Chapter 1

Over summer break, out of pure goodwill, I cleared out half my phone shop and watched the neighbors' kids for free while their working parents were away.

When they were thirsty, I boiled water. When they were hungry, I made noodles. The AC alone ran me over three thousand dollars.

And then, right before school started, Curly's Mom showed up at my door with a whole crowd of parents, cursing me out at the top of her lungs.

"Who are you pretending to be? A good person? This was all just to get us to buy those junk phones of yours, wasn't it?"

"My son had perfect vision, twenty-twenty, and after one summer here it's twenty-forty. That's on you."

"The radiation messes with a kid's brain development too. You owe every one of us twenty thousand in medical fees."

I patiently explained that the display units were all locked in the cases, that the kids only came here to do homework and play games.

But they weren't satisfied smashing my display case. They wanted to report me to the trade office for pushing sales on customers.

I looked at this pack of parents baring their teeth and clawing at me, and my face went cold.

"Money? Not a cent. And the kids, I'm not keeping a single one of them."

Perfect timing, really. This money-losing business, I was done with it anyway!

...

"Oh, who do you think you're scaring? Let me tell you how it's going to be."

Hearing me, Curly's Mom took a swaggering step forward.

"You don't pay up, we tear this crooked little shop of yours apart and you shut down today."

Behind her, a few of the parents joined the jeering, yelling for me to hand over money if I wanted peace.

I looked at the display case shattered across the floor, let out a cold laugh, pulled out my phone, aimed it right at her face, and hit record.

"Go ahead, smash it. This case runs sixty-eight hundred, the stock in here is worth two hundred thousand. If that's not enough to land you in jail, I lose."

Curly's Mom yanked her hand back fast, but her mouth still wasn't backing down.

"You got the guts, go ahead and sue me. This is a civil dispute. I've got no money to pay, so what are you going to do about it?"

Curly's Mom's crony hid behind her and chimed in under her breath.

"Right, we're the customers here. You run a shop and you've got the nerve to make trouble for us?"

Seeing they didn't dare lay another hand on anything, I let out a cold laugh, walked into the back room, and came back with three extra-large garbage bags.

Curly's Mom froze. "What are you doing?"

I ignored her, bent down, and swept every last thing the kids had left in the rest area into the bags.

Then I knotted them shut and shoved them sliding straight across the floor and out the door.

"Take your stuff, take your precious little brats, and all of you get out."

Curly's Mom stood there stunned. She hadn't expected me to be so decisive.

"Daniela Henson, what's the meaning of this? I work during the day. Where am I supposed to put my kid?"

"Your kid. What does that have to do with me?"

I pushed every one of them out and hauled the shutter down.

Curly's Mom kept pounding on it from outside, cursing.

"You've got no conscience, Henson. Those kids called you so sweetly, and this is how you treat them."

"You crazy old spinster, no wonder you're pushing thirty-something and still can't get anyone to marry you."

I couldn't be bothered. I just called up the contractor I knew and had him come remodel.

The crew worked fast. In a single night they turned the rest area into a storeroom.

Looking at the cartoon stickers still stuck to the floor, I thought about the two months of costs I'd covered and the effort I'd poured in.

I didn't feel the slightest bit sad. If anything, it was pure relief.

Just after dawn, Curly's Mom and the others came back with their kids, grinning like nothing had happened, hoping to freeload the space again.

"Dani, sorry to trouble you today. Still a week left before school starts."

I sat behind the counter and pointed at the sign in the doorway.

"Read it carefully. This is a phone shop, not a daycare."

"The case you smashed yesterday, a lawyer's letter will be at your house soon."

Curly's Mom was so furious her mouth twisted.

"What's that supposed to mean? Didn't we agree you'd help watch them all summer?"

"When you were smashing up my shop, did you agree on that with me?"

Her face went completely warped. She grabbed Curly by the arm and shot me a vicious glare.

"Come on, let's go. Who wants this dump anyway."

"There's definitely something wrong with her phones. Guilty conscience, that's what it is. I wouldn't leave my kid here now even if she begged me."

A few of the kids, shoved along by the adults, stuck out their tongues and made faces at me.

"Bad lady. Cheapskate."

"My mom says you're an old maid."

I looked at these children who'd been taught all wrong, my face blank, and turned to pull the shutter down.

That night, in the neighborhood group chat that had gone quiet for a while, a message from Curly's Mom popped up.

"Sharing some good news. Boss Lambert down on the corner just opened an arcade and he's letting the kids in for free."

"Not only does it have big soft-glow eye-friendly screens, you can connect to the free Wi-Fi too, and you get free skins when you download games."

"Now that's someone who truly cares about kids, Boss Lambert. Not like certain people who run a crooked shop and play saint while they're rotten to the core."

The parents below all fell in line, piling on one and praising the other.

But for someone like me, who'd done seven years of security engineering at a major tech company, I knew exactly what the free Wi-Fi trick was.

Classic long-con setup, made to hook exactly these people who chase a free deal.

I only let out a cold laugh and locked my screen.

Set aside the urge to help. Respect other people's fate.