Help Corinne Recover from a Nightmare Business Fallout

*TW: Suicidal Ideation*

Hello there! I'm Corinne. Some of you may know me, and some of you may not, but today I'm asking for your help. This is an extremely humbling ask, but one I must now make in order to pay my bills. It feels like the absolute worst timing to make this ask of my community, given the fact that the country is, quite literally, on fire- not to mention multiple genocides, class injustices, and other world atrocities that genuinely require our attention and care with immediacy. I'm going to be sharing a story with you today that I never thought I'd be sharing, firstly because I never expected it to happen and secondly because it feels extremely scary for multiple reasons to share. Along with opening myself up to any donations from the community, I am opening myself up to judgment, criticism, and potentially backlash from my ex business partner, who is a large part of the reason I am making this ask today. I warn you, it is a long saga, but I feel very strongly that I need to give as much context as I can for why I'm asking for money; I have never done this and never hoped to.

First, let me tell you a little bit about me in case we haven't met: I'm a 34 year old, chronically ill and medically disabled graphic designer and freelance artist. I have been working solely for myself since 2020, and have been extremely proud of the financial gains I had been able to make during this time. I was able to give back to my communities, donate my services pro bono and sliding scale to organizations in need, and maintain a life that, while by no stretch of the imagination is extravagant, was comfortable enough for me to live without necessarily worrying I would be evicted the next month. I was also in a position to give money to my family, who are wonderful people who also have fallen on dire financial times.

I am someone who has always believed that if you want to try something, you should try it. I knew I wanted to open a small vintage store here in Philadelphia, and so in 2023 I made the decision to do so. However, I am also someone who believes in the power of collaboration, and so I knew I wanted a business partner to go on this journey with.

Here is where our story begins.

I asked someone I considered to be a friendly acquaintance who had their own vintage line if they were interested in opening the shop with me. I named the shop Noni, after my grandmother who was an antiques dealer (and also an homage to my lineage, where my mom is also in the antiques and vintage business). To this day I maintain that the person I asked is smart, talented, keenly astute and experienced in vintage knowledge and sales. I will refer to this person as X, as I do not want to expose their real name to people who do not already know who I am referencing. This is mostly to protect their identity because I do not want to encourage ill-will towards them, but also because they have threatened me with a defamation lawsuit if I share the story of what became the worst business experience of my entire life publicly.

Despite that threat, I am going to share a summary of why I am asking you for money today, and that directly involves my decision to step away from Noni, a project that I put so much love and time and money into, for my own emotional and physical safety. X and I opened a small shop located in the Bok building in the city. It was really a beautiful time; the shop brought us both joy, the overhead was cheap, and X and I became what I thought were truly best friends. We then decided to move to a larger brick and mortar storefront on Fabric Row, a historic district in the city that houses many amazing vintage shops. It was, at first, a dream come true; even though the rent was much higher, the space meant we had room to host events and activations with ease.

X and I signed an official ownership contract once we made this move, back in April 2024, which stated that either person could walk away from the business at any time for any reason, without the other person owing them financial reimbursement. This is, perhaps, the naivest thing I have ever done, but I truly believed I was going into this new venture with someone who loved me, or at least respected me. We also went 50/50 on the new lease, and paid the security deposit, first and last months rent evenly as well, which, to me, meant that if anyone were to leave they would obviously be receiving their half of the security deposit back, as this is very standard practice in almost all shared or transitioning lease situations.

The new shop was fun, but extremely stressful. There was a lot more furniture to buy, a lot more inventory to buy, and a lot more overhead costs. At this time, around May 2024, I began tapering off an SSRI. This led to an extreme bout of depression which led to suicidal thoughts so deep and dark that I needed a crisis counselor and a group of loved ones to come to my house to walk me through potential hospitalization options. I was physically and mentally incapable of performing to my best, and the work I put into the shop suffered for it. I still went to shifts, although I sometimes left early, and tried to be as present as I could be; it was hard, though, and I struggled to get through even a single day. Working in a retail environment became stressful and overwhelming to me quickly. X was not only not present in my group of friends who gathered to support me, but was also distant during this period; they made it known they were disappointed in me for slacking on my shop responsibilities and not being as present. I finally made it out of that horrible nightmare around September, and X told me they had felt abandoned by me in this time and I found myself apologizing repeatedly for dropping the ball. It only made me feel worse and my therapist believes the criticisms I received from X during this time only led to the depression being harder to get out of. I mention all of this because I want to paint a picture of the detriment that someone guilting you for being suicidal can have on your emotional wellbeing.

