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matter-of-fact but not unkind. The receptionist came into the office with a tray of coffee, milk, creamer, and sugar. Nate picked up his mug and started to drink; he preferred his coffee black. The sensation of the warm liquid rolling down his throat felt comforting and routine, like seeing something familiar in a foreign environment.
    "Actually, I was under the impression that the business was doing okay. I know that Joshua has had to work a lot more hours recently, but I thought that was because everything was beginning to take off. Did you want me to come here to talk about the business? Because I don't know anything." Nate finished off the coffee and placed the mug back on the desk.
    "Well, it's slightly more than that. It involves 127 Meadowvale." Jack's tone was sympathetic but practiced.
    Nate felt the color drain from his face. "That's my home, it's, uh, my son's home… What do you want to talk about?" Nate swallowed hard, trying to clear the lump stuck itself in his throat. He could feel an invisible weight pressing down on his shoulders.
    Outside, heavy silver ropes of rain fell from the sky, streaming down the large window behind Jack like tears down a face.  The hammering of the precipitation sounded like gunshots inside of Nate's head, disorientating him and mingling with the Jack's words.
    "I've been trying to get a hold of Mr. Mangelino for a while now. He seems to be avoiding me, or at any rate has been out of contact. The last time we spoke… it was a little bit… well, intense." Jack shifted in his expensive leather seat.
    "I wish that I could tell you where he was or what is going through his head. But I can't. So you'll just have to tell me what's going on."
    "All right. Mr. Mangelino started the business and it was doing very well for some time. But then something changed, I don't know what, and Mr. Mangelino didn't seem to know either. Mr. Mangelino recruited some pretty high-profile staff members for large, multinational companies, but for a multitude of reasons they didn't work out the way that anybody would have hoped. Two of the more prestigious clients the company represented quit within two months, and some did not have their contracts renewed after a probation period. From what I understand, the bigger companies lost faith in Mr. Mangelino's ability to meet their staff recruiting needs. It seems to be an industry in which your name is everything—the company has fewer established contracts now than on the day it started and expenses didn't decrease to reflect that." Jack spoke slowly and carefully, as if he was trying to soften some kind of blow, scraping down the edges. It did not help to calm Nate's nerves.
    "Can you just call him Joshua?" Nate asked.
    "Of course. Joshua was forced to use the house as collateral, to use his assets to gain a little bit more finance. Joshua wasn't prepared to lay off any of his staff, so he had no choice but to take out loans in order to maintain the daily running of the business. It looked like things were turning around, and there was a bump in the company's fortunes. But it wasn't enough; the interest rates were eating into the profits and the final step was to remortgage the house in order to keep things afloat. You signed the remortgage agreement—the earnings from your books were taken into account when the terms of your loan were worked out. Unfortunately, the loan rates got more overwhelming and there wasn't anything else that could be done. It wasn't what I advised Joshua to do. I'm surprised you don't know more about this. Your name is on a lot of the paperwork. Joshua knew what he was getting into and he hasn't kept up his end of the deal. Naturally, this means that his assets have been placed in significant danger."
    "I remember all of that, but I was just told it was for expansion. I thought that everything was going well and they just needed some money to grow the business, not to stop it from falling apart." Nate put his face into his cupped