Chapter 4

4: 4

4

Before I could say a word, Hope was screeching in the group again.

"You think you can stiff an old woman out of her money?"

"Everybody come judge for yourselves!"

"Lily, poor Hope fainted from how much you upset her, and she didn't even make you pay for it. She did you a kindness buying you that doormat, and refusing to pay is just not right!"

The old man from downstairs stepped in to uphold justice again.

"Who'd have thought someone so young would turn out to be a deadbeat!"

The group started piling on.

"Ms. Lawrence, you can't drag your feet paying an elderly person!"

Asher from property management jumped in too.

"If she won't, we can just take it out of the maintenance fees she paid. Ms. Lawrence, you can pay the fees again in a few days!"

"That won't cover it. I've got a whole stack of packages she never picked up here at the parcel station, take those to settle the difference!"

A whole crowd, making my decisions for me. Laughable.

"The name on this payment code is wrong. Can I even pay it?"

"Who's Theodore Gray?" I asked, playing dumb.

"That's my son! I'm old, I don't know how to work all this stuff!"

"My son bought the doormat, so just send the money to him."

Son.

Theodore Gray was Hope Chavez's son.

No wonder an old woman like her could make videos.

No wonder she'd come up with a nasty little scheme this clean, one stone for two birds.

And no wonder he'd dared to pull this. A team lead who'd just landed at headquarters, not even senior enough to get a meeting with me, a director.

The student surpasses the teacher. Turns out it ran in the family.

An idea came to me.

Without a word, I paid the ten thousand.

I dropped the payment screenshot into the residents' group.

Then I forwarded the livestream order record, Theodore's payment code, and my payment screenshot to Lucas.

"Verify this. Keep it for evidence."

A minute later.

"Director Lawrence, we've confirmed it. This livestream is one of the accounts Theodore paid off."

"The item's actual price is five dollars."

Five dollars, and she'd charged me ten thousand. A clean two-thousand-fold markup.

"My son says he got the money!"

"Lily, this is for your own good. You like things clean, so it's best to swap the doormat out every day."

"You saw it yourself, I didn't make a single cent!"

"You young people are too busy with work to have the time, so from now on I'll change it out fresh for you every day."

"Sure!" I agreed without hesitation.

Seeing that I'd actually said yes, Hope changed her tune at once.

"Then it's settled! Same price, and we'll settle up once a week."

I forwarded the screenshots of the conversation to Lucas to keep on file.

He called me right back.

"Ms. Lawrence, this is plainly highway robbery!"

"We can sue her! We already have enough evidence!"

"No. For someone like this, ten thousand isn't enough."

"I remember there's a client in Baypoint who handed us an artwork worth five million for an online auction promotion."

"Yes, Ms. Lawrence. It's a felt painting by a Turkish artist from the last century."

"Give it to Theodore, and have him take it home to keep it safe."

"Tell him that if he takes good care of it, I've promised to promote him to head of operations at the next round of transfers."

"This... Ms. Lawrence..." The confusion on the other end was obvious.

"Package it up nicely. On the packaging, write 'art doormat.'"

"To him, just say it's to prevent theft."

"Understood, Ms. Lawrence."

Lucas had been around long enough. One word and he got it.

Early the next morning, Lucas reported back to me.

Everything was arranged, and he'd made a point of telling Theodore.

"This is critically important to the company, so it's best not to keep it at your own place.

"After all, you're a team lead in the company's operations department. You're an easy target for the competition."

"Best to leave it at your parents' place, and keep it from them too."

"Handle this well, and the director is sure to promote you!"

According to Lucas, Theodore was beside himself with excitement and swore on the spot.

"Consider it done, sir. You can count on me!"

That same night, I messaged Hope privately.

"I've got an important guest coming to my place tomorrow."

"Swap out my doormat for something with artistic taste."

"Price is no problem, here's a hundred thousand up front."

I sent the transfer screenshot straight over.

She agreed to everything.

She had it laid out for me that very night.

By the evening of the next day, I looked at the felt artwork, now covered in mud and urine stains, and smiled.

"Lucas, have Theodore bring the artwork back to the company right away."

Half an hour later, a man's roar came from outside my door.

"Mom!"

"Mom, where did you put the thing I brought home yesterday?"