Chapter 5 - Rachel’s debt
Rachel was thirty-eight.
She and Daniel had been married eleven years.
Noah was eight.
Rachel worked as an interior design coordinator for a homebuilder.
Good job.
Around $78,000 a year.
Daniel earned more as a commercial project manager.
Together, they looked financially comfortable.
House.
Two cars.
Vacations.
Soccer.
Birthday cake expensive enough to receive its own security detail.
Reality was less stable.
Rachel had started a small online interior-consulting business during the pandemic.
Initially profitable.
Then she expanded.
Paid social media advertising.
Sample inventory.
Software.
A freelance assistant.
Three large clients disputed invoices.
The side business carried credit-card debt.
Then a business line.
Then personal cards.
By the birthday party, Rachel’s undisclosed revolving and business debt totaled roughly $86,000.
Daniel knew about maybe $39,000.
Not eighty-six.
He was not innocent of avoidance.
He knew the business struggled.
He stopped asking precise questions because every conversation became a fight.
That was his mistake.
Rachel saw the duplex as a solution.
Not theft, initially.
Family property.
Family pressure.
Temporary refinance.
Use seventy or eighty thousand to clear high-interest debt.
Repay through their household budget.
May you like
She told herself Daniel would eventually agree.
Then began speaking as though he already had.
