The Kids Made Me A Billionaire; The Cashback System

The phone Call

Sarah didn't walk to the bus stop as Davis thought. He watched from the lobby as she walked past the 12 street dogs Gold had adopted, past the tow trucks that were still taking away Johnson's Maybachs, past the police car where Johnson Sr. sat handcuffed with a bloody nose and a smile that wouldn't die.

She walked like a broken woman for exactly two blocks. Shoulders down. Grocery cake box in hand. Cheap coat. $20 cake jiggling inside.

Then she turned the corner onto 5th Street, where the hotel cameras didn't reach.

She stopped. Stood straight. Took off the cheap coat, reversed it in one smooth motion - inside was a Burberry. She took the grocery cake box and dropped it in a trash can without looking. The $20 plastic cake inside? She had never intended to give it. It was a prop.

"I'm out. I got it. Two strands. Grace and Victoria. Yes, I'm sure it's hers, I cut it when I hugged her. The frosting helped, she didn't feel it."

A white Bentley Continental GT that had been parked with engine running, lights off, pulled up. Tinted windows.

Mark was driving. He wasn't broke. He wasn't crying. His hair was gelled back, his 100x aura was back. Somehow, early. His grandfather had given him something.

He leaned over and opened the door for Sarah like a gentleman. The same gentleman who told my kids "Daddy is a loser, we need to find a new daddy."

"Did you get it?" he asked like he was asking about a product.

Sarah smiled, and licked the pink frosting off her finger slowly. Under her nail, wrapped in a tiny plastic wrap, were two hairs.

"I got it," she said. "From the cake. Grace's hair from when I pretended to fall, and Victoria's hair from when I grabbed her shirt to stand up. Grace didn't even feel it. The little idiot was too busy being proud of her daddy's ugly cake."

She held up her phone. On it, a zoomed photo she had taken while kneeling: The homemade cake, and stuck in the pink frosting near the edge, two strands. One blonde, long, from Victoria. One light brown, small, from Grace. She had placed them there herself when we weren't looking, then "found" them to pull.

"Johnson Sr. wasn't lying about the old ring," she said, buckling her seatbelt. "Great-grandfather's ring doesn't steal systems by touching people. That's a lie to keep people from using it. It needs DNA. Hair, blood, saliva. And it needs a mother willing to betray her daughter. That's the real price. That's why it never worked before. no mother would do it."

Mark drove. He called his grandfather on speaker. Johnson Sr., still handcuffed in the back of a police car in our lobby, but on his 5th lawyer call, picked up.

"We have it, Grandfather. We have the DNA of the 250x's daughter and the 100x Ice Queen. The ring will work now."

Downstairs, in our lobby, Johnson Sr. laughed while police read him his rights. The police officer said "You have the right to remain silent."

Sr. said into his phone, loud enough for the whole lobby to hear: "Thank you for the cake, Alex. Tell Grace her mother says happy birthday."

He looked straight up at the Presidential Suite window, 47 floors up, where we were still cleaning flour, where Grace was still holding her frosting-covered handmade doll gift from Davis's daughter.

He mouthed: "Midnight."

---

Upstairs, my phone, which had been quiet since Grace said "Mommy Victoria stays forever," suddenly flashed BLACK. I had never seen it flash black.

[CRITICAL WARNING: DNA THEFT DETECTED]

[HOSTILE ARTIFACT ACTIVATED: JOHNSON GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S RING - 1898]

[ORIGIN: First 100x user - Can steal 50% of a child's emotional bond to parent for 24 hours. Requires: 1. Hair of target child 2. Hair of rival mother figure 3. Willing betrayal by biological mother]

[TARGETS LOCKED: GRACE ALEX - Daughter + VICTORIA STERLING - Chosen Mother]

[EFFECT IF SUCCESS: For 24 hours, Grace will believe Victoria bought the cake, Sarah made the homemade one, and Alex was absent. Bond memory rewrite.]

[TIME TO RITUAL: 6 HOURS - Ritual at Johnson Ancestral House, Midnight]

[COUNTER: Find ring and destroy before midnight, or Grace forgets who baked for her]

Grace, who had been laughing with Emma about Gold's pink nose, suddenly held her head with both hands.

"Daddy..." she whispered. "My head hurts... buzzing..."

Lily ran to her. "Grace? What's wrong?"

Grace looked at the birthday cake. Confusion in her eyes. "I... why is there pink in my hair? Did someone... did someone pull my hair?"

Victoria was next to her in one second. She pulled a strand of Grace's hair that had pink frosting on it and saw the end. It wasn't fallen. It was cut. Clean cut with scissors. Tiny, near the scalp.

She pulled her own hair. One strand on her shirt was also cut.

She looked at me, and for the first time since I met her, Victoria Sterling, looked terrified. As a mother.

"Alex... she cut her hair when she hugged her. She took it. When she pretended to fall to her knees and grab Grace's dress to stand up. That's when she cut it."

Gold started barking. He was barking at the window, at the street 47 floors down where the white Bentley had been. Leo, who was now 80 lbs and growing every day because of my Pride Leader skill, stood up on hind legs, put paws on the windowsill, and roared. But this time it wasn't a protective roar. It was scared. Because Leo could smell that Grace's scent was being taken away.

Davis burst in, out of breath from running up 47 floors because the elevator was blocked by the police. His janitor uniform was sweaty. His Gold Membership card he pinned like a medal was shaking.

"Sir! Sir! Sarah didn't leave! She got into a white Bentley! Mark was driving! And... and she left this! On purpose!"

He held up the grocery store cake box she had dropped in the lobby trash can. Inside, it was not cake anymore. A burner phone, still on, with screen cracked but glowing, and one text, unsent but typed:

"Thanks for the ingredients, Daddy. Recipe: 1 hair of my daughter + 1 hair of your new whore + 1 ring = Your daughter forgets you. See you at midnight. The cake was delicious. - Sarah & Mark"

And under the phone, a single, old, black iron ring with a dull red stone. A replica. A message: We have the real one.

Grace started crying, holding her head harder. "Daddy, I don't remember... did you bake the cake? Or did Mommy buy it? Mommy... which mommy?"

Lily shouted: "Grace! What are you saying! Daddy and Mommy Victoria baked it! We all saw! 5 times!"

But Grace's eyes were glazing. "No... Mommy Sarah said she baked it... she stayed up... she..."

Victoria grabbed Grace's face. "Grace, look at me. Look at me. Who made the pink frosting? Who wrote your name crooked?"

Grace stared at Victoria, tears streaming. "You... you bought it... from the store... Sarah made..."

The ring ritual had already started. It didn't need midnight. It just needed 6 hours to complete. The forgetting had begun.

My system flashed one more line, the smallest line ever:

[Grace's Heart: 100 -> 87 -> 74... Decreasing]

I had $30,232,792,767.73 in the bank. 250x permanent. 500x for 24 hours one-time reward sitting unused. A hotel, an island, a mall, a zoo.

And I couldn't stop my daughter from forgetting I baked her a birthday cake.

Victoria looked at me, holding Grace who was now sobbing confused, and said: "We need to go to Johnson Ancestral House. Now. Before midnight. Before she forgets us completely."

Emma, who had been silent, pulled out her small kid phone and said: "Mommy, Jake Johnson just texted me. He said 'Tell your new sister Grace that her real mom is coming to take her home at midnight and her daddy can't stop it because he only has money, not magic.'"

Leo roared again and this time smashed the window with his head, cracking the glass of the Presidential Suite.

Midnight was 5 hours and 47 minutes away.

TO BE CONTINUED...