Chapter 6 – What Walter Was Left With

Within three months, Reed Auto Group had been forced to sell two of its seven locations to a regional competitor at a discount, the proceeds barely covering the immediate debt obligations that had come due once Diana’s guarantee disappeared.

Walter, in the divorce proceedings that followed, discovered exactly how thoroughly the business’s actual foundation belonged to Diana — the holding company, the original capital, even the real estate beneath four of the remaining five dealerships, all structured decades earlier by Diana’s father with a foresight neither Walter nor, frankly, Diana herself had ever expected to need this directly.

“You built this too,” his lawyer told him, reviewing the settlement terms with visible discomfort. “Twenty-two years of work. There has to be something owed to you for that.”

“There is,” Diana’s lawyer replied evenly. “It’s called a fair severance package, which my client has already offered, generously, given the circumstances of how this marriage actually ended.”

Walter accepted the settlement eventually, having little practical alternative, and relocated to a smaller role at a competitor’s lot two towns over, his name no longer on any sign at all.

Sienna left the company within six months, the “new chapter” she’d been promised having lasted considerably less time than the twenty-two years it had taken Diana to build the foundation Walter had so casually assumed was permanent.