During the Independence Day holiday, my father-in-law came from the countryside to visit, so I took him to my wife’s new high-end restaurant.

I ordered his favorite dish, braised fish, but when he took a bite, he frowned. The fish was still cold, and bits of ice were visible inside.

I called for the manager, who came over with an uncaring look and said lazily, “Oh, I forgot to heat it in the microwave.”

My brows knitted. “You’re serving pre-made food here?”

The manager’s face changed, and he snapped, “So what if it’s pre-made? You heat it up, and it tastes just the same! We don’t have time to cook every dish fresh for you.”

I pointed to the sign above the counter. “It says right there, ‘Only Freshly Cooked Food.’ Yet you’re selling frozen dishes? Is this how your boss runs her business?”

He folded his arms and smirked. “The boss is my wife. You and this old man are just making trouble. What, you trying to get a free meal?”

The man slammed the table and shouted, “I’m telling you, once the fish is unsealed, it can’t be returned. Counting the freezing cost and ingredients, you owe this restaurant twenty thousand dollars. You’re not leaving until you pay!”

Twenty thousand for one pre-made fish?

So that’s what Kelly Simpson’s restaurant was about: a shady setup just to fund her lover’s pockets.

I reached for my phone to call Kelly, but the man grabbed his first and dialed. “Wife, come quick! Two broke guys are making a scene here, trying to eat for free!”

——

From his tone, she must have sided with him, because his attitude turned even more smug.

He pointed at my father-in-law, Calvin, and me, shouting, “I knew it! This is a high-end restaurant, and you two think you can afford to eat here?”

“My wife’s on her way. You’ll regret this!”

His shouting drew everyone’s attention. The other diners whispered, and several waiters gathered around, lifting their chins as if they were untouchable.

“You'd better pay up. Our boss isn’t someone you can afford to cross.”

“Yeah, just the other day, an online celebrity came here to review the place. He said one bad thing about the food, and our boss broke his leg and got him banned from every platform!”

“You two nobodies, how many lives do you think you’ve got, daring to cause trouble here?”

Calvin, who had always been quiet and honest, turned pale. It was the first time in his life he’d been humiliated in public.

He tugged at my sleeve and whispered, “Matias, did we come to the wrong place? This can’t be my daughter’s restaurant, right?”

He’d rather believe we had made a mistake than accept that Kelly might be cheating, or that she’d allow her lover to scam people.

It made sense. To us, Kelly had always seemed gentle, respectful, and loyal.

Just a month ago, she, a top figure in the finance world, had suddenly announced she wanted to open a fine dining restaurant.

I asked her why, and she told me that food safety had become such a serious problem that she wanted to open a restaurant where people could eat without worry, where no one had to face broccoli stored for years or frozen meat kept for ages.

Seeing her speak so firmly and with such care, I had felt proud of her then.

Who would have thought that all the money she poured into this place wasn’t for honest business, but to run a shady restaurant and keep a lover behind my back?

I pulled Calvin behind me and said to the man in front of me, my voice cold, “Fine. I’ll wait and see how your wife handles this when she arrives.”

At those words, his face changed. He glared at me, his teeth clenched. “You bastard, what, can’t wait to see my wife?”

Then, as if he’d just figured something out, he suddenly pointed at me and shouted.

“I was wondering why someone would make such a fuss over pre-made food. Turns out, you came here on purpose to cause trouble at my restaurant and flirt with my wife!”

“My wife is loyal and devoted. A freeloader like you, who depends on women, she wouldn’t even look at you!”

His loud voice drew a crowd around us. Right in front of everyone, he pulled out his phone and started recording while yelling, “Come on, everyone, take a look at this shameless man!”

“He brought an old man here just to stir up trouble, complaining about pre-made dishes and saying they cost too much. He just doesn’t want to pay and plans to use his body to settle the bill!”

“When he saw my wife wasn’t here, he even said he wanted to wait for her to come and deal with it herself!”

“Now I’m posting his face online so everyone will know what kind of person he is. Don’t let this kind of man steal your wife!”

Hearing his words, the people around us started murmuring among themselves, saying things like, “If you can’t afford to eat out, then don’t! Why make trouble for the owner?”

“Yeah, this is a high-end restaurant, not some place for you to mooch off rich women.”

“A man living like you two might as well be dead.”

“You… you…” My father-in-law was so stunned that he couldn’t speak. He had never imagined someone could twist the truth this much. His face flushed red, his breathing grew heavy, and he struggled to form a word.

