“Your mother is gone. Tears won’t bring her back—so wipe your face, make dinner, and don’t look like a grieving child when my guests arrive.” That was what my husband said.

Mark’s ruin was completed when his cell phone in his pants pocket began to ring loudly. It wasn’t the ring of a normal call, but the sound of an avalanche of message notifications. Mark took out the phone with trembling hands. His face turned even paler as he read the screen. They were threatening messages from online lone sharks. To finance his lavish lifestyle and please Jessica, Mark had gone into debt with several illegal loan apps. He had borrowed money at sky-high interest rates, relying on his large salary and promotion bonus to pay the installments. But now his source of income was completely cut off. He had no salary, no bonus, no severance pay due to his dishonorable discharge.