“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?”

The other waiters joined in with cold, mocking voices, saying, “That’s right, Jameson is President Simpson’s real husband.”

“You, country fool, what right do you have to steal his wife? I’ve never seen anyone so shameless, seducing a rich woman just to live off her; it’s disgusting.”

“Jameson, a man like him, deserves a good beating.”

Jameson nodded slightly, then glanced at the table. Without hesitation, he dumped the plate of braised fish, still covered in ice crystals, onto the floor and crushed it under his heel with deliberate force.

Looking down at me, his tone full of arrogance, he said, “You’ve lied this much, all for the medicine, haven’t you? Fine. Kneel down and eat this pre-made fish you looked down on. If you finish it clean, I’ll give you the medicine.”

I looked at Calvin lying on the floor. He met my eyes, his voice weak and trembling as he forced out, “Don’t…”

Even in pain, he didn’t want me to lower myself for his sake. Though Kelly had betrayed me, her father had always treated me with kindness.

He had always told Kelly to treat me kindly and warned her never to wrong me, saying that if she ever did, he would cut ties with her completely.

To avoid being a burden on me and Kelly, and to let us live peacefully, he insisted on returning to the countryside alone, no matter how much we tried to stop him.

Every time he came to visit, he would bring bags filled with local produce, treating me like his own son.

Watching his breathing grow weak and his face turn pale, I didn’t think twice. I dropped to my knees, held back the nausea, and began eating the fish that had been crushed into the dirt.

I let go of all pride and cared about nothing except keeping my father-in-law alive.

Jameson laughed loudly, pointing at me with satisfaction. “Everyone, look at this pathetic man, doesn’t he look just like a dog?”

“A moment ago, he sneered at the pre-made fish, and now he’s eating it as if it’s the best thing he’s ever had.”

The waiters burst into laughter.

“Jameson really deserves to be President Simpson’s husband; he sure knows how to put people in their place.”

I ignored their laughter and forced myself to swallow every last piece of the dirty fish.

When it was done, I lifted my head, my eyes full of desperation, and stared straight at Jameson. “I did what you said. Now give me the medicine.”

Jameson sneered. “Just as I thought, you really are a fool. You actually believed me? I was lying to you.”

He swung his arm and threw the pill bottle out the window. It flew through the air and dropped straight into the lake.

“No!”

As I watched the medicine sink, my chest felt like it was tearing apart, and tears filled my eyes.

At that moment, Calvin’s body trembled, his gaze unfocused as his eyes rolled upward.

With shaking hands, he reached toward my face, trying to wipe away my tears.

“Matias, I’m sorry.”

After saying those few words, his hand slipped from mine and fell weakly to the floor.

His shallow breathing faded until it stopped completely.

“Dad? Wake up! Dad!”

I shook him again and again, but no matter how I called or pleaded, he didn’t respond. My father-in-law was gone.

I had never thought that a simple visit to Kelly’s restaurant would turn into this, that I would run into that man, Jameson, and lose my father-in-law because of him.

My body went weak as I sank to the floor, my cries breaking through the pain that filled me.

The restaurant’s floor manager rushed over, checked for a pulse, and shouted in fear, “Jameson, the old man, he’s really dead! What should we do?”

Jameson frowned, a look of irritation crossing his face. “He came here trying to scam us. If he’s dead, that’s on him.”

“Besides, my wife is the president of Simpson Group. With her power and influence, what do I have to be afraid of?”

The waiters, who had been tense a moment before, all let out a relieved sigh when they heard that.

Seeing Jameson still acting arrogant set something in me off. I snapped, pushing myself up and grabbing Jameson by the throat.

“You beast, I’ll kill you!” I shouted. All I wanted then was for him to pay for what happened to my father-in-law.

One waiter yelled, “Damn it, you dare hit our Jameson?” and kicked me hard to the ground.

The others swarmed me, punching and kicking until I was driven flat. The blows left me broken and gasping, but Jameson wasn’t done.

He coughed, clutched his throat, and glared at me with pure hatred.

“You useless trash! No one’s ever dared touch me. Today, you’ll learn what that costs.”

Then Jameson grabbed a knife and fork from the table and drove them into my thigh.

Blood poured out, and the pain was unbearable. I didn’t scream, but my eyes turned red as I shouted at Jameson, “Jameson, you’ll die for this! You definitely will!”

Jameson snapped, “You piece of trash! You still dare to threaten me?”

Filled with rage, he treated me like a target, stabbing me again and again with the knife and fork.

Just when I was about to lose consciousness, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, “President Simpson is here!”