She Tried to Make Me Pay for a Mother-in-Law I Don't HaveChapter 1

I'd taken clients to Harborview House—a place I ate at regularly, a place I trusted.

After dinner, the server handed me two bills. One was twenty thousand, our meal. The other stopped me cold: two hundred thousand.

"Ms. Dickerson, this is the bill your mother-in-law ran up at our restaurant. She said you'd be covering it!"

The server looked at me with a perfectly rehearsed smile.

I just frowned.

I was single. What mother-in-law?

And a two-hundred-thousand bill shoved at me out of nowhere—what was this supposed to be?

"That bill isn't mine. Whoever ordered the food, you take it up with them. I'm only paying for what's mine."

I pulled out my card to settle the twenty thousand, and the server cut me off at full volume: "Ms. Dickerson, you can't just eat here and walk out on your tab!"

Every head in the restaurant turned toward me. I let out a cold laugh.

Then I pulled out my phone and dialed.

"Officer, I'm at Harborview House. Someone is trying to extort me with a two-hundred-thousand bill."

"Also, please send someone from the Consumer Protection Office. I suspect fraudulent pricing."

——

The moment I hung up, the room went dead silent. The clients seated around me were all staring.

A few longtime business partners wanted to know what happened. I showed them the bill, and the table erupted—every one of them calling it outrageous, turning on the staff, demanding an explanation.

The manager appeared quickly.

I glanced at her name badge.

Janet Gilbert, manager of Harborview House. I came here often enough to know her by sight.

Under normal circumstances, Janet would greet me warmly whenever she saw me.

But right now, there was something urgent in her eyes.

She looked at me. "President Dickerson, what's going on here?"

"Come on, it's a dinner bill—you really had to call the police?"

"You've got clients sitting right here. Neither of us wants this turning into a scene, do we?"

"Just pay it and be done with it."

"President Dickerson, a woman in your position—this amount is nothing to you, right?"

She said it like she was doing me a favor.

I looked at her coldly.

"Manager Gilbert, if this were my bill, I'd pay it without a word."

"But it isn't my bill."

"So tell me. What exactly is the story behind it?"

I held up the two-hundred-thousand bill and fixed Janet with a hard stare.