Before, Arthur would have dismissed such theories as the work of radical propagandists, but now he believed them whole heartedly. The government must have be lying when they said that the findings that stated that a SOVIET Corp. industrial plant had caused the freak snowstorms were wrong. Not that it mattered either way, he thought bitterly. Freak snowstorms were freak snowstorms and he was a farmer. Or had been a farmer, until Berwald took away his farm.
He didn't blame Berwald. After all, Berwald had been extremely lenient with him already, lending him the money without collateral, and accepting smaller payments in the winter. He had even let Arthur miss a few payments, before being forced into calling in the debt. He was, after all a banker, and it was his job to collect the money, one way or another. Arthur could be thrown in prison for not paying his debt.
Arthur had heard that Berwald also had trouble with SOVIET Corp., but Berwald was much better at keeping them at bay, probably because his "wife" hadn't gotten sick, and he hadn't been forced to pay SOVIET Corp. for a treatment that they hadn't even invented, just patented, and that they refused to let insurance cover, because it was "Experimental", never mind that it had been the standard treatment for years.
Arthur didn't blame Berwald for anything. Even taking Peter was understandable, even if it had been excruciatingly painful. His "wife" had wanted a child badly, and as Berwald pointed out, he couldn't fudge the numbers if Arthur didn't hand over something, his land, his house and everything on it not being enough to cover his debt. It was surely better than him ending up in prison, and leaving all three of his sons to the mercy of the state.
Arthur vowed that as soon as he could create any sort of semi-stable financial situation, he would go to Berwald and demand that he give Peter back. He also vowed that he would get some sort of revenge on SOVIET Corp. He wasn't sure how he was going to do either of those things, but he kept telling himself that he would. It was all that he could do, to stay strong for Alfred and Matthew.
A/N-Yeah, so this is just back story. Arthur's wife in an OC Northern Ireland, invented by Midi-Chan-of-the-Muffins, and Berwald's "wife" is Tino, put in quotes because he's another man and doesn't like to be addressed that way. They are legally married. Yeah, that's it.