The Desperate Wife’s Survival Plan Read Online Free

myself.’
    She rolled her eyes. ‘So have you talked to the bank? What about the Citizens Advice Bureau?’
    ‘It’s too late,’ he snapped. ‘We’ve got an interview with the Official Receiver on Friday. He wants all our personal papers. Mortgage and all that kind of stuff.’
    ‘Why does he need all that? It’s the business that’s bankrupt, not us.’
    Steve got up from the table to find anotherbottle of wine to drink. With his back to her, he said, ‘Our commercial landlords were given a personal guarantee against the shops.’
    ‘I don’t understand what that means.’
    He glanced over his shoulder. ‘It means that we’ll have to use any assets we own to pay off the debt.’
    She took a sharp intake of breath. ‘We’ll lose the house?’
    He shrugged his shoulders before turning away again. ‘House,savings, the lot.’
    Suddenly Charley was angry. She got up from the table and began to pace across the kitchen.
    ‘I don’t believe this! I don’t bloody believe this!’ she raged at him. ‘How can you have got us into such a mess and not told me?’
    ‘I told you to calm down on the spending, didn’t I?’ Steve shouted back.
    Charley felt a guilty pang. She had raided the savings accounts recently to payoff some of the credit card bills. She had planned to put the money back, but it seemed she was too late.
    ‘I didn’t know things were this bad.’
    ‘No, you never asked. You just kept on buying more and more bloody stuff!’
    Charley’s face flushed with shame as she realised there was some truth in that. But she retaliated, ‘You’re blaming me for all this?’
    ‘Fancy holidays to the Caribbean. Expensivefurniture.’ Steve waved his hand around the room. ‘Posh kitchen, for God’s sake.’
    They glared at each other for a minute before she was able to take a deep breath. She placed her hands on the kitchen counter, drumming her perfectly manicured nails on the imported Italian marble worktop. Charley clenched her jaw and ignored the small voice inside reminding her of the tens of thousands of poundsshe had spent on this room. And the rest.
    ‘So we have to go and see this Receiver person on Friday?’ she said, deliberately making her tone softer once more.
    ‘Yeah.’
    They looked at each other for a beat before she headed around the counter to give him a hug.
    ‘We’ll get through this,’ she muttered into his chest.
    ‘I know,’ Steve replied dully.
    Charley waited until he had gone upstairs totake a shower before finally sinking on to one of the kitchen chairs. She had done very well not to scream and rant at Steve . . . but what a mess. She couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to. A tear slid out of one eye and rolled down her cheek.
    She brushed it away before standing up again. It would all be fine. Perhaps it wouldn’t be as bad as they imagined. Perhaps they wouldn’t have to lose thehouse. They would make it. They would get past this and move on.
    She finished tidying up the kitchen, switching the dishwasher on before heading upstairs.
    Steve was already in bed, his snores an indication of the amount of alcohol he had consumed that evening. She tried to snuggle in, desperate to be comforted, but he turned away from her, oblivious.
    But Charley couldn’t find the luxury ofsleep. Her mind was racing and she suddenly felt very afraid of what the future held for them.

Chapter Five
    THURSDAY BROUGHT A fine drizzle but it didn’t stop Julie from pottering down the garden to see if her daffodils were in bud. She was just straightening up when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. It was Charley.
    ‘Hiya!’ she called out, surprised to see her friend at that time of the morning.
    Then Julie’s heart flipped when she saw Charley’s expression. She just managedto reach her before Charley collapsed sobbing into her arms.
    ‘What is it?’ said Julie, drawing her friend inside into the kitchen.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ cried Charley. ‘I know you only had the