Chapter 48: Chapter 48

Isabella's pov;

While I was taking orders from the customers, A table of three, they talked among themselves and didn't tell me about the menu properly. I didn't pay attention in the beginning but they looked at me and the restaurant and were mumbling to each other which looked weird so I asked them politely, "Is anything wrong?"

They looked at each other and stood from the table and tried to leave.

I stopped them and asked, "What happened? Why are you leaving?"

They didn't say anything and walked out of the restaurant straight away. While I was being confused, a couple from table number seven left too.

I asked Emily who was attending that table, she said, "The girl was ordering from the menu, the boy who came along with her showed something on his phone and then, they both left immediately. Maybe they went to another place to dine in." And left to attend to another customer.

If they wanted to go, they would have gone in the first place? Why did they leave while giving their menu?

Dylan walked to me and showed me his phone while saying, "Bella! Take a look at this."

I got the phone from him while asking, "what is it?"

When I looked, It was a review page. I looked at the review page and the reviews were really bad and there weren't any stars. When I scrolled, I came to know that it was all AB restaurants when they mentioned the name of our restaurant. After I read some reviews, "Rotten foods? Why are they commenting like that? When did we serve rotten foods? We're buying ingredients each and every day fresh and…"

Emily showed her phone and said, "Our restaurant is on the news."

"What!? What did they say?"

"It's worse."

I took the phone from her and read, "A customer went to an AB restaurant to dine in for lunch, he ordered a special dish from the menu. After he was finished with his food, he left for his place. While he was on the way to his place, he felt nauseous and discomfort in his stomach and when the pain couldn't be endured, he went to the nearby hospital and found out that he ate rotten food which is the cause for his bad stomach. The doctors treated him for eating the expired food. The man filed a complaint against the AB restaurant for serving him expired rotten food… Expired? Rotten? How did this happen?"

I went to the kitchen area and asked everyone to assemble.

"Do you guys know what's happening outside? We're getting bad reviews. They're commenting that we're serving expired and rotten food. Is that true?"

Victor said, "It's normal to get bad reviews since we became popular quickly. Let it go."

Mike, "Yeah, we don't have to care about that. People like them only like to talk bad about us behind our backs since they hate people's growth, it's fun for them. We should not take it seriously and make them popular. We know we don't serve rotten food so let it go as Victor said. Don't take it to heart."

I looked at Olivia, she said, "I'm with them too. There are customers outside, right? Let's serve them first."

They went back to cooking.

I said to Emily, "Take the order from my table. If there are customers, I'll be back."

"Okay."

I came out of the restaurant to make a call to my friend. Julian. He's kinda genius in these things but he didn't pick up my call. While I was trying to make a call to Julian again, I saw Mr Martