Chapter 10 - THE DEBT CHRISTOPHER DID NOT KNOW EXISTED
The financial records revealed the largest twist.
Christopher believed their household debt was around $120,000.
It was more than twice that.
Jessica had opened two credit cards he did not know about.
She had borrowed against a retirement account from her previous employer.
And six months earlier, she signed a personal guarantee for $90,000 to help her younger brother launch a restaurant.
The restaurant failed.
The guarantee was being enforced.
Jessica had hidden that from Christopher.
Her panic around our assets began shortly afterward.
Three earlier clues changed meaning.
Her search for the trust amendment was not only about their mortgage.
She needed to know whether Christopher would eventually receive enough to absorb a debt he did not know existed.
The attempts to connect an external bank account came shortly after the restaurant lender issued its first demand.
And her efforts to label May confused accelerated when May accidentally opened one of Jessica’s collection letters that had been delivered to our address.
May remembered that now.
It had arrived six weeks earlier.
Jessica grabbed it from her hand and said it belonged to a client.
Later that day, the first hard grabbing incident occurred.
Jessica was not simply an angry daughter-in-law losing patience.
She was terrified May had seen a fact that could expose years of financial lies to Christopher.
When Christopher learned about the guarantee, he left the house.
Not dramatically.
He packed one suitcase and went to Robert’s guest apartment.
He called me that night.
“She lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“I defended her because I thought she was drowning in the same debt I was.”
“She was drowning deeper.”
“Why didn’t Mom tell me about the letter?”
“Because she wasn’t sure what she saw. And every time she told you something, you explained it away.”
He cried.
Then asked the question he should have asked months earlier.
“Is Mom okay?”
I looked toward the living room.
May was reading beside the lamp, one sleeve covering marks that would eventually fade.
“Physically, mostly.”
May you like
“And with me?”
I did not answer for her.
