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“Uh, no, I’ve worked all three jobs for a while. I realized that in order to leave Charlie, I needed money. I don’t have any family anymore. My parents died when I was ten in a car accident and I went to live with my grandparents who also passed when I was in my early twenties. I don’t have a car. I don’t even have a license. I would have to pay for transportation, a deposit on a place to rent, and lawyer fees for the divorce and to get my share of the house. So I took on the extra jobs to save what I needed on top of my day-to-day expenses. But it seems like the more I made, the more Charlie spent. It’s a mess.” She stared at all the bills in despair. “What am I going to do?”

A tear dripped down her face and she quickly wiped it up. That was embarrassing.

“I am going to take care of this.”

“But you can’t.”

“But I can.”

“How will you take care of it all?”

“By paying them.”

“You can’t pay them all off. It’s a lot of money.”

“I have the money saved.”

That wasn’t really the point, though, was it? He might have the money put away, but that was his money, and he shouldn’t use it on her. This was going above and beyond any promise that he’d made to Charlie.

But what if you let him pay, and then you pay him back?

At least that way she wouldn’t be racking up so much interest, right? She’d still pay some interest, but the interest on some of these loans and the credit cards was ridiculous. It was frightening how much her debt had climbed in such a short while.

“Some of these are interesting . . . did you co-sign all of these?”

“No, barely any of them. He must have added my signature.”

“You’re kidding,” he said.

“I really wish I was.” A headache was developing in her temples, but she didn’t want to let on because she knew he would try and send her back to bed.

Although bed didn’t sound like a bad place to be right now.

“That bastard. I’m going to look into the law about that. Don’t think you’re legally required to pay it.”

Really? Why hadn’t she thought about that? God, she felt so incredibly dumb.

He was right, though. That probably was against the law, and maybe she wouldn’t have to pay the debt that he’d forged her signature on. But how did she prove that?

“Wouldn’t I have to prove that? How would I prove that?”

Some of these loans looked a little sketchy. She wasn’t sure that the people who had sent her more threatening messages would accept the fact that Charlie had forged her signature as a reason not to pay them.

“I’ll look into it. And I’ll pay the others.”

“Ammo, I’m not letting you pay for them all.”

“Not letting me do anything.” He gathered up all of the letters. “I’m just doing it.”

“No. It’s not right.” She couldn’t let him, as much as she wanted to.

He eyed her for a long moment. “What isn’t right is that you have been left with all these debts by your asshole ex. No more arguments. I don’t like arguing.”

If he didn’t like arguing, then maybe he should practice not being so bossy.

But she didn’t say that to him.

It wasn’t right, but she couldn’t help but feel relieved. And a bit disappointed in herself. She felt like a failure.