Chapter 1

After my daughter-in-law, Marcella Abbott, lost her job, I gave her the money she needed to open a restaurant.

To help the place get off the ground, I brought people there to eat almost every day, doing everything I could to support her.

But Marcella always looked cold whenever she saw me, and the portions she served kept getting smaller.

I finally couldn't take it anymore, so I asked her..

"This roast beef is sixty-eight dollars a plate. Why are there only three pieces?"

Marcella snapped.

"Eat it if you want it, or leave if you don't. Better yet, don't come around here at all anymore."

Even if I weren't her mother-in-law, I was still the person who'd funded this restaurant—and I was a paying customer, too. How could she treat me like this?

I was upset too, and I was just about to say something when my son pulled me aside and spoke to me in a low voice.

"Mom, business has been bad lately, and it's got Marcella in a mood. Do it for me, just let it go and don't hold it against her."

I didn't want to cause trouble between the two of them, so I swallowed my anger.

Three days later, there was a high school reunion, and I brought my old classmates over to eat. Before I even made it inside, Marcella blocked my way, her eyes red as she yelled at me.

"Mom, don't you think you've gone a little too far? I've had this restaurant open for three months, and for three months you've been bringing people here to eat and drink without paying. Four hundred thousand dollars in total, and not once have you paid a bill."

"This is a restaurant I opened by taking out a loan against my parents' house. Are you not going to stop until you've eaten it into bankruptcy?"

I froze.

The one million dollars to open this restaurant came from me, every last dollar of it. And I'd paid for every meal, down to the last cent.

So where had the money gone?

……

When the roast beef was set down on our table, all five of us old friends were mortified.

Because just a second earlier, I'd been talking the place up to everyone,

"My daughter-in-law owns this restaurant. The dishes are generous, they taste great, and it's a real bargain."

"Anytime you feel like eating out, come here. I promise you'll be happy with it."

But right now, this plate of roast beef in front of us was priced at sixty-eight dollars, and there were only three pieces on it.

Five of us, and not even enough for everyone to get a bite.

The table went silent for three seconds, and then one of my old classmates spoke up, unable to believe it.

"Susan, did your daughter-in-law mix up our order and accidentally bring us someone else's leftovers?”

I glanced at the roast beef that had just been carried out to the table next to us. A full plate, heaped high with meat.

And ours had three miserable pieces, looking pitiful by comparison.

This plate had been carried out by Marcella herself.

Even though her attitude toward me had been strangely chilly for the past three months, she wouldn't go so far as to treat me like this in front of everyone, would she?

"I'll go ask."

I stood up, carried the plate over to Marcella, and asked her nicely.

"Marcella, this roast beef is sixty-eight dollars a plate. Why are there only three pieces?"

"Did you all bring out the wrong plate?"

Marcella, who'd had her head down sorting through the bills, looked up and gave me a cold glance, then said flatly,

"Nothing wrong with it. That's the portion."

Puzzled, I said,

"Then why does the table next to us have so much?"

"Isn't it all roast beef? How can the portions be so different?"

Marcella's brows immediately drew together, and she said impatiently.

"You really don't know why there's such a difference?"

I couldn't help staring at her in confusion.

I knew?

What was I supposed to know?

Before I could get another word out, Marcella rolled her eyes at me and snapped irritably.

"Eat it if you want it, or leave if you don't. Better yet, don't come around here at all anymore!"

With that, she lowered her head and went back to what she was doing, without giving me another glance.

Seeing her like that, my anger finally boiled over.

Ever since this restaurant opened, Marcella's attitude toward me had gotten worse by the day.

In the very beginning, when I came in to eat, she always greeted me with a smile, and she'd even add extra dishes, worried I wouldn't have enough to eat.