Chapter 14 #2
Lindsey wasn’t sure what that meant and had no idea how to get out of the situation she was in, but it was obvious that he was perturbed and wasn’t the least bit interested in hearing common sense at this point.
She remained tied up and didn’t know how to convince him to let her go.
If he didn’t, once people found out about what happened to her, there would be all kinds of hell to pay.
He finally asked, “How much would she have gotten?”
Lindsey considered that for a moment. “If it was like mine, it’s prepaid by semester, with tuition paid first. Then the lender probably puts $1,000 into her student account, to pay for the dorm, food, and books.
Now that’s for the next three months but possibly six depending on how her semesters run.
Since she was studying to be a nurse, her medical textbooks that she needed for those classes probably cost that much and more. ”
He snorted at that. “Sounds like they discourage people on purpose to not do this. So why did Chelsea put up with this for years?” he asked, staring at her.
“She wants to be a nurse. That’s why she’s been working part-time while she’s doing her schooling. If she gets good marks, sometimes she might not have to pay back as much. After all, it was a loan, not a gift.”
“Right. She still has to pay all that back, doesn’t she?” he muttered, staring at her.
She frowned as she repeated, “Yes, it’s a loan. A student loan is money borrowed to help pay for an education, so someone can then get a job in that field of study and pay it back.”
“Sounds like a scam to me,” he muttered. “Why the hell would you want to work, make that money, and then have to turn around and pay it back?”
“Because it’s not a gift, it’s a loan,” she said once more, striving for patience but realizing that either he really didn’t understand how it worked or had absolutely no intention of even trying to understand because it was basically blowing his plans out of the water.
“The loans are strictly set up, without any input from her. So Chelsea had to make do with the portion allotted for her schooling each semester. She had no recourse on what it could be used for.”
“What do you mean by recourse?”
“The amount of money is determined by the lender, specific to the educational institution. Chelsea couldn’t say, ‘Hey I need $50,000 for my mom, or $5,000 more for books. It doesn’t happen that way, and, in most cases, student loans are applied for and awarded for each academic year, and disbursed by term.
So, each year she only gets enough for that year, then has to go further into debt for the next year. ”
He just stared at her in shock and shook his head. “That’s just a huge scam.”
“I wouldn’t call it a scam,” she clarified, “but it is a loan—a loan intended to help short-term for a specific purpose—then you pay it back.”
“Which just makes it a scam,” he declared, with a headshake. “Why the hell would she sign up for that?”
“Probably because Chelsea wanted an education, so she could do something to support herself. I don’t know what her final plans are, but I can only assume, since she went this route, she wanted an education that would lead to a job and hopefully something that she would enjoy.”
“So, as a job goes, it’s probably a good one,” he muttered. “More than a few people in this world are struggling, aren’t they?” And he gave her a sideways look.
Not sure what he meant, she nodded slowly. “I would think that’s quite possible, yes.”
“She doesn’t like me, you know?” he added in an odd conversational tone.
She stared at him, not sure what she was supposed to say to that. “I don’t know anything about that,” she replied.
“Yeah, well, she’s probably better off not liking me anyway,” he stated, “because not a whole lot I like about her either.”
The conversation was so bizarre that Lindsey wasn’t even sure how to take it. She just stayed as quiet as she could while she tried to figure out how to get out of this.
“What I don’t know,” he added, “is what to do with you.”
“The easiest thing would be if you just walked away, and I gave them some generic description of a guy. Honestly, I can’t see anything anyway because you took my glasses.”
“I didn’t take your glasses.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t have them.”
He studied her for a long moment and asked, “That’s why you’re not looking around, isn’t it?”
“I can’t see,” she lied, “so looking around won’t help me.”
He pondered that and then slowly nodded. “I mean, I don’t want to kill you if I don’t have to.” Her throat seized at that, and he just laughed. “If you could only see the look on your face.”
“How do you expect me to look?” she cried out. “That’s a hell of a comment to make.”
“Yeah, but it was fun though.”
She closed her eyes and focused on deep, calming breaths.
“That asshole who’s trying to get her property is causing me all kinds of stress, not that I’ve ever met him. He’s making life with her miserable.”
“Her?”
