Unpayable Debt Novels & Stories

"Five years with my boyfriend. I worked four jobs to help repay his debt, but his family's debt keeps growing instead of shrinking. Today we were supposed to go home together for New Year's. He said something happened at the construction site and left again. I don't know when the debt will ever be paid off. Living on toast and pickles every day is really hard." When the train began to move, I hit "Post." I poured every cent I had taken from Anya's livestream into promoting the video. "Benjamin, every lie is a debt. From today on, you can repay it inch by painful inch. I won't stay to watch," I muttered.

I swallowed and lifted my head to look at them again. "How much do you owe, I'll talk to De Mevius." Dad shook his head as if my words were hopeless and ineffective. "Two million, Amanda. And if we don't pay, you'll be affected. It's hard to talk to De Mevius, we don't want you to be affected either. They'll kill us, Amanda." I was almost depressed especially when I heard that, two million? Why are they in debt two million?

"That's the part that scared me most. They weren't trying to find anything out. They just wanted me to understand something." "Understand what?" Matteo's voice had gone dangerously quiet, the register Fina had learned to recognize as fury with nowhere yet to land. "That the debt you settled isn't actually settled. Not the way they see it." Gio's hands were shaking, and he pressed them flat against his knees to still them, a gesture Fina recognized with an ache of her own. "The man who did this said to tell you, word for word, he made me repeat it back to him twice to make sure I had it right, that a debt paid by someone other than the debtor doesn't disappear. It just changes hands. And your

Debts that don't actually exist. My hands start shaking. Someone's been adding charges to my debt. Charges that aren't real. Making it bigger and bigger until I can't possibly pay it off. But who? I think about the timing. Dad died five years ago. The debt started at thirty-five thousand. Medical bills and funeral costs. That part made sense. But over five years, it's grown to fifty-three thousand even though I've been making small payments when I could. The math doesn't work unless someone's been adding to it.

A debt agreement: Marco Petrov—debtor. Tristan Kozlov—creditor. Amount owed: twenty million euros. I blink once. There’s no way. Twenty million? Marco could never owe that kind of money. He can't even settle that huge debt. Unless… my breathing becomes uneven as I turn to the next page with trembling hands. Settlement record: Debtor unable to pay, alternative proposal attached. The document is attached with a single paper clip. My vision blurs; my hand clenches by my side until it begins to hurt.

"That's efficient. Would you have preferred I let your mother's surgery go unpaid while I waited for you to call?" She flinched at that. I hadn't meant it cruelly but I wasn't going to apologise for it either. The debts were real, the deadlines were real, and waiting politely while her family drowned in them was not something I was willing to do. "Why?" she said. "Because I could and it needed doing." "That's not a real answer." "It's the truest one I have. You were carrying thirty thousand euros of debt on your back and I had the ability to remove it in an afternoon. The maths was simple."

It reduced her suffering, her death, and her miraculous return to a line item on a balance sheet. "Since they’ve given me a ticket, I can't show up empty-handed." Sophia stood up, a newfound sharpness in her gaze that cut through the gloom of the office. She walked to the window, looking down at the ants-like people below, unaware of the predators watching from the penthouses. "Ella, set up a meeting with the financial director of St. Jude Care Center. I want to know exactly where that so-called 'unpaid debt' went. If they claim I owed medical fees, then I’m going to settle that account—with interest. Every cent, every second of pain, compounded."

I thought it was over, but I was even more depressed when it was probably less than half of what mom owed them. Just how much is her debt, really? That big to consume our property and less than half of it? I found out that she was indebt with an underground syndicate-organization so she owed so much. Only Ray volunteered to take over mama's payment and they already paid half, so mama was very anxious to reconcile me.

It’s a lot to take in. “I have one billion naira in debt,” I say, laying the ugliest truth between us. “My family’s name is mud. People like Liam and Malice will use this against you. Against us. It’s a scandal waiting to happen.” “Let them try,” he says, and the simple confidence in those three words is more powerful than any shout. “The debt will be handled. Consider it an advance on your salary. A very long-term advance.” “That’s not a salary, that’s a fortune,” I argue weakly.

In which in 60 days, his company would be declared bankrupt, in addition to non-payment of debts towards his suppliers and partners, his father went to rock bottom, in addition to numerous debts towards suppliers and creditors who they came to seek the values that their father worked so hard to conquer this multinational. At that time, the girl was lost and with nowhere to look for help, walking through the rain, she could not go back to college, nor resources, she was the youngest daughter of 3 brothers who also died without assuming the responsibilities of any of the businesses of the father, but he did not have the resources to pay the debts. Even without being able to pay, not even the c