Chapter 11 - Louis’s debt
Louis’s financial situation was worse than I knew.
Not criminal.
Just buried.
His painting and repair business, Dalton Home Works, had approximately $38,000 in business debt.
Credit cards.
Equipment loan.
Back taxes under a payment plan.
One disputed subcontractor balance.
Personally, he and Carla had another $27,000 on cards and a car loan.
They were not spending like millionaires.
That would have been easier to condemn.
They were spending like people who kept expecting next month to rescue this month.
Restaurants because everyone was tired.
Weekend hotel because Carla said they “needed a break.”
New television after mine “was ancient.”
Clothes.
Phone upgrades.
Small luxuries built on delayed consequences.
I asked Louis:
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He laughed bitterly.
“After you spent forty years telling me never carry credit-card debt?”
“I carried it when you were little.”
“You never told me.”
“Because I was embarrassed.”
He looked at me.
There it was.
Inheritance.
Not money.
Shame.
I had taught Louis that financial trouble was a character flaw by hiding my own.
He then hid his from me.
May you like
That did not authorize his use of my cards.
It explained why truth became late.