“Chelsea’s mother. Apparently she doesn’t own the land that she’s on, and now she’s having a heart attack over the whole thing.”
“So, why is she on the land then?”
He gave a bark of laughter. “Yeah, that’s one of the questions I’m asking, and she’s not giving me any answers, which makes me suspicious as hell,” he stated.
“So you don’t have to tell me twice, and I can see the writing is on the wall.
I just don’t want to leave empty-handed.
What about you?” he asked, turning to look at her. “Have you got any money?”
She frowned at him and shook her head, wincing at the pain. “I’m friends with Chelsea, the same age as her, with my own student loans to repay. What do you think I have?”
He groaned. “Which means you’ve got nothing either.
What the hell’s wrong with you people?” he bellowed.
“I mean, if you don’t have anything, you take it from somebody.
” As she stared at him in shock, he just laughed.
“Obviously you don’t come from the same family line with the thought processes that I do. ”
“I can’t imagine,” she muttered. “And, no, that’s not how I was raised.”
“Of course not,” he said, with a mocking look in her direction. “You probably work, then go home and do nothing with your entire evening, don’t you?” She winced, and he laughed at that. “That was a dead giveaway. God, you people are all pathetic.”
“And you’re what? Chelsea’s mother’s friend or something?” she asked, feigning confusion.
“Yeah, I don’t know what I am,” he replied, “but, up until now, the goings have been good, but she’s starting to really piss me off.
” He glared at the half-empty room. “She promised me money and lots of it. Instead, I’ve got this bloody broken-down farm, and now some guy shows up in town.
Suddenly lawyers are involved, saying that the farm’s not even hers, but it’s his.
When I asked her about it, she pretty-well panicked, and told me it was all BS.
Somebody was trying to con her, but she was scared enough that I have to question what the hell is really going on. ”
“Chelsea mentioned that. Something about a long-lost cousin who everybody thought was dead, but apparently her mother had him put in foster care.”
The man stared at her in shock. “What?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it, just that Chelsea told me how her mom was on the rampage over a cousin of hers who had returned from the dead.
Apparently that farm belonged to his mother, who died in an accident, and, when that happened, Chelsea’s mom sent him into foster care and took over the place. ”
He stared at her and sank back against the wall. “Well, shit. That’s a really crappy thing to do.” And then he burst out laughing. “I love it.”
Suddenly his laughter cut off in such an abrupt fashion that it scared the crap out of her. He was so mercurial, one moment almost normal, and the next he wasn’t quite all there.
He shook his head. “She would do that too.”
“I don’t know why though. It wasn’t hers, and she had no right.”
“Yeah, but you’ll only get ahead in life if you take stuff that belongs to others,” he shared. “Or at least you don’t worry when you take it,” he added. “You’ll never get anywhere if you try to be the good guy.”
“Yeah, until the owner shows up again.”
He looked at her with another odd expression on his face.
“She should have taken care of him when she had the chance.” Lindsey swallowed at that comment, and he nodded.
“That’s the thing. She didn’t do a good-enough job because she was probably too scared.
Seems she didn’t think she could do anything else.
As far as she was concerned, he was in foster care and gone.
She told everyone that he was dead. Maybe she thought it would be a death sentence.
… I can see her just putting it out of her mind and not thinking about it. ”
“Maybe.” Lindsey shrugged. “I don’t really understand it all.”
“I can see that it wouldn’t be your thing.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” she agreed. “Sending your sister’s little boy to foster care? Who does that?”
He thought about that and nodded. “Yeah, that was pretty shitty for him, huh?”
“Yet she obviously figured she could make some money off it and steal the property. However, if she didn’t put it in her name, I don’t know how that works either,” Lindsey offered.
“Yeah, I asked her about that once, and she just told me that she couldn’t sell it. I wanted her to sell it so we could take the money and run. I planned to ditch her the first chance I got, once she sold the place. Instead I was told she apparently can’t sell it.”
“Yeah, because it isn’t hers. It’s not in her name. At least that’s what I understood from Chelsea.”
He stared at her in shock. “Good God, if it’s not even in her name, she’s screwed.”
“Exactly.”
He started to laugh. “You know, she might have tried for a long con, but she really doesn’t have the balls for it.”
“And yet she’s been there rent-free the whole time.”