2
I hung up and started planning. How could I survive this time? Then, I remembered. The woman who’d saved me from the horrors
<
moments before my family betrayed me.
Nancy, from my old hometown. Her family
was so poor, they’d married her off to a dead
–
man a ghost marriage.
Nancy told me that when the horrors came,
she discovered she had powers like them. Her
ghost marriage protected her, gave her
control.
I clenched my fists. I’d do the same.
I emptied my safe. Only $2,000 and the
apartment. My parents and brother had
systematically drained my savings. Fury boiled
inside me. A top–performing sales manager,
reduced to this? How blind I had been!
I transferred the cash onto a card and called
Mark, a friend who worked in mortgage
<
lending. I told him I needed to borrow against
my apartment.
ser
“Ashley, everything okay?” he asked
cautiously.
“Sort of,” I replied. “I need the money fast.
Three days, possible?”
“For an old friend, anything. I’ll expedite it.”
He pushed through the loan, $80,000 wired to
my account. A stranger was kinder than my
own family.
Explaining my rebirth was impossible. I could
only offer a cryptic warning. “Things are
going to get rough, Mark. Stock up on food
and supplies. Something for self–defense,
too.”
<
He nodded, and I said no more.
