Chapter 3

"This can't be happening." My father murmured while putting his hand on his head.

"It's okay," I said trying to comfort him as I stood by his side.

"No, it's not."

"Dad," I whispered, looking down at him sitting on the floor with a bottle of liquor in his hand. "Please tell me you haven't been drinking again?"

He turned to me gravely and shook his head. His sadness was infectious when he smiled at me.

"Why? Why now?" Unexpectedly tears welled up in his eyes and for the first time in a long while I saw him cry. "Why did this have to happen?"

Solemnly, I knelt beside him and smiled "We didn't lose the store," I said reassuring him "It was just a little fire."

"No."

"Yes, it was," I didn't know how the fire started but my father had told me that the circuits in the back had overheated and it had caused the wires at the back of the store to catch fire. Luckily my father was skillful enough to unplug the wires upstairs before the fire could spread everywhere. Currently, there was more smoke damage than anything else because the fire hadn't spread beyond the back of the store.

Even though we were lucky to not lose everything, it didn't help the bearing weight of dread around us.

"You don't get it!" My father shouted before throwing the bottle against the wall and smashing it.

I quickly scuttled to my feet and grabbed his hand as he went to the shelf and began throwing the other bottles against the wall.

He argued and shook his head at me while trying to hide the tears that were brimming in his eyes.

"It's, okay," I repeated. It was hard seeing him in this state. I hadn't seen him this way since my mother died.

"You don't-"

"Dad, didn't you promise me you would make everything okay? Didn't you say that we would do everything for mom?"

"For what?" He asked gravely.

"For mo-"

"For what! Everything was for what!? What did we do!? We've worked so hard! You've worked so hard! For what!? So we could lose everything!? What did we do!?" My father spat while grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me.

Tears welled in my eyes as I looked into his heated gaze, my body shaking from the strange aggressiveness in his voice.

"Delancy," he said catching himself and realizing what he said. He pulled me into his grasp and squeezed me tightly. "I'm sorry." he wept.

I buried my face into his shoulder and wept along with him.

"I'm so sorry."

***

I stared at the ceiling of my room quietly, trying to picture the fate that awaited us in the future.

My father told me everything and now I understood why he was so upset.

We were bankrupt.

All our money was used up paying for the loan we had borrowed.

We only just started making back a little money from the store and it was only enough to pay the bills.

Apart from that, we were broke.

I laughed at myself as the realization hit me.

We were out of debt but broke.

We couldn't reopen the store unless we repainted and fixed all the fire and smoke damage. We would have to replace whole shelf worths of products. We would have to rewire the store and replace the old faulty socketing. There were so many things we had to do with no way to do them.

I really and inexplicably felt like I had fallen. We had fallen and hit an all-time low.

But only if it was that simple.

My father was in trouble.

How were the bills going to be paid let alone the store reopened?

My father was going to fall into debt again and this time we had no way out.

Our future was uncertain and there was nothing I could do.

***

An unfamiliar voice marked the air when I stepped out of my room. My father's voice conversed with his as I brushed my hair down and stepped into the hallway.

I peered at them as they sat at the coffee table in our house and argued. Unrelenting fear found me when I saw the way he mischievously smiled.

A debt collector.

"Is that your daughter?" He asked loudly when he spotted me.

I quickly patted down my clothes and walked over to them, trying my best to appear appealing.

"Good morning, it's nice to meet you," I said courtly while giving a small smile.

The gentleman smiled back at me and nodded. "Walter, you sure have a nice daughter."

Walter?

It surprised me how he addressed my father so informally but I smiled nonetheless and walked over to him.

"Would you like me to make you a cup of tea?"

"No, that's okay. I'll be leaving now."

My father huffed at him but I followed him up to the door and saw him off.

As soon as he left I rushed up to my father and questioned him.

"Dad, who was he? A debt collector?"

He shook his head at me and sighed. "No, he's my old friend."

"Old friend?" I asked, taking a seat beside him.

"We grew up together in the same place just down the street. We had the same dreams, and we started the same businesses with the exception that took off while I'm still here."

It was odd hearing my father talk about the past apart from my mother because he had always given me the impression that it hadn't mattered.

"So why was he here now?" I questioned.

"He has a son. That was another thing about him. As soon as I was married, he got married too. He always did whatever I did only with the exception that his son was born before you were." He laughed.

"A son?"

"You've never met him."

"I still don't understand why he was here?"

"In all these years we haven't seen each other it seems he's lost his mind."

"What?"

"You would never believe what he asked me. He told me that he heard about the fire and knew about my problems, so he offered to help."

"What!" I shouted with wide eyes.

"Yeah, but he was crazy enough to say he would bargain this if I let you marry his son. How insane?"

"Dad, did he say that?"

"Yeah, he truly has lost it."

"Dad, why does his son want to get married?"

"I have no idea, maybe he's lost it too."

"Dad."

"Truly insane. Who in their right mind would ever agree to -"

"Call him."

"What?" My father paused and stared at me.

"Call him and tell him that I'll do it," I said in a firm tone.

"Delancy what are you saying?"

"I will marry him."