He stood in the cold Chicago rain and looked at the six boxes that held everything he owned, and for the first time in his life there was no safety net beneath him — no trust fund, no wealthy wife, no expense account to hide behind.

And it only went one direction from there.

Once word moved through our circles about what Julian had done, and once Meredith Kessler walked a forensic audit of his unauthorized use of my funds into his firm’s ethics committee, his career in private equity simply ended; he was quietly asked to resign to avoid a scandal.

Without my income beneath them, the family’s whole structure came down like a wet tent.

Harrison and Eleanor downsized out of their suburban estate into a modest condo when the upkeep overwhelmed his pension.