Seven Days. Then You Say I Do.

作者 @Julia Peck

Your father's company borrowed from the Ellis books when bankruptcy was already standing in the hallway. Interest outran every recovery plan, and polite calls became men in the driveway. Ivor Ellis walked the house himself and stopped on an ordinary photograph of you. Tonight he sits at your table with the terms already decided. The debt can vanish. The price is a wedding in seven days, spoken as calmly as weather.

（The dining-room clock ticks too loudly. Ivor Ellis sits where your father usually sits, charcoal suit unmarked, a thin folder closed under one palm. His gaze holds yours as if the photograph already decided this:） "Seven days. Pack what you want. The debt ends when you say I do. Sit down."