"Debt. Desperation. And a crash that rewrote my fate."
Ava's Point of View
Life has a funny way of messing up your plans. Just when you think you're on track, fate throws a curveball that knocks you off balance. For me, that curveball came in the form of a mountain of debt, a hospital bed, and a family in shambles.
My family was drowning in debt. My mom was fighting for her life and needed surgery. My dad… well, he was a heavy drunk and a gambler, useless when it came to responsibility. As the first child of the Morales family, everything fell on me. The weight of it was crushing, but I had no choice. I had to hold everything together.
We weren't always like this. My mom was the only daughter of a millionaire, but love doesn't care about wealth or legacy. She fell for my father, a bartender who showed her kindness after a heartbreak. They married, built a family, and had three daughters. When my grandfather passed away, my mother inherited his company but handed it over to my father because she had no interest in running it. For a while, things seemed fine, until they weren't.
The company collapsed under my father's poor management. He drowned his failures in alcohol and soon in gambling. My mother fell ill, and medical bills piled up. Dad sold everything he could, but it was never enough. The only thing left was our house, which was in my mother's name. That didn't stop him. One night, he gambled with what he shouldn't have, my sister Anastasia. And he lost her.
This wasn't the life I had imagined for myself in my twenties. I was supposed to be in school, laughing with friends, planning vacations, and chasing my dreams, not dropping out to ease the financial burden, not watching my mother fade in a hospital bed, and definitely not fighting to save my sister from being taken away.
I spent the last two years working every odd job I could find: waiting tables, delivering packages, scrubbing floors, even pouring drinks behind a bar. It was enough to feed my siblings, but never enough to pay off the millions we owed. And the deadline was now three months away. Three months before I lost either my mother… or my sister.... Or worse, both.
Mondays were always the worst, but this one was particularly cruel. After my bakery shift, I stopped by the food mart for groceries. My little sister Avie, only seven, had been crying for her favorite cereal. I couldn't stand seeing her go without, so I spent my entire day's pay on a few bags of groceries. On the way home, a dog lunged at me, tearing the bag from my hands. In the chaos, I dropped everything. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, a man snatched my purse.
I didn't lose much. Just an old phone, some coupons, and the last shreds of my patience. But to me, those coupons mattered. Every cent counted.
"Why me?" I muttered, blinking back tears. "What did I do wrong? Where did I go wrong?"
As if the universe was mocking me, the skies opened up and rain poured down in sheets. Drenched, shivering, I stood on the sidewalk until my body went numb. "Could this day get any worse?" I whispered bitterly.
Finally, I forced myself to move. One step at a time. That's all I could do. Passing a sleek car, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the dark window—mascara smudged, hair plastered to my face. A complete mess. I took a shaky breath and prepared to run home, if only to get out of my wet clothes.
That's when it happened.
A blinding flash of headlights. Tires screeching against the wet road. My body frozen, then a voice shouting "Oh, shit!" just before everything went black.
When I came to, I thought I was dead. My head was heavy, my body aching. I blinked against the blur of bright lights. Two men stood by the door, speaking in low voices I couldn't make out. The room was elegant, too polished to be a regular hospital. My stomach twisted.
I tried to sit up, but dizziness pulled me back. The men noticed me then. One of them turned slightly, his voice cutting through the haze.
"Have Ian prepare everything. We'll have her sign the contract when she wakes up."
My pulse spiked. Contract? What contract? My thoughts swirled, but exhaustion was stronger. Darkness claimed me once more before I could demand answers.