus, Sophie,’ he snapped, ‘what part of
we have no money
are you not getting? There will be no more holidays or shopping or beauticians. We’re
broke
.’