Chapter 11: The Cost
The cost arrived quickly.
Creditors called first. Then lawyers. Then collection agencies. The debts Thomas had hidden were now in my name. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Old business loans. Unpaid taxes. Lawsuits from partners he had cheated.
I sat in my small kitchen with the papers spread across the table and felt the weight of fifty years of his hate.
The phone rang again.
Another creditor.
I let it go to voicemail.
The cost was not just money.
It was the shame of explaining to my daughter why I was suddenly drowning in debt.
It was the fear that I would lose the house I had just moved into.
It was the realization that the man I had married out of pity had planned my ruin from the moment he proposed.
I called the lawyer.
“I want to fight this,” I said.
He was quiet for a moment.
“It won’t be easy,” he replied. “Thomas was very thorough.”
“I know,” I said. “But I’m not the girl he left at the bus station anymore.”
The cost was real.
May you like
But I was still alive.
And I was going to fight.
