Page 57 of Broken Promises

Cruz pulled up a different screen and typed until he found what he wanted, but I shook my head when I saw the amounts. “That’s old. We only have fifteen grand owing on it. We’re almost paid up.”

He scrolled, glancing up at me. “This is from this month.”

“No, Dad bought it before I was born, and we’ve been making our own payments since he took off. I can tell you right now, we paid more than a few grand off of it. I’m twenty-one, it was almost paid off,” I said as panic kicked in. Ander moved to stand behind me so he could look, and Cruz winced as he scrolled through the payment info.

“Raven, there’s a second mortgage taken out on the house.”

“What? Since when? We never—” My voice died as he pointed to the numbers he was reading, his voice sympathetic.

“Looks like your dad took out a second mortgage on it three weeks ago. Your last payment is saying it was never paid. It’s increased the total amount too since the interest has gone up. They called to let him know it’s behind, but they’re not taking it or anything yet.”

I felt sick. We’d been so close, and now it was destroyed in a matter of seconds.

“Reid handles the accounts, so surely he would’ve seen a spike in the amount due,” I croaked out, staring at the screen. “Why the fuck would Dad do that?”

“He’s a selfish prick and doesn’t give a shit about the debt because you pay his bills,” Ander grumbled, his hand curving around my waist and squeezing gently. “We’ll figure it out, okay?”

“How do I come up with the two grand we’re late on?” I asked, turning to look up at him. “I’ve made some money this week, but?—”

“Like I said, we’ll figure it out.”

“Where’s Reid right now?” I demanded, and Cruz put his hands up.

“I don’t know, call him.”

“Use your computer stalking thingy!”

“Can’t you just call him? He’d answer,” he grumbled, but he was already clicking away on his keyboard again. “His phone’s pinging at Riley’s.”

“Thank you,” I said quickly as I turned and ran into Ander. “Take me to?—”

“I was going to,” he answered, patting Cruz’s shoulder. “Thanks, dude. I owe you.”

“Again,” he reminded us as we left, my feet carrying me quickly outside to the car.

“I can’t lose the house,” I said more to myself than to Ander as he started the car, his hand dropping to my knee.

“You won’t. Let’s sort this out, and I’ll work on a plan to get rid of your dad, okay?”

“Okay,” I repeated, trying to control the worry as Ander took me to Riley’s without question. Both Luna and Riley’s cars were missing from the driveway, and I hoped they weren’t hiding in the garage or something. I didn’t want them knowing we had money problems.

Not that it wasn’t fucking obvious, we were poor as fuck.

I’d barely knocked when the front door opened and Reid stood there, obviously surprised to see me.

“Hey, what’s?—”

I stepped inside, my words coming out in a ramble. “The mortgage is late, and Dad took out a second mortgage and fucked up the debt, and?—”

His hand came out to rest on my shoulder, his voice calm. “Slow down.”

“You didn’t pay the mortgage,” I choked out, something crossing his face before he sighed.

“Rae, why would I pay it?”

“You always pay it! You didn’t pay it on purpose?” I snapped, Ander pushing past us so he could shut the door.

“Maybe don’t give the neighbors entertainment,” he said carefully. “Sit down or something.”

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