Chapter 7

Becca stayed in her room for the next three days and they had to force her to eat. She thought about her times with Howard and tried to figure out how they had stopped loving each other. She really couldn't put her finger on a certain month or year that they had grown apart. She really didn't know if Howard was all that fond of children or if he really cared that she could not have children. The last few years of their life they were two people sharing the same house and different lives. She had taken courses at the community college to fight the boredom. Her studies were usually subjects that interested her and would never have taken her to a degree. When the money started getting tight, she took courses on finance, investing and real estate. At first she didn't realize that the money was being gambled away by Howard. She even completed the real estate course to become a real estate agent but she had never taken the licensing exam.

Carl was sitting in the living room working on the computer when she walked in and sat next to him. He had sent Marie out shopping when she threw a minor tantrum, telling him that she was bored and if she didn't get out of the suite she was going to jump out of the window. Becca did not speak right away and he continued to work to give her whatever time she needed.

"Carl, can I talk to you," she asked.

"What did you want me to do now? You know that I can never repay the money Howard stole from you and I don't have a job and my house is going into foreclosure and I don't have any money in the bank. And..." she knew that she was rambling and stopped, trying to figure out what to say.

For the last three days she had been trying to figure what she would say. She had thought about what she would do now that she was totally broke and would be homeless soon. She did not think that Carl would try to control her now that her husband was dead. Several times in the last three days her thoughts were of him. She wondered where he had gotten his attitude toward women. She had never heard him discuss any women in his life. As she looked at him she thought that he must be really lonely inside, never having had the real love of a woman.

Carl turned to her, "I really think that it is too soon for you to make any major decisions about your life just yet. Just stay here awhile and take a while to decide what you want out of life. I won't make any demands on you and when you feel that you are ready to leave I'll send you back to New York on the plane. As for the money Howard stole, I think that both you and I know that you can never pay that back and I'm just going to forget about it. It's over and in the past. Now what's this about your house? Who holds the mortgage?

When she told him the name of the mortgage company he smiled and asked if the mortgage was from FHA, VA or HUD. She told him that she had used some of her inheritance and they had gotten a conventional loan.

"Ah, that's good then. You see, I own that company and since it's not a government backed mortgage all I have to do is declare it a "non-performing mortgage." I'll keep it on the books and that will give you time to figure out what you want to do."

"Now, here is something that I have been thinking about since Monaco. I want you to help me at the office everyday. I'll train you to assist me and I'll pay you your husband's old salary until we decide to go back to New York."

He didn't really think that she would really be any help to him but he figured that he should help her out after all he had put her through. He knew she had never completed college and had never held a job, so what help could she be?