The fall came and I began to get back into shop things full swing. However, even then X and I didn't always see eye to eye; they had a lot more disposable income than I did as well as a backstock of inventory from their previous vintage business. Because of this, I often had to play catch up to match them in terms of inventory quantity; we split the rent and costs of fixtures and furniture 50/50, despite them having far, far more inventory than I did. They routinely made over $1,500 per week at the shop, often close to double that during busy weeks. I usually made close to $600 a week on an average week. Our rent was $1500 each, plus shop credit card payments, so this often left me scrambling to even make rent, let alone pay for my half of wholesale inventory costs, utilities, credit card payments, and other shop costs. Forget about this contributing to my own income- I know firsthand that shops often take time to get off the ground, but this felt like I was the only one still stuck there as X was soaring.

I found myself quickly draining my savings trying to keep up, and between the shop and giving my parents over $2500 to help them relocate while they were housing unstable during the summer I ended up liquidating all of my savings as well as a (very meager) 401K I had started a few years ago. I also amassed a significant amount of credit card debt buying inventory and trying to just keep up with my own bills. When I tried to bring up switching our business model to something more equitable, at first X was receptive, but ended up deciding they didn't want to do that.

Other minor incidents would come up here and there and I found X was frequently annoyed- either by me or by other people. However, I never expected what happened after election day. On November 6th I made a post on my personal instagram page discussing my voting preferences; I made sure not to shame anyone who made different choices, and overall my post encouraged several of my friends to confide in me that they, too, had felt similarly in terms of their voting preferences. I knew this would be a hot button topic to discuss, but didn't expect anyone to treat me the way X treated me because of it.

Shortly after my post was up X texted me to say they were hurt by my choices, not just in terms of voting but in terms of not letting them know I would be posting it or consulting them beforehand. They said that I had betrayed them and lied to them, and accused me (as they had done many times before) about not caring about the shop. I offered them a couple of days of space so they could sort through their angry feelings before we talked about it further.

A few days later they wanted to talk. I invited them to do so with the caveat that if either of us were to get upset we would put a pin in the conversation for calmer times. They agreed, and we met at our shop. Immediately they began to start in on the same things they had been saying before. We came to the conclusion that they were mad because I didn't consider the 'optics' of the situation. I began to feel a crying fit coming on, so I told X that I was too upset to continue the conversation and got up to leave. As I did so, they said "can't you just take a breath and come back and talk about this like adults?" which prompted me to defend myself which prompted them to defend themself and.....

...We got into a huge argument. A screaming match. As a formerly reactive person who has done a lot of work in therapy to learn better coping and communication skills, I do not yell like this often. We were very clearly not hearing one another. They maintained that this issue had 'nothing to do with politics' and that they were upset because we had agreed in the past not to post anything political on the shop page or do anything that might somehow damage the reputation of the shop, especially if politics were involved. X was very into optics. I am not. I maintained, and still do, that I am allowed to post whatever I want on my personal Instagram, and that it was manipulative and controlling of them to try to persuade me to do otherwise.

During this fight, as mentioned, we were yelling. We were standing in the most narrow part of our store, perhaps 10-ish feet across, and suddenly X physically starts moving towards me, fast, full of rage. They made it right up to me before turning around and walking away. To say that I was in shock was an understatement. If you have ever been hit before, as I have, you know what it looks like when it's coming. It is very clear that X wanted to strike me, although they didn't actually touch me, and even admitted it to me verbally; when I told them that behavior was not okay, they responded 'Sorry but you were yelling at me'. I told them I didn't feel physically or emotionally safe around them and made my way out.

After leaving the shop that night, which I did after letting X know that I would need time to process what just happened, I was so unwell that I couldn't even drive home and had to hang at a friends house for two hours while the adrenaline left my body. It was scary, and I was scared. The end. They now claim that this act of 'physical intimidation', as I called it in a later email, is 'categorically false' and damaging to their reputation, but it is what happened and I refuse to be gaslit into believing otherwise, by them or by anyone else.

