Pay Up and Die Read Free

was daddy’s little girl in every sense. But Allison was plagued with health issues. Another generous hand-me-down from her failure of a father. She had a rare disease that affected an infinitesimal portion of the population, which he just happened to have deep within his bloodline. The gene was recessive for many generations but every so often reared its ugly head and Ally was the lucky winner. The poor girl had years of transfusions and a few surgeries to try to alter her chemical attributes but nothing cured it. She never complained about all the treatments and never felt sorry for herself. If you didn’t know her situation you would swear she was a typical, happy ten year old girl. But Michael knew. He was the one that gave her the disease through his lineage and now he was the one who was going to kill her because he couldn’t fund the new experimental procedure that could save her precious life.
    As Michael’s thoughts ran away with him, his mood began to change and he felt sick to his stomach. Michael dropped to his knees on someone’s front lawn and vomited. His back arching in spasms. His face contorted in anguish as he continued to heave after his stomach no longer supplied the contents. He started to weep and rolled over into a fetal position, cradling his knees to his chest as he cried. Hard. He was lost in his hopelessness, unconscious of how he might appear should somebody pull back their curtains and find him like this. He failed. All he had to do was provide for his family and protect them. The two things that were most important to him and he couldn’t do it. They lived check to check and borrowed liberally from credit cards and loans to bridge the gaps when emergencies arose. They always seemed to pop up. And an evil disease was eating his beautiful little girl from the inside and he couldn’t fight it off for her. He was useless. His family would be better off if he just killed himself so they could collect the insurance money. And then Steph could find a real husband with money. And the kids could have a real father who provided and protected them. But he was even a failure at that. Too much of a coward to take one for the team and sacrifice himself so that they could win. What a disgrace. An utter failure.
    After several more minutes of self-loathing, Michael sat up and tried to compose himself. It felt cathartic to release all the pain but it left him exhausted. He slowly stood up and got his bearings, not even remembering which street he was on. He realized he was near the town’s park and it was a quick walk to his favorite bench. The bench was in a perfect, secluded alcove offering spectacular views of the summer sunsets. Since he was in the area he figured he would give it a test run in the middle of the night, enjoying the moonlight and canopy of stars.
    As he started to head in the direction of the park, Michael thought he heard the sound of tires peeling rubber. It seemed odd on such a quiet night but he disregarded it as kids being kids somewhere in a distant parking lot. He wished he were young and carefree again. But life had dealt him some hurdles he would have to overcome. Resigned, Michael walked the rest of the way to the park.

Chapter 4
     
     
     
     
    Sitting on the bench brought tranquility to Michael. This was the first opportunity he had to enjoy the spot at such a late hour, not that it was on his bucket list. The stars shone faintly as the luminescence of the full moon dulled the rest of the sky.
    Michael thought about his earlier hysterics and wished he could have buried it deeper inside. He liked to present a tougher exterior to his wife and kids even though he rarely displayed outward toughness. He was a proud man but he wasn’t proud about his outburst at this moment.
    The silence was broken by the sound of screeching tires, this time much closer. Michael spun around on the bench just in time to catch a small silver hatchback sliding sideways at the corner of Charles