Chapter 4 - The Debt Collectors.
I slammed the front door shut and quickly engaged every single lock.
I ordered Sophie to run upstairs and hide in the master bathroom.
The heavy footsteps of the four men echoed loudly on my front porch.
They did not knock, nor did they announce themselves like normal visitors.
One of the men simply kicked the heavy oak door with terrifying force.
The wood splintered violently, but the reinforced deadbolt managed to hold.
"Ryan owes us five hundred thousand dollars," a deep voice boomed from the other side of the wood.
"If he doesn't pay by midnight, we are taking the house and everything inside it."
I grabbed a heavy iron fireplace poker and stood my ground in the hallway.
"My husband doesn't live here anymore," I shouted back, my voice remarkably steady.
"The police were just here, and they are actively looking for him."
The men on the porch went completely silent for a few agonizing seconds.
I could hear them whispering to each other in urgent, hushed tones.
"Tell your pathetic husband that Victor is running out of patience," the deep voice finally warned.
I watched through the peephole as the four intimidating men returned to their black SUV and drove away.
My mind raced to process this terrifying new information.
Ryan had not stolen our savings to run away and start a new life with his beautiful mistress.
He had stolen the money to pay off a dangerous underground syndicate, and it still wasn't enough.
I needed to find out exactly what my husband had been involved in before these monsters came back.
I ran into Ryan's home office and began tearing apart his locked filing cabinets with the iron poker.
Wood shattered and metal bent until I finally ripped the bottom drawer open.
Inside was a thick black leather folder completely stuffed with illegal gambling ledgers.
Ryan had spent the last two years betting massive amounts of money on illegal offshore sports games.
But as I flipped to the final page of the ledger, a different document caught my eye.
It was a signed contractual agreement between Ryan and the ruthless loan shark named Victor.
Ryan had used our house as collateral, but there was a secondary clause in the contract.
If Ryan failed to pay the debt, Victor was legally granted ownership of Ryan's newly formed LLC.
I stared at the name of the company and my blood ran completely cold.
The company was jointly owned by Ryan and Jessica.
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Victor wasn't just a random loan shark.
Victor was Jessica's dangerously wealthy and incredibly violent husband.
