Page 77 of Daddy’s Fortitude

Aimee wasn’t sure whether to be upset or grateful.

Something danced around the edges of her memory, something else that she needed to remember. But before she could figure it out, she caught sight of the time.

Shit!

She needed to get to work. Kirsten was expecting her this morning and while her friend would understand if she didn’t go in, she needed to get back to some sort of routine.

And to earning money.

So she quickly got dressed without bothering with a shower. Had she showered last night? She usually did after stocking shelves as she got dirty and sweaty.

Only, she couldn’t remember doing that last night.

These gaps in her memory were slightly concerning.

She also felt very weak and unsteady. What was with that?

Maybe she should eat something. She didn’t want to pass out.

Oh. Crap.

She sat suddenly on the side of the bed as her legs gave out on her.

“Kevin.” She glanced over at him in his cage. “I think I really did faint last night. I don’t think it was a dream. I think I passed out, and then lost my job, and cost everybody else their jobs.” She leaned forward with a groan, resting her head in her hands. “Oh my God. Everybody walked out.”

She glanced back up at Kevin, but he gave her an unconcerned look.

“This isn’t good. This really isn’t good. How am I going to afford everything? I couldn’t afford it before. Now I’m in real trouble.”

Walking over, she took him out of his cage and settled him into her hair.

“I seriously think I’m going to have to sell a kidney. Although I’m not sure even that will get us out of this trouble.”

Well, there was one thing she could do. She could go to her only job and earn some money. Getting up, she walked out of the bedroom and decided she better go eat something. She didn’t want to faint while working at the Emporium. Imagine if that happened while driving the forklift?

Not that she thought Kirsten would let her drive the forklift again. She still had to find a way to pay to have Ammo’s truck fixed.

She wondered where Ammo was. Hopefully, he was still okay to drop her off this morning. She’d told Kirsten she didn’t need a ride today which meant that she didn’t have to leave quite so early, since Kirsten went to work well before everyone else.

Aimee walked into the kitchen to find him sitting at the table. Fanned out over the kitchen table were a number of documents. What was he doing? Did he have work to do or something?

She glanced down at the documents and froze. Because they weren’t his documents, they were hers, and every one of them was a bill, most of which were stamped with the word ‘overdue.’

Yep. She was overdue on everything. Horror filled her as she took it all in. The mortgage. Electricity. Water. Credit cards. Overdrafts. Wherever he could, Charlie had taken out loans upon loans.

She didn’t know how he’d managed to get most of them in her name as well as his, but he had. He’d likely forged her signature, and he was so charming that no one had really questioned him.

But that meant she was now liable for all of the debt he’d racked up.

It was soul-destroyingly crushing, and she had no idea how to dig herself out of the hole that he’d put her in. She’d been doing her best to ignore the problem by not opening the mail.

Couldn’t Ammo have given her a bit longer to pretend that she wasn’t in a mess of epic proportions?

“You know it’s a federal crime to open other people’s mail, right?” she said.

Ammo stared up at her. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“That’s not what’s in question right now. We’re talking about the fact that you’ve got all of my mail open and on the table. You had no right to do that.”