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“Is there anything else I can help you with?” he asks as he stares at me across his empty desk.
I’m still sitting here with a weight on my chest. I can’t move.
If I get up from this chair, I’m going to have to go back to my life. I’ll have to face the people I let down. I’ll have to walk out and realize I have nowhere to go. That I have nothing to do.
He stands up and frowns impatiently at me. I was once a valued client of this bank. Now, I’m nothing more than a pariah. A failure. Someone who borrowed a lot of money and then couldn’t pay it back. I wonder if he got in trouble for putting his faith in me. I wonder if he’ll miss out on the next promotion for backing the wrong horse. He probably hates me as much as my family does.
He clears his throat and I get up with a shakiness in my limbs.
“Thank you,” I mumble as I weakly shake his hand and then shuffle out the door.
People are going about their normal business as I walk through the bank. A bored toddler is swatting the pen hanging on the chain as his mother pays some bills. An older man is trying to figure out the ATM and letting everyone know that it was better when his secret code only had to be four numbers instead of six.
None of them know that my life has just crumbled to pieces. None of them know that I’m falling apart.
“Hey, Daisy!” a familiar voice says as I shuffle by.
I turn and see an old friend from high school in line for the tellers. We used to share notes in Chemistry. Coraline… No, Caroline.
“Hi, Caroline,” I say, trying to match her wide smile but not coming anywhere close. “How are you?”
“Not as good as you!” she says with a big grin. “You are crushing it, girl!”
I swallow hard.
“The cover of Entrepreneur Magazine and Forbes?! Are you kidding me? That’s amazing!”
She missed Scientific Breakthrough Magazine, but I’m not about to bring it up. They retracted about half the article in their last issue.
“I can’t believe I was exchanging notes with the next big entrepreneur of our generation!”
“Well, I wouldn’t—“
“I’m so proud of you,” she says with her eyes tearing up. Other people start turning around to look. They’re all looking at me with narrowed eyes, trying to place me.
I take a step toward the door as my stomach churns.
“Well, it was nice catching up with you,” I say as I eye the exit. “I have to—“
“Avaretech!” the man in front of her says when he places me.
Shit.
“Yeah, that’s her!” Caroline says proudly. “The founder and CEO!”
The guy chuckles. “Yeah, founder and CEO of a house of cards. What kind of person steals money from all their friends and family?”
Caroline’s face is all twisted up in confusion as she turns back to me.
“I didn’t steal anything,” I say in a low pathetic voice. All my fight is gone. No one believes me anyway, so what’s the point?
“Didn’t your parents lose their house?” he asks as all of the details of the hit piece he read come rushing back to him. “And your sister too? Didn’t she lose like half a million dollars she invested?”
I’m going to be sick. I hold my stomach as the violent pounding in my ears gets louder.
“You’re a real piece of work, lady,” he says as he shakes his head angrily while turning back around. “You deserve everything you have coming to you.”
I look at the scuff mark on my running shoes. This time last year, I had a walk-in closet that would stop a Kardashian in their tracks. I had so many beautiful shoes that it left me wishing I had more feet.
The repo men came and emptied it all before I lost my house. I’m still wearing the shoes that I had on when I returned home and saw the trucks in my roundabout driveway.
Caroline looks as shaky as I feel. “What’s he talking about, Daisy?”
I can’t do this. The tears are going to burst out.
“I have to go,” I say as I hurry to the door. I don’t look back. I explode out into the parking lot and hurry around the corner to my—
“No!” I gasp when I see my Mercedes on the tow truck.
“Wait!” I screech as I run over. “That’s my car!”
“Not anymore it’s not,” the driver says as he shuffles to the door.
He hands me a paper and I quickly scan it as he gets inside and starts the engine.
They’re repossessing my car?
Just fucking great.
Where the hell am I going to sleep now?
That’s the last straw. Everything crumbles. I break.
I don’t know how long I’m sobbing in the parking lot, but I come to with Caroline’s arms wrapped around me.
