Chapter 6 - Ryan’s company
Ryan founded Mercer Ridge Development twelve years earlier.
Commercial renovation.
Small apartment projects.
Warehouses.
At its peak, it employed seventy people.
It was real.
Profitable for years.
Then he grew too fast.
Three major projects at once.
Rising financing costs.
A contractor dispute.
One delayed municipal approval.
Cash got tight.
Ryan told me:
“We’re fine.”
Fine became:
“We just need bridge financing.”
Bridge financing became:
“The lender wants more collateral.”
That was when he began asking about my inheritance.
My father had died when I was twenty-eight.
He left me:
A brokerage portfolio.
A minority interest in a packaging company.
And part ownership of a small commercial building.
Separate property.
Ryan knew.
May you like
For years he never touched it.
Then Mercer Ridge needed money.