I came into the shop the next day as scheduled, despite having a physical reaction to being in that space, and discovered X had left their personal iMessages open on our shared work iPad. I did not go looking for them- they were right there, open to a text from X to one of their friends deriding and degrading me. I wish I had never seen them. In these texts they refer to me as stupid, selfish, performative, and wonder to their friend about how they would 'ever be able to work with someone they respect so little now'. They also compared me to raw meat, which, I can't even understand.

It took me two weeks of mourning and grieving to decide to leave the shop. After this fight, my body completely shut down. As someone with chronic illness and autoimmune diseases, my somatic experience is very easily triggered into burnout and shutdown, and I developed basically the flu only not. I spent the time on the couch, crying and figuring out what to do. It seemed an impossible decision- work with someone I did not feel safe around whatsoever, or step away from a project I had put my literal everything into. Eventually I decided to listen to my body and to leave. It will likely be one of, if not the most, painful decisions I have ever made in my entire life, and anyone who has lost a business or stepped away from something they loved for their own safety knows what I mean.

I offered X the chance to speak in person with a mediator present, which they declined in lieu of an email. I wrote the email out in a way that I am still proud of- assertive, but kind. I proposed solutions for my leaving, and listed what I was prepared to do to make whichever choice they landed on happen; in the end, they decided to keep the shop space and rename it since it was 80% their inventory anyway.

They asked for an official resignation letter, which I provided. In this letter I stated I would be taking my security deposit back which, again, is standard practice. I also listed out the furniture and display items I would be taking with me, and stated my last day would be December 31, 2024. They confirmed receipt of the letter and we carried on at a VERY surface level doing business with limited interaction. At one point they asked me if I would leave December 16th, because it would be more convenient for them in terms of rearranging the shop, but I told them I needed to stay as long as possible so I could sell as much inventory as I could to recoup costs. I knew I was walking away from a huge investment and wanted to get as much back as possible in the only way I could.

Fast forward a few weeks. I am leaving the shop at the end of a work day and noticed that X installed Blink security cameras without my consent or knowledge, including one pointed directly at the cash register where we would sit. Obviously, security cameras in retail environments are standard practice, but as a 50% owner of the current business in the space it seemed questionable why they would install those without even telling me. Because Blink cameras are wired for two way audio as well as video, I immediately texted them asking if they had installed them and for what purpose. I got no response but a confirmation they had done it 'for the security of the business'.

I asked to have access to these recordings. Recording audio non-consensually in Pennsylvania is a felony, and I wanted to ensure a felony was not being committed on a property I still was 50% responsible for. They ignored me, and also ignored my requests to see written proof that I was no longer on the LLC as of January 1; the only thing provided to me was a name change document. I will not be listing the name of the new business here.

On December 27th I tried logging into our store Instagram to post that the store would be opening an hour late, and was denied access. I tried to reset our password because we had some hinky password issues in the recent past. I was able to get in, but was then immediately kicked out again. I also noticed I was kicked out of our Gmail account, despite it not being the 31st; this means I did not have access to any of our emails, tax documents included, or other communications I might have needed to see. I emailed X asking what was up, and asked why they were trying to make this transition so difficult.

The email they sent me back stated that they did change the passwords because they believed I had tried to kick them out and 'given the nature of my last few emails' they could only take it as a 'hostile act'. They also said they had been advised to kick me out of this account long ago but had graciously allowed me to maintain access to an account I helped to build, that still used the branding and the name I created. They also told me they did not trust me, and that they did not want me coming into my scheduled shop shifts (I had two left on the books). X also told me I was 'permitted' to come to the shop on December 31st between the hours of 10am and 2pm to pick up my inventory and to act with 'respect and professionalism' as I did so.

They also told me they would not be providing me with written proof that I was no longer on the LLC, they would not be providing me access to the recordings because I was supposed to just take their word that there was no audio, and that I would not be receiving my security deposit back. They then accuse me of being emotionally hostile while they maintain, and I'm sure still do, that they have been 'nothing but professional'.

As I was already, quite literally, at the shop for the day, I decided I would just grab my inventory, hopefully enlist a few friends to help me lug it home (where it sits in my living room right now waiting to be parsed through and, most likely, donated) and that I would simply send myself the security deposit money from our shared bank account for our 50/50% LLC to my personal account. My friends who did show up can attest that I was so scared X would actually show up in person that I hid in my car as soon as I was done packing it until pals arrived to help me bring the rest home.

