Chapter 3

The moment I mentioned Liam's job, Margaret's expression changed. All the fight in her vanished.

She clearly hadn't expected me to know so much about her son.

When she originally applied for the special discount, she had been evasive and only provided her name. But later, when I was delivering meals around the Brookdale neighborhood, I happened to overhear someone mention that Liam had done quite well for himself.

He was a manager at a bank, and his wife worked for the local government.

"W-What are you going to Liam's workplace for?" Margaret asked hastily, trying to stop me. "This has nothing to do with him!"

I held up my phone and the envelope containing the money. "Since you refuse to take the money and leave, I'll just deliver the money and these photos to him myself.

"And while I'm there, I'll ask his bosses whether all their employees' families are this frugal—so frugal that they'll even take advantage of a nonprofit community kitchen."

With that, I ignored Margaret's shouting and attempts to grab me and walked straight out with my car keys.

The bank Liam was working at was only a few blocks away, about a ten-minute walk from the kitchen.

When I arrived, the lobby was packed with customers.

The receptionist tried to stop me, but I gave her my name and told her I was there to see Liam Zimmerman from the loan department.

A few minutes later, a sharply dressed man with slicked-back hair walked out. The moment he saw me, he frowned. He clearly recognized me.

"Mr. Brown?" he asked, his tone impatient. "What are you doing at the bank instead of cooking in your kitchen?"

Without wasting time, I placed the envelope and the printed photos on the counter in front of him.

"Mr. Zimmerman, this is the refund from your mother's account at my community kitchen, along with photos of her deliberately dumping soup and wasting food today."

There were plenty of customers in the lobby, and several of them turned to look when they heard the commotion.

"Your mother came to me crying about how badly your family was struggling and how you weren't supporting her," I continued, deliberately raising my voice. "She said she couldn't even afford to feed herself.

"Out of consideration for a longtime neighbor, I gave her our special eight-dollar rate. And what did she do? She complained that the air conditioning was too cold, complained that the roasted chicken was too fatty, and today she even encouraged a group of seniors to dump perfectly good mushroom soup all over the floor.

"Mr. Zimmerman, take the money. And from now on, tell your mother to stay away from my kitchen. I can't afford to keep catering to someone like her."

Liam's face turned a deep red as his nervous gaze darted around the lobby.

"Mateo, what the hell are you talking about?" he hissed. "Who said my family was struggling? My mom was just being frugal!"

He reached out to throw a hand over my mouth, but I dodged him.

Just then, Margaret came rushing into the bank, completely out of breath.

The moment she saw what happened, she let out a loud wail and threw herself onto the floor, slapping her thighs as she sobbed.

"Someone help me! This heartless business owner is bullying an old woman!" she cried. "Everyone, look! This guy has been feeding me spoiled food from his kitchen. It made me sick, and now he's come to my son's workplace to extort money from us."

I was seething. She was obviously making it all up.

She'd been perfectly energetic at the kitchen just moments ago, dumping soup and screaming at everyone. Now that she'd reached Liam's workplace, she was suddenly claiming she had been sick the whole time.

Before I could say anything, Liam immediately changed his attitude.

"Mateo, I can't believe you fed my mom spoiled food!" he shouted, pointing at me angrily. "I'm going to report you. I'll have the health department shut down your lousy kitchen!"

With him backing her up, Margaret cried even harder, rolling around on the floor.

"Oh, my stomach hurts so bad! The meat was rotten, and the soup had gone sour. He was trying to poison an old woman!"