Jacob's Ladder

The story of a man who learned the true price of loyalty and discovered that money cannot buy everything. When Jacob Pratt signs as guarantor for his brother's business venture, he loses everything. For two years, he inhabits a diminished world, watching former friends scatter and social doors slam shut. Then, unexpectedly, his brother's fortunes reverse and Jacob is restored to wealth beyond his former dreams. But money, he finds, has a peculiar memory. It remembers those who stayed and those who fled. Armed with his renewed fortune, Jacob sets out to repay debts of another kind: rewarding those who stood by him in his disgrace, and extracting vengeance from those who cast him aside. Yet as he moves through the world of wealth and power, he discovers a bitter truth that the newly rich always learn. Some doors that closed during lean years stay closed forever, no matter how heavy the purse. And the girl of his dreams remains as unreachable as ever, a reminder that not even the most complete revenge can restore what truly matters. This is E. Phillips Oppenheim at his most incisive, examining the fragile architecture of reputation, the transactional nature of social standing, and the peculiar loneliness that comes with money earned too late.