Feeding Hope

Prologue.

Is this what life had come to? Stubbornly, I held back tears as I loaded the last of the few boxes into the car and gazed at the house, which had once been my home.

Not anymore. The lenders and the bank had foreclosed pretty damn quick.

Two years ago, everything had been perfect.

Mark, my husband, held a good job. I’d worked around the children’s school hours, and we’d been stable – until Mark’s accident.

That had messed up our perfect life. Worse, it hadn’t been Mark’s fault either.

The equipment had been faulty, and Mark had fallen, causing partial paralysis.

After a year of struggling, Mark had been dismissed by his employer.

Of course, if Mark dropped the court case, then they’d have kept him on with benefits. No.

Mark, an oil rigger, had plenty of evidence.

His best friend, Ray, had smuggled out the repair logs and security footage.

We had the company bang to rights. However, financially, they had us over a barrel and had stopped paying sick benefits and left us to hang.

My wages barely covered food. Mark hated the situation, as I ended up working three jobs while he tried to manage the kids, but the money wasn’t enough.

Without Mark getting paid, we soon began spiralling, and the bank acted swiftly.

They foreclosed, and I was damn sure that Mark’s company was behind it.

We had one lawyer; they had a fricking army.

But we wouldn’t back down. The lawyer, bless him, had agreed to take his salary out of the payout we’d get.

Some decent people remained in the world, but that didn’t help us at the moment.

I’d loved this house; our children had been born here, and we’d moved in just before our wedding. Now it would belong to another family.

“Sophie,” Mark said softly. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. Life throws curveballs. We’ll manage,” I promised.

How, I didn’t know. We were basically homeless, and if not for Mark’s parents, we’d be on the street.

But even with them, money was tight as they’d retired recently due to their own ill health.

There were going to be seven living in a two-bedroom house. God help us all.