The Husband She Abandoned

Debt

The man stood up and turned to her. He was tall, with graying hair at his temples and the kind of face that gave nothing away. His eyes were sharp and assessing, and Diana had the uncomfortable feeling that he was looking right through her.

"I am Edward Stone," he said, his voice measured and precise. "And I am here to discuss the removal of the Cook family from this premises."

Diana's gaze swung from his face to her mother's, then to her sister's. The room felt suddenly too small, the walls closing in.

"What is this man talking about?" Diana asked weakly. "Why is he asking us to leave our house?"

Her mother began to wail loudly, the sound piercing and desperate. Ariana's face had gone pale, and her aunt was fanning herself with a magazine as if she might faint.

Edward stepped forward and handed Diana a thick folder of documents. "Before his death, Mr. Theo Cook took out multiple mortgages on this house. The payment was stopped this morning, and my client has decided to foreclose on the property. You will need to vacate the premises immediately."

Diana stared at the papers in her hands, her mind racing. Mortgages? She had known her father had left them with debts, but she hadn't known the house itself was at risk. Her mother had always assured her that everything was under control.

She looked through the documents, her heart sinking further with each page. The payments for the house were fifty thousand per month. Fifty thousand. Who had been paying that all this time? Certainly not her. She had been struggling to make ends meet, her career still in its infancy.

"Mom," Diana said, her voice trembling. "Who was paying all that time?"

Her mother's eyes darted around guiltily, avoiding her gaze. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

Edward cleared his throat. "Why don't you take a look at the documents? The person who has been paying the mortgage for the past year is listed there."

Diana looked through the papers again, her eyes scanning the pages until they landed on a name. Her hand flew to her mouth.

Benjamin Hart.

"Benjamin paid fifty thousand each month?" Diana's voice was barely a whisper. She raised her eyes to see the guilt in her mother's face. "Why did you not tell me that Benjamin was paying off our mortgage? I could have held off marrying him until he had paid off everything!"

Her mother's face crumpled with shame and desperation. "I didn't want you to stay in a marriage you hated just for money! I thought it was better to protect you from the burden of the debt."

"Protect me?" Diana laughed, the sound bitter and hollow. "You didn't protect me! You let me throw away a man who was keeping this family afloat. I could have played along for a few more years, let him pay off the debt, and then divorced him. But no, you wanted me to be free. And now look where we are!"

This was the worst time for something like this to happen. She wanted to start her life anew, to pursue her career without the weight of her family dragging her down. She did not have the money to shoulder this debt. She had spent what little she had on clothes, on appearances, on maintaining the illusion of success.

She realized then that apparently, Benjamin had not been as useless as she thought. He had been paying fifty thousand a month for the privilege of being married to her. And she had thrown him away like garbage.

"You… you can do something, can't you?" Elise said with a trembling voice as she got off the seat and approached Diana. She clutched her daughter's arm, her nails digging in painfully. "Surely, you have some money saved up."

Diana shook her head, but her mother wasn't looking at her. She was already talking to herself, her voice growing more frantic by the second.

"Maybe we can get a loan. You are a rising star in the entertainment industry. This should not be too hard." She brightened suddenly, turning to face Diana with wild hope in her eyes. "We don't need to move out! Diana can pay for it!"

"No," Diana said, her voice cutting through her mother's rambling. "I can't pay for it."

Elise whipped around to stare at her, her expression crumbling. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I cannot pay for the house because I don't have any savings," Diana said, each word feeling like a confession of failure. "I have been spending everything I make on maintaining appearances. On clothes, on makeup, on the right image. There's nothing left."

The silence that followed was deafening. Her mother stared at her as if she had just revealed she was a stranger. Ariana's face was white with shock. Even her aunt had stopped fanning herself.

"Enough of this," Edward interrupted impatiently. His voice was cold, his patience clearly exhausted.

He had been waiting for a chance to throw these ungrateful people to the curb. Listening to them speak about Benjamin like he was useless, like he was nothing more than a wallet they had been using and discarding, infuriated him further.

He wanted to kick them out himself, but he was a gentleman, and he would not raise his hands against women.

"You will have to move immediately," he said flatly. "I have given you the required notice. If you are not out by the end of the week, I will have the authorities remove you."

"Do you know who my sister is?" Ariana yelled, her voice shrill with desperation. "She is Diana! The next best thing on the scene! You can't treat us like this!"

Edward raised an eyebrow, utterly unimpressed. "Your inflated sense of self means nothing to me. The law is the law. If you want to contest this, you are welcome to try. But I would advise you to start packing instead."

Diana watched him, a strange numbness settling over her. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to be free, celebrated, moving on to bigger and better things. Instead, she was losing everything.

And then her mother's voice cut through again, desperate and pleading.

"Why don't you call Mr. Barry?" Elise suggested, her eyes darting around wildly. "I'm sure he will help us. He likes you, Diana. He will pay off the debt. He will save us."

Diana stared at her mother, the weight of the past year crashing down on her. Everything had been a lie. Her marriage to Benjamin had been a means to an end, a way to keep the family afloat while she pursued her career. And now she had thrown it away, along with the one person who had actually been supporting them.

She thought about calling Barry, about asking him for help. But she knew that would come with strings attached. Barry would want something in return, and she was sure she was not ready to pay that price.

"Maybe," she said quietly, turning away from her family. "Maybe."

But even as she said it, a part of her knew the truth. She had lost something valuable, and no amount of Barry's money could replace it.