Payoff Chapter 13 Early Novels & Stories

Their shock nearly caused them to lose him, but they were thankfully able to locate him again shortly after… Only to be greeted by an even bigger shock. “Stop delaying your pay and fess up your rent already!” growled a towering hooligan as he glared at Casey. “…Today is the sixteenth, and I’m pretty sure we agreed that I’d pay on the twentieth. Also, even if I wanted to pay you early, I can’t. I’ve spent all my cash on my grandmother’s medical expenses. Look, just… Please give me a few more days… I get paid on the twentieth, so-”

“Of course. We’ll just pay her back. You said she only has voting power as long as we owe her money, right? So if we pay her back, the contract is over.” “That would SEEM like the obvious answer,” Jordyn said. “I feel a ‘but’ coming on,” I said dryly. “What now? Another clause?” Stella chimed in, just as dryly. “No, it’s the same clause,” Jordyn told us. “It’s just that, well, there is no option to pay her back early.” “WHAT?” I snapped. “The loan payment terms are pretty clear. It’s a two-year loan with monthly payments. And it explicitly states in the contract that early loan settlement will result in a penalty,” Jordy explained.

Sebastian continued, flipping through a file, “and I see you’ve accumulated quite a number of debts over the years.” I stiffened. “Yes, sir. I promise to pay it all back.” Sebastian didn’t look up. “So, here’s what I’m proposing. You’re going to pay back $300 every month for the rest of this year. If you do that for two years, your debts will be cleared. We don’t usually allow clients to pay that little out of their debts, but we decided to be lenient and make an exception for you. How do you see it?”

“But salaries for this month have not been paid yet.” Ava’s gaze lowered slightly, her thoughts moving quickly now, aligning, calculating. “How much is pending?” He gave her a rough figure. She listened without interrupting, her expression settling into something more composed, more deliberate. “You will pay the salaries first,” she said. “Yes, madam.” “Immediately.” “Understood.” “After that,” she continued, “whatever remains, you will begin partial repayment to the loan companies.” There was a brief hesitation. “Partial?” “Yes,” Ava said. “Enough to show intent. Enough to slow them down.”

Within a week, she would have to pay back 400 thousand to the loan company, or they'd take the house. It was a bottomless pit, a trap meant only to drain her house away. No problem. Hayley never planned to pay it back—she didn't even have a house anymore. The loan was timed perfectly. Just before the apocalypse hit, the company would come knocking on Philip's door. When that happened, the two despicable parties would get into a fight, and chaos would ensue. Both sides were tough to mess with, but nobody knew who would come out on top. Either way, the house would soon be nothing but rubble.

Her father's creditors' preferred collectors. She took it to her room. Sat on the bed. Opened it. The number inside was not a surprise. She had known the number for two years, had been making payments against it with the discipline of someone who understood that ignoring a thing didn't reduce it, only delayed it getting louder. What was new was the timeline. Hendricks and Associates had decided, apparently, that the current repayment schedule was no longer satisfactory and were accelerating the collection process. Ninety days.

After weeks of living in hardship, that was the first good news I heard. I didn't mind paying for all my past crimes. It was a lesson I had to learn for causing so many people to suffer. However, the Creator still cared for me. I had a way out of the job that ruined my self-esteem and away from the people who almost killed me. Paying off the debt was my focus. “When can we meet with Channing to discuss this?” I asked. “I need to go through all these files before I conclude. How about we meet next week at the same time?” Mason offered.

Values and morals did not matter anymore. A smirk appeared on Russell's lips. "What a brave daddy's girl. I'm intrigued. But you see, sweetheart... I'm an impatient man." He moved away from her and turned his back on her. He walked to the right side of the room, where one of his men was standing. The man moved away, giving Russel the space to look at the picture frame that hung on the wall. It was Sasha's picture. It was taken at a time when she was much more carefree. The glint of ecstasy in her eyes and the smile lit up her olive toned face. "I gave your dearest daddy five months. He could not pay me back. So now, I want the payment. And I think…" his voice trailed away as he turned around

“Sixty-two hundred dollars total. If we can collect early—” “That puts them in a bad position. Most small businesses operate on tight cash flow.” “Then we ask anyway. Explain the situation.” Her voice was steady, but I could see the fear underneath. “Alex, we need that money. For the baby.” I spent the next two hours making calls. Three clients agreed to pay early—fifty-four hundred dollars that would be direct deposited to our personal account. The fourth apologized but couldn’t help. “That gives us sixty-six hundred accessible,” I told Maya. “Enough to survive until the account unfreezes.”

"We can make your life very difficult, Miss Ashford." "My life is already difficult. You can't threaten me with worse when I'm already at the bottom." They exchange a look. The shorter one pulls out his phone, makes a call. Walks a few feet away. I can't hear what he's saying but I see him nod, then come back. "Our client is willing to negotiate," he says. "If you agree to a payment plan of one thousand dollars per month, we'll freeze the interest and fees." One thousand dollars a month. I don't even have one hundred dollars to my name.