After years of no contact, my mother suddenly showed up at my restaurant. “Your sister’s unemployed—hand this place over to her,” she demanded. When I offered her a server position instead, she shoved me and splashed water in my face. “She’s precious—how dare you make her serve?” she screamed. I didn’t cry. I just replied coldly, “Then get used to being homeless.” She had no idea whose house they were living in…

restaurant demanding a piece of my life’s work. The house was mine. And just that morning, I had officially listed the property on the commercial real estate market.

Chapter 2: The Ice Water Assault
“Business?” I echoed, keeping my voice low so as not to disturb the diners at the adjacent tables. “I don’t do business with people who threw me onto the street.”

Evelyn waved her hand dismissively, as if my homelessness had been a minor, forgettable inconvenience. “Oh, let the past go, Maya. You’re doing well now, clearly. But Chloe has been having a very hard time.”

Chloe sighed dramatically, adjusting the strap of a designer purse she had undoubtedly bought using Evelyn’s dwindling, inherited cash reserves. “The job market is incredibly toxic right now. Nobody respects creative direction. I need a position that is worthy of my talents, where I can actually be in charge and make an impact.”

Evelyn stepped closer, invading my personal space. The scent of her heavy, expensive perfume was suffocating.

“You’re going to sign the front-of-house management of this place over to Chloe,” Evelyn demanded. It wasn’t a request. It was an order from a monarch to a peasant. “You’ll give her a generous salary, profit-sharing, and she can handle the PR and VIP hosting. It’s the least you can do for your sister. Family helps family, Maya.”

I stared at them in absolute, profound disbelief. The sheer, sociopathic delusion required to walk into a multi-million-dollar business built by the daughter you discarded, and demand she hand the keys over to the sister who caused the estrangement, was staggering.C

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I didn’t try to explain the blood, sweat, and seventy-hour work weeks it took to keep Aura running.

Instead, I reached over to a nearby busboy station. I picked up a stained, damp, black canvas apron that smelled faintly of bleached rags and discarded food.

I looked dead into Chloe’s eyes and tossed the dirty apron. It landed with a soft, wet slap directly onto her immaculate, five-hundred-dollar designer shoes.