Second Chance For Revenge

Chapter 4

But the picture on the trading site wasn't clear enough to be sure. It was just a side shot, a little blurry, taken from far away. She had stared at it all morning while reading about the Newtop miracle, but looking at Gerald now in his worn factory jacket, she couldn't say for certain it was the same man.

The doubt was eating at her.

Gerald watched her face and saw the hesitation. He tilted his head slightly.

"Are you really ready to lose a premium customer," he said quietly, "all because of comments that haven't been verified as truth?"

"They are verified!" Tina snapped before Lora could answer. She stepped closer to the counter, her voice getting louder. "Everyone in this restaurant knows exactly how useless he is!"

She turned to the crowd with her arms spread wide.

"Tell her! Tell her what you've seen!"

The crowd didn't need to be asked twice.

"I've seen him before," a man in a gray suit said, shaking his head. "He came to my office building last month begging for work. Couldn't even fill out the application right."

"My neighbor told me about him," a woman added quickly. "Always behind on rent, always asking to borrow money. The landlord was ready to throw him out."

"I saw him at the grocery store," another voice called out. "Counting coins at the checkout line just to buy bread. It was embarrassing to watch."

More people jumped in, each story getting bigger and more dramatic than the last. Half of them were obvious lies, but the crowd ate it up anyway. They wanted to believe Gerald was nothing, so they made up whatever they needed to prove it.

The room filled with scoffs and laughter, everyone agreeing that Gerald was exactly what Tina said he was.

Lora listened to all of it without saying a word.

When they finally quieted down, she raised her hand.

"That's enough," she said, her voice calm and professional.

The room went silent.

"This establishment has a clear policy," Lora continued. "Every customer who walks through our doors gets the same treatment. We do not refuse service based on personal opinions or third-party stories. If someone wants to place an order and has a valid payment method, we process it. That's how we operate."

She kept her real thoughts to herself. If Gerald was the Newtop investor, then all these families combined weren't worth a fraction of what he was now worth.

The silence that followed was complete shock.

Tina's mouth fell open. She stared at Lora like the manager had lost her mind.

"Are you serious right now?" Tina's voice was dangerous and low. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to? I am a Hills. The man next to me is a Thorne. Are you really ready to go against both our families for some random factory worker?"

All eyes turned back to Lora, waiting to see if she would back down.

Lora's heart was beating fast, but she kept her face steady. In her mind, it was simple math. If she was right about Gerald, then these families were nothing compared to what he represented. And if she was wrong, she still had company policy to stand on.

"I am following our company policy," Lora said again, her tone leaving no room for argument. "We treat every paying customer the same way."

Tina's eyes went cold and hard.

"Then you better pray you're making the right decision," she said softly. "Because when his card gets declined, I'm going to make sure this restaurant doesn't survive the month. Our families don't forget, and we don't forgive."

Lora didn't flinch. She turned to Gerald and held out her hand.

"Your card, sir."

Gerald reached into his pocket and pulled out a standard bank card. It looked normal, a little worn around the edges. Nothing fancy about it at all.

The crowd started muttering again.

"What a waste of time."

"Look at that card. You can tell it's empty."

"She's going to regret this so much."

"This whole thing is embarrassing."

Lora took the card and walked to the payment terminal. She entered the deposit amount carefully, her fingers steady on the keypad. The room was so quiet that every beep from the machine sounded loud.

She turned the terminal toward Gerald.

"Please enter your PIN, sir."

Gerald stepped forward without any hesitation. He punched in his numbers like he had done it a thousand times before and hit the green button.

The machine hummed for a second.

Then a sharp, harsh beep cut through the silence.

DECLINED.

The red light flashed on the screen.

Gerald's face didn't change at all. "Try it again," he said calmly.

Lora reset the machine with shaking fingers. She handed it back to him.

He entered his PIN a second time and pressed the button again.

The machine processed for another few seconds.

Another long, sharp beep echoed through the hall.

DECLINED.

The entire restaurant - Lora, the crowd, the Hills family, even the servers in the back - fell into a thick, heavy silence that seemed to press down on everyone like a weight.

No one laughed.

No one spoke.

They all just stood there, caught between what they thought they knew and the strange, unshakeable confidence on Gerald's face that refused to crack even now.