New York’s insular art and social circles thrive on gossip, and the story of Beatrice Sterling’s abandonment by her friends and subsequent arrest in the Maldives spread like a virulent plague. Her three former companions, desperate to distance themselves from a criminal investigation, told everyone who would listen about Beatrice sobbing in a luxury villa as the island security hauled her away.
To avoid his mother spending a decade in a Maldivian prison for defrauding a high-end resort, Julian was forced into a desperate corner. He had no savings, no assets, and his “muse” had dumped him via text message the moment he asked her to help pay for groceries.
Julian had to go to a predatory, high-risk equity firm and take out a massive, suffocating loan against the only asset the Sterling family had left: Beatrice’s heavily mortgaged, crumbling pseudo-mansion in Westchester. By the time he wired the exorbitant funds to the Azure Atoll Resort to cover the stolen vacation, the damages, and the legal bribes required to let Beatrice leave the country, the Sterling family was entirely, catastrophically bankrupt.