Seeing me admit my mistake, Ada smiled, satisfied.
"At least there's hope for you yet, owning up to your own problems."
"From now on you work harder in the shop. Stop thinking all day about how to cut corners for yourself."
I gave a small smile and said calmly,
"Don't worry. It won't happen again."
My daughter shot me a surprised glance but said nothing.
My son-in-law, though, couldn't wait.
"Dad, since you're not coming out to eat with us, you clean the kitchen, then close up and lock the place when you're done."
"Jackie and I are taking my mom out for a late supper."
I nodded. "All right."
Then I turned and walked straight into the kitchen.
As I stepped inside, I could still faintly hear Ada grumbling out front.
"Jackie, your dad really doesn't know how to behave."
"So we fined him ten thousand, so what? Putting on that sour face in front of the staff, who's that for?"
"He's the one who was in the wrong first, and he's carrying on like we mistreated him."
My daughter sighed, unbothered.
"He's just like that. Don't stoop to his level."
Ada said nothing more.
But Rupert still wasn't reassured. He suddenly lowered his voice.
"So we're just leaving, then?"
"What if your dad's alone in here and helps himself to something again?"
At that, my daughter went quiet for two seconds, then said flatly,
"Relax. We've got twenty-four-hour cameras all over the shop."
"I go back through the footage every day. Whether he takes anything or not, I know exactly."
Hearing that, I smiled.
No wonder that first day I came in to help, my daughter couldn't wait to have someone install cameras in every corner of the shop.
So it was to guard against me.
And what was more laughable, she already knew from the footage that in five years I had never taken a single thing, and still she let Ada's slander stand, joining in to pin a thief's name on me.
This was my daughter.
The good daughter I had poured everything into loving.
