Day 863: 5 Minute Freewrite: Sunday - Prompt: fraud

Freewrite prompt provided by @mariannewest

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He hung up the phone. 

Everything was unraveling, except for the growing knot in his stomach.

“How much of this can I take?” he wondered, remaining motionless with his head in his hands. 

It seemed like the bottom he hit two days ago when he heard the news kept falling out from under him. 

He saw the flurry of text messages as soon as he checked the phone when he got off the airplane. His main investor had skipped town with the $3.2 million that he had curated with a group of other investors. 

Of this, nearly 500k was his family’s savings. Gone. 

Everything was gone with the fraud who disappeared. Like the vapor of the cup of coffee. 

What could he do? Some of his closest friends were in the investment group with him and he felt their fingers of blame. How could he face them? And their families? 

He remembered the phone call to his wife right after, letting her know that he safely arrived at the airport, sniffling the urge to curl up and hide. All the way home he struggling, raking his mind for clues on how to tell her.

He decided the best approach was say it like it is. And he did. She took it better than…

Well, he didn’t blame her response. 

“She needed space,” she said.