Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 9

The next morning, the official notice was delivered to the restaurant. Printed on the A4-sized sheet of paper, complete with the management office's header, was the announcement that rent would be increasing by 50%, effective three days from the notice date. At the bottom, there was a line of fine print."This notice only applies to Unit 402, Zone A, 4th floor—Fred's Fish Feast."There were 12 units on the same floor, but only my restaurant was named in the notice. I went looking for Walt Sutton with the notice in hand."Why am I the only one whose rent is increasing, Mr. Sutton?" I questioned.Walt took a sip of his tea before replying, "The others don't have people lining up outside their stores, while your waiting list reached up to 200 tables. Since you make more money, you should pay more. That's only fair."Besides, the mall's foot traffic has tripled because of the prestige that comes with Millennium Square. Your grilled fish restaurant is the one benefiting from the mall's

Duncan glanced at the people behind him before saying to me, "Either you sign the lease today, or we'll submit a joint petition to have you kicked out of the fourth floor."I looked at the others. Edwin kept his eyes fixed on the floor, while Natasha trembled as she stared at her phone. The others hiding behind them didn't even dare to let me look at them.Snorting, I stared right into Duncan's eyes until he started averting his gaze."I see how it is. I won't forget every single word you people said today." My eyes shifted to Edwin and Natasha. "You guys had better not forget your words, either."Duncan's lips parted, but in the end, he said nothing.Once the tenants left, Cameron handed me his phone to show me a message Walt had sent to the fourth-floor tenants two days ago."Kindly take note, everyone. The routine maintenance work for the fourth-floor air-conditioning system will begin next week. If Fred Connor of Unit 402 cooperates with the mall management by signing the new

It was 8:30 am when Walt opened the door to Unit 402. The stoves were gone, and so was the freezer unit. Even the exhaust fans had been removed. All that remained was a stain on the tiled floor that Lionel made six years ago.Standing in the middle of the empty store, Walt froze for three seconds before yanking his phone out to call me—but I'd blocked his number. He sent me a text, but it didn't seem to go through either.In the end, he used the phone on the front counter to call me. This time, I answered."What's the meaning of this, Mr. Connor? You took out all of your equipment? This counts as a breach of the lease! Don't even think about getting your security deposit back. In fact, I'm going to sue you!"I left my phone on the table and waited until he finished yelling before replying, "Have you checked the documents I left inside the drawer yet, Mr. Sutton?"He pulled open the drawer beneath the front counter and saw the notice of lease termination. Beneath it was a stack o

In the span of a single night, the post received over two thousand comments. The paid commenters were perfectly coordinated."I knew there was a problem with that restaurant's ingredients!""I got diarrhea after eating there once.""The boss has already skipped town."A few more paid troll accounts started reposting the claims, and a content creator even uploaded a gossip update about it in the middle of the night. According to his video, the famous grilled fish restaurant at Millennium Square was found to have food safety issues, so it shut down overnight.My phone was flooded with private messages from old customers. Some asked if the rumors were true. A few cursed me out. Several others sent me screenshots of Walt's post and said they were unfollowing me.I didn't bother responding to any of them.That afternoon, Avant Plaza's social media account uploaded a video. It opened with a shot of the subway exit on the basement level with my new signboard turned on. Then came the sh

Three days later, Millennium Corporation's legal department announced the results of the investigation.Walt was found to have used his position as manager of the mall management to demand kickbacks from the fourth-floor tenants. He'd also arranged for an electrician to illegally lock and cut power to Unit 402, pressure other tenants into jointly forcing me out, and maliciously spread defamatory rumors against me.As a result, his employment contract was terminated immediately. All of his salary and bonuses were withheld. The company also handed over the evidence of his involvement in embezzlement and commercial defamation to the authorities.On the same day, Millennium Corporation sent my restaurant a settlement offer through their lawyers. Walt had acted in his own capacity all this time, and they were willing to compensate me for my losses while offering a public apology.I glanced through the settlement offer. I didn't care about the amount of compensation they were offering. W