— Good luck, you idiot!
And I pressed the “Activate service” button. A loading wheel appeared on the screen for a second, and then a new notification from the bank arrived. “Receipt of funds in the amount of 8,750,000 towards debt repayment. Your debt has been paid off. Available overdraft balance 10,000,000.”
Now, his card didn’t just have a zero balance; it had an available credit limit that he could never use without my knowledge. The trap had snapped shut.
About six hours passed. I was at work, trying to focus on reports, but the letters blurred before my eyes. I mechanically answered calls, sorted through my email. Alisa peeked into my office several times with a silent question in her eyes. I just shook my head. Silence.
And then my personal phone, lying on the desk, vibrated. Yegor’s number lit up the screen. Dubai. I let it ring a couple more times, enjoying the melody that had seemed so dear to me just yesterday. Finally, I answered, trying to make my voice sound sleepy and a little surprised.
— Yes, Yegor, are you there already? How was the trip to the airport?
There was a moment of silence on the line. Then his voice came, sharp and angry.
— Lera, what the hell? What’s going on?
— What’s going on? What are you talking about? I don’t understand. — I spoke calmly, shuffling papers on my desk.
— “I don’t understand”? I’m standing at the hotel reception right now, and I can’t pay. The card is declined. They say insufficient funds.
— That’s strange. — I feigned confusion. — Maybe it’s some kind of glitch? Have you checked the balance in the app?
— I’ve checked. A hundred times. It’s zero. Lera, it’s absolute zero. Where did the money go? Did you do something? — His tone shifted from angry to demanding. He still believed it was some kind of mistake, a misunderstanding that I was supposed to fix with a snap of my fingers.
— Me? What could I have done? — I paused, letting him feel the moment. — Oh, wait a minute. I think I understand now.
— Well? — he snapped.
— You see, last night I was sorting through our finances and I saw that we had some kind of technical debt on the account. A large amount. I called support. They said it was a system error, but it was better to pay it off right away. So I enabled the auto-repayment service, so the debt would be cleared with the first deposit of funds.
I could hear his heavy breathing on the other end. He was trying to process what I had said.
— What debt? Where did it come from? What nonsense are you talking about?
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