What a fine phrase. He wouldn't press charges.
A handful of words, and just like that I was pinned to the pillar of shame, as if I really had done something I couldn't show my face over.
It was the old trick, punish one to warn the rest. He stained my name, and he froze my heart clean through.
I looked at my daughter for a long moment, and swallowed every word I had.
Then I quietly took out my phone, scanned Bernard's payment code, and transferred the ten thousand over.
The second the transfer went through, Bernard smiled.
"Mom, now that's more like it. As an elder, you should think of the kids more, not spend all day trying to bleed them dry."
"Consider this money a lesson learned. Just be more careful from now on."
Then he lifted his phone, turned to face every worker in the restaurant, and raised his voice.
"Everybody see that? Take something from the restaurant, and it doesn't matter who you are or how we're related, the fine applies all the same."
"Even my own mother-in-law took one bottle of water today, and she still gets fined ten thousand."
"Anybody tries it again after this, don't blame me for going hard."
The few servers glanced at one another. Nobody said a word.
Olivia checked the time and announced flatly, "All right, we're closed. Everyone head home."
The staff filed out one by one.
Only the few of us were left.
Seeing that my face had gone dark, Olivia softened her tone a little. "Come on, Mom, the staff were all right there. Of course I had to keep it professional and not play favorites with you."
"Once we lock up, let's all go out and have a meal as a family. Don't stay upset."
And she leaned in the way she used to as a little girl, wheedling, reaching to take my arm.
I gently moved my arm out of her reach.
"No."
"You all go."
They were the family, after all.
I was just a thief who had to hand over ten thousand for drinking a single bottle of water.
That meal, I simply could not have stomached.
Savannah shot me a look and said mockingly, "Really now, don't tell me you still think you've been wronged?"
"We elders are supposed to have a spirit of sacrifice. While we can still get around, it's only right to help the young ones out, chip in some money, do a little more for them."
"Say you really did steal the restaurant's water. Fine, you deserve the fine. But even if you just handed those young people ten thousand for nothing, so what? Do you really need to stand here sulking over a little thing like that?"
Spirit of sacrifice?
I looked at Savannah, and suddenly I wanted to ask her exactly where her spirit of sacrifice showed itself.
Was it in these five years of idling, never once coming in to help at the restaurant?
Or in the way she'd drag her old girlfriends in every few days to eat and drink for free, bossing the staff around until everyone was fed up?
Or maybe it was how she'd lose money at cards and come straight to the register to grab cash so she could go right back to gambling?
If that was what she meant by a spirit of sacrifice, then no, I really didn't measure up to her.
I looked at her and nodded. "You're right. I was wrong."
Where I went wrong was in caring about this daughter too much.
So much that I lost myself.
So much that I gave everything I had.
Lucky for me, there was still time.
This ten thousand would be the new beginning.
