Chapter 1
“1.32am” I said as I sighed and left work as an extra pair of hands at my local bar. I was tired as I had already done a 12hr shift at the nursery that day as well as a sleepless night the night before with my youngest daughter who wasn’t well. Having an ex-partner who had left you 6 months behind on the rent and a credit card with over £10,000 on it without payment, wasn’t how I envisaged my life to end up. I thought I had it all, man who loved me, 2 gorgeous kids, house, job, on my way to getting a car then “Bam” all gone in a matter of hours.
I’d come home from work to an empty house and my 2 children sitting under a blanket on the floor. Shock still ran through me 4 months on. I had gone to work none the wiser that he had planned for movers to move the entire contents of my house out including the children’s toys and bedding. All that was left was the blanket they were huddled under. An empty packet of biscuits on the floor indicated they had at least eaten something but they had no concept of how long they had been sitting there.
After several failed attempts at trying to call Tim, I gave up and knocked the door of my neighbour June, in her 80’s she had always been kind to the kids and given them sweets now and again. She gratefully gave them a sandwich whilst she filled me In that she had seen the movers turn up 10 minutes after I left and had gone within 3 hours. Tim had knowingly left the kids alone in the house for over 4 hours with no food or heating. I was so angry I couldn’t get upset. Having no family nearby I had to rely on baby sitters whilst I worked and tried to piece together my shattered life.
I couldn’t think things would get much worse until a week later I woke one morning to bailiffs on the front door step after the credit card I didn’t even know I had. I had only just about managed to get the kids a bed each, a sofa and a telly out of charity shops with my wages. The last thing I expected was the 5am wakeup call that morning. Things got worse when I saw the bill. I gave them my last £40 and thanking god I got paid the next day and promised to pay them each month before leaving an angry voicemail on Tim’s phone. I was angry as anything by then and when the letter from the estate agent dropped on the door mat in Tim’s name saying urgent, curiosity got the better of me and upon opening it I realised he hadn’t paid the rent for 6 months.
Life couldn’t get any worse for me than it did just then. The day was spent sat in the council officers after a lengthy meeting with the estate agents explaining the problems I had and what I could do about it. Being nearly £5,000 in debt to them as well as the credit company pushed me to the edge of my financial resources. Broken, I signed up for bar work every night of the week to try and keep the house and myself going. If I stopped and dwelled on how bad things were, I’d give in and break.
Determined I rallied on by myself with the help of child minders and a few friends I drove myself to exhaustion working every hour I could sleeping on lunch breaks. Weekends I spent as much time with the kids as I could, feeling awful that I wasn’t there of a night time. My goal was to clear the debt and keep the house. I couldn’t cope if the house went to someone else, id spent to long making it home, I would make it home again.
