Being a man, Blake felt ashamed of relying on me so much. Every so often, he'd try to break up with me out of guilt.
But I clung to him like a koala, refusing to let him go.
"Think you can leave me and find someone else? Ha! Not a chance."
Every time I managed to win him back after one of his breakup attempts, he'd become incredibly passionate that night, almost primal. Maybe, in his mind, it was the only way he could repay me for everything.
I loved how much he loved me, but I worried about his health.
To keep him from overexerting himself, I sought out all kinds of remedies and tips. After every night like that, I'd make sure to take care of him properly.
I thought we'd grow old together, living a simple, happy life. But then, life threw us a curveball.
In our third year together, his father, drowning in a massive amount of debt, ended up jumping off a building to escape his creditors.
After his father's death, those same creditors tracked down his mother and sister and even cornered us in our tiny apartment.
When I saw those stacks of debt papers, I felt like the world was crashing down on me, a massive weight pressing down, making it impossible to breathe.
Massive gambling debt.
I never imagined that these distant words would find their way into my life, into my world.
Watching them drag him away and torment him day and night broke my heart.
They gave me an ultimatum: either I sell the house my parents left me, including the old family home, and use the money to pay off part of his debt, or they would use their own methods to extract money from Blake.
Extract money? How?
The image that flashed through my mind hit me like a bolt of lightning.
These were dangerous people. I didn't dare call the police—I was terrified they'd take it out on Blake.
After a night of panic, I rushed back to my hometown overnight.
The next day, I arrived at the arranged location, carrying $500,000 in cash.
The moment I saw Blake covered in bruises and dragged out of a barrel like a beaten dog, my heart broke into pieces.
I screamed at them, calling them monsters, but they just laughed, hauling him into a van.
They told me this was just the first payment. I still owed them $700,000, with $500 in daily interest starting that day. They forced me to put my fingerprint on a contract.