On January 1st, 2025, the day that X took sole control of the LLC, they filed a dispute with our bank over the security deposit I sent to myself. The bank, essentially, told me to get a lawyer. The bank overdrafted my account $1650 because of X's reversal of the charge. When I tell you I have no money left from this, I mean it. I am, 9 days later, still in overdraft. I am also now responsible for late fees on my car payment, late fees on parking tickets, and late fees on other bills as well as bank overdraft fees, let alone paying for groceries, gas, and even medications.

I consulted legal professionals and they assisted me with the beginnings of a small claims court filing. However, before I took such a drastic step over $1500 that would carry on this relationship that was contentious, I sent a final demand letter as my one last attempt at telling X what I would be asking for, including at this point the deposit, late fees I had accrued due to their actions, and potential court costs, and what I planned to do so they wouldn't be caught unawares.

X didn't care about the small claims court. They tried to offer me $500 to, essentially, go away, but I refused. It was only when I mentioned the idea that I might crowdfund money and discuss these events publicly that I got an offer back for the full security deposit- with a contract attached that I was to sign in order to receive this money. The first stipulation of the terms of this contract stated that I was not legally allowed to discuss X, their new business, Noni, or any events that transpired there with anyone, publicly or privately, for any reason, on any platform, in any context.

Naturally, I said no. I told them I would still need to crowdfund because even with the security deposit money I am now still in debt with late fees and bills I can simply not pay. They replied with another contract that stipulated I could talk about this in private, but not in public. Again, I said no. At this point my late fees, along with rebuilding my entire livelihood from the ground up, have cost me so much that here I am, asking for help from strangers.

Because I put all of my savings into this new shop, tens of thousands of dollars, as well as given my folks money, I have no more savings to rely on. Because I put a ton of time, labor, and energy into the shop, my freelance clients have dwindled (and this is, from what I gather, a very hard time in general for designers with the advances being made in AI). Because I put my entire heart into the shop, the devastation I felt upon leaving broke me emotionally to a place where it also broke me physically; I am still playing catch up with work I have not been able to complete because I have been so stressed, and therefore sick, about this entire situation. And because I put my entire belief in X, I signed a contract that means I will not be able to recoup any costs from the shop such as asking to be bought out for furniture, fixtures, wholesale inventory, and shop expenses.

I recognize my role in all of this; it takes two to tango, and I should have walked away from the argument anyway. I recognize that I shouldn't have signed a contract that was so lenient, or maybe even trusted someone I didn't know intimately from the start. These are lessons learned, and I'm glad I learned them now. I am sure there are people who have heard another side of this story; I can only share my experience.

Why I'm asking for this amount:

To be transparent, I am asking for this much money because there are a lot of necessary expenses that have fallen by the wayside over the duration of the last few months. I have a flat tire (and all my tires need to be replaced in general) which I cannot afford to fix, so I am driving around on a flat tire. My dog needs to go to the vet for shots. I need to purchase medications I have not been able to purchase because of the overdraft. I need to pay outstanding parking tickets which I have not been able to pay, leading the accrual of late fees on those as well. My credit card debt from the shop is also outstanding, meaning interest payments on those have accumulated. I had a doctors appointment the other day that I was unable to pay for, as I don't have insurance- my doctor is the best and I will be able to pay her later, but that is there too. Same thing with my therapist.

I am in a hole. I know so, so many of us are in a hole right now. It is the worst place to be in and, to be honest, I feel like a total fool, but I never, ever, ever, expected for the end of such a beautiful project to be so emotionally volatile and scary. I know I made the right decision by walking away from a person and a project that was literally making me ill, but the fallout has left me on the hardest times I've had as an adult in over a decade.

Anything you can throw my way helps, be it $5 or $50. I will receive every donation with gratitude, and will be using any and all funds that come my way to slowly get my life back on track, my tickets paid, my car fixed, my meds picked up, and my dog taken care of.

Thank you so much for taking the time read all of this, if you did, and if you can't donate today that is so, so, totally fine; maybe you can share this with your networks and someone else can. In any case, I appreciate your time.