They told me this was just the first payment. I still owed them $700,000, with $500 in daily interest starting that day. They forced me to put my fingerprint on a contract.
They said if I couldn't pay by the end of the month, they'd chop off one of his fingers each month. Once he was out of fingers, they'd use the other methods they'd mentioned to collect their money.
$700,000—$170,000 in interest per year. It was high but still within legal limits.
No matter where I went to complain, it wouldn't help.
They weren't even worried about me making an issue out of what they were doing to Blake. They already had a fall guy lined up to take the heat if anything happened.
All they wanted was to make one thing clear: I needed to get rid of any thoughts of escaping this and just pay up.
Otherwise, we'd never know peace.
During that time, I took care of Blake during the day and worked at night.
Though his physical injury was healing, his spirits were low. I knew he didn't want to be a burden on me.
One night, I stopped Blake from jumping off a building.
He broke down in tears that night.