Unravelling Secrets

Alisia sat quietly on the couch in the living room, her mind racing after the man's departure. The cool night air still clung to the atmosphere in the house, a reminder of the tension that had filled every corner of their basement just moments ago. Her father was silent beside her, his face buried in his hands, and for the first time in a long while, Alisia felt truly lost. She had seen her father crumble before, but this was different—he was broken in a way that frightened her.

"What did you do, Dad?" Alisia whispered, her voice barely audible, but loud enough to break the silence.

Gram lifted his head, eyes glazed with guilt and sorrow. He didn't speak right away, his lips trembling as if the words were too heavy to push out. Alisia's heart tightened. She knew something had been wrong for months, but the depth of her father's entanglements felt like a tidal wave crashing down on them both.

"It started small," Gram finally began, his voice rough with exhaustion. "At first, it was just a few small loans. After David… after everything that happened with your brother, I didn't know how to manage. The store was falling apart, and I—"

"You borrowed money," Alisia finished, her tone sharp, cutting through her father's explanation.

He nodded, shame filling every crease in his face. "From the wrong people."

Alisia bit her lip, anger and worry swirling inside her. "And this man—who is he?"

"A collector," Gram said, his voice trembling. "One of the people they send when you've run out of options."

Her mind raced. "How much do you owe?"

Gram hesitated, his eyes avoiding hers. "A lot."

"How much is 'a lot,' Dad?" she pressed, her voice firm. The fear and panic were threatening to overtake her, but she pushed it down, needing answers.

"Hundreds of thousands," Gram whispered.

The words hit Alisia like a sledgehammer. Hundreds of thousands? How had it gotten this bad? How had her father hidden this from her for so long?

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alisia demanded, her voice cracking. "I could have helped, we could have done something before—before it got to this!"

Gram shook his head, his voice breaking. "I didn't want to drag you into it, Alisia. You've already been through enough with David gone, and I thought… I thought I could fix it myself. But it just kept getting worse."

Alisia sat back, her mind spinning. The store was already struggling, and their finances had been tight ever since David died. But this? This was beyond anything she could have imagined. The debt, the man's threats, it was all too much.

"We need to find a way to pay them," Alisia said, though the words tasted bitter. She didn't know how they would come up with that kind of money in a month, but the alternative was too terrifying to contemplate.

"How?" Gram's voice was filled with despair. "I've already tried everything. I took out loans, I cut costs at the store, but it's never enough. These people… they won't stop until they've squeezed us dry."

Alisia stared at the floor, her mind working furiously. Her father was drowning in debt, and now that she knew, there was no way she could let him face this alone. But what could they do? There was no way they could earn that kind of money in such a short time.

Then, an idea struck her. It wasn't foolproof, but it was a start.

"I can take on more work," Alisia said, sitting up straighter. "Freelance jobs, remote contracts. I've already been doing some, but if I focus on it, I can earn more. Maybe not all of it, but it'll help. And I'll talk to my professors—maybe they can help me get some bigger projects."

Gram looked at her with hollow eyes. "Alisia, I can't let you carry this burden. You've already been through so much. I should have been the one to protect you."

"And I should have been paying more attention," Alisia snapped, her voice uncharacteristically sharp. "But we're in this now, together. You can't just give up."

Her father's silence said it all—he had already given up. But Alisia hadn't. Not yet.

She stood up abruptly, the weight of the situation settling in her chest. "I'm going to figure this out, Dad. But you need to help me. You can't shut down now."

He looked up at her, eyes filled with a mixture of gratitude and regret, and for a moment, Alisia saw the father she remembered—strong, capable, the man who had once held their family together. But now, that man was buried under layers of debt and guilt.

"I'll try," he whispered.

Alisia nodded, knowing that was all she could ask for right now. As she turned to leave the basement, her mind whirled with plans—how to take on more work, who she could reach out to for help. But beneath it all, a growing dread settled in the pit of her stomach.

Something still wasn't adding up. The man's presence, the way her father had been so terrified—it felt too calculated, too personal. She didn't know much about the criminal underworld, but this felt more than just a routine debt collection.

As she climbed the stairs, her mind flickered back to her laptop, to the email she had received about a security breach. She needed to get started from somewhere to build up the money. She had been feeling proud of earning a thousand bucks in under a month but it was nothing compared to what she needed to earn in the same time frame.

The Next Morning

The sunlight streaming through the kitchen window did little to lift the gloom hanging over Alisia's mind. She sat at the table, her laptop open in front of her, scrolling through freelance job listings. Every listing seemed like a drop in the bucket compared to the money they needed, but she had to start somewhere.

Her phone buzzed, and she saw a message from Jenny, one of her classmates from school.

Jenny: Hey, how are you doing? We haven't seen you much lately. Want to grab coffee?

Alisia hesitated. She hadn't been in the mood for socializing since David's death, and now with this new disaster looming over her, the last thing she felt like doing was going out for coffee.

But then again, maybe that was exactly why she needed to go. She couldn't let herself spiral. Not again.

Alisia: Yeah, let's meet after class today.

She closed her laptop, her mind made up. She needed a break, even if just for an hour, to clear her head before tackling the mountain of debt waiting for her at home.

But even as she tried to push the worry aside, the nagging feeling from the night before refused to leave her. There was more to her father's situation than just money. And whatever it was, she was going to find out.