I gently patted his back to calm him down, then pointed at the braised fish on the table and said, “We ordered braised fish, but it was frozen solid, straight from the freezer, with ice crystals still visible on it. And now he wants to charge us twenty thousand for this pre-made dish.”

I turned to the man and said, “We’re standing up for our rights as customers. If you can’t handle that, then call your wife here to talk to us directly.”

When he saw that I dared to talk back, he immediately told the restaurant staff to surround me and said, “Let me make this clear: this restaurant was a gift from my wife, and I, Jameson Webb, make the decisions here. If I say you owe me money, you’ll pay that amount.”

“Even if I served you a pile of trash, you’d still have to pay for it without complaint.”

“If you don’t settle the bill today and kneel down to apologize, don’t even think about leaving this place.”

When I heard that name, Jameson, I froze for a moment.

Some time ago, a package had arrived at our house with that exact name on it, though the address was ours. Curious, I opened it and found a set of revealing lingerie inside.

When I asked Kelly about it, she didn’t even flinch.

She threw the package straight into the trash and said calmly, “It must’ve been sent to the wrong address, or maybe it’s just some kind of marketing gimmick. Don’t bother with it.”

The truth I hadn’t understood before suddenly became clear to me at that moment.

I looked straight at Jameson and said, “You’d better wait for Kelly to come and let her tell you herself who the two people standing in front of you are.”

Jameson’s expression darkened as he shouted, “You arrogant fool, so you really came here for my wife, and you even know her name!”

Only then did Calvin finally realize that this really was Kelly’s restaurant and that the “wife” Jameson spoke of was his daughter.

But even so, he still found it hard to believe. He looked at Jameson and said, “Young man, I’m Kelly’s father.”

“Are you sure you’re not mistaken? My daughter would never fall for someone like you, much less be your wife.”

Before Calvin could even finish speaking, Jameson punched him hard in the face.

“You old fool, you can’t even afford pre-made food, and you dare pretend to be my wife’s father? Do you really think you’re worthy?”

My father-in-law was old, and the heavy punch sent him sprawling to the floor.

“Dad!” I rushed forward and lifted him up.

I couldn’t help but think back to when my wealthy father had offered an enormous bride price to find me a wife.

Many women came for the money, but only Kelly had knelt at our door for three days and nights, crying and saying she didn’t want the money, she just wanted me to save her sick father.

It was her devotion that made me choose her, and after we married, I hired the best doctors to cure Calvin’s heart condition.

But after Jameson’s blow, the old man’s face turned pale again. He clutched his chest, curling up in pain. “Dad?”

I called out anxiously, holding him close. “Dad, does your chest hurt?”

“Medicine? Where’s your medicine?”

Although his heart condition had been cured, the doctor had warned that any sudden shock could cause it to return at any time. He always carried his nitroglycerin pills wherever he went.

Panicking, I searched through his pockets and finally found the small brown pill bottle.

My hands trembled as I opened the cap, ready to give him the medicine, when Jameson suddenly stepped forward and snatched it away.

“What? You couldn’t get a free meal or pretend to be my wife’s family, so now you’re faking sickness to scam me?”

“Do you really think I’ll fall for that?”

“Give me the medicine!” I shouted. I tried to grab it, but his waiters, who were clearly his friends and relatives, rushed over and held me down.

I shouted at Jameson, my voice shaking, “He really is Kelly’s father!”

“He has heart disease! If he doesn’t take the medicine, he’ll die!” I said everything I could, hoping he would finally realize the truth.

Instead of believing me, he looked completely indifferent and even sneered. “Still lying? My wife is a well-known and respected CEO, and you expect me to believe this shabby old man dressed like a beggar is her father? You two idiots actually dare to make up such a ridiculous story.”

Kelly’s mother had passed away early, leaving her father to raise her alone.

To give his daughter a better life, he had spent every penny he earned on her and lived a simple, frugal life all his years.

Even after Kelly and I bought him new clothes, he still refused to wear them.

Who would have thought that this very truth would become the reason Jameson refused to believe it?

Seeing my father-in-law’s face turning pale and then bluish, I panicked and shouted, “I’m telling the truth! He’s Kelly’s father, and I’m her husband!”

“If you don’t believe me, call Kelly on video right now!”

I struggled to get up and reach for the medicine, but the waiters pressed me down so tightly I couldn’t move.

Jameson slapped my face, his eyes burning with anger. “You’re getting more ridiculous by the second.”

“One pretends to be my wife’s father, and the other pretends to be me, her real husband.”

“Look at yourself. A worthless man living off rich women, how could my wife ever be interested in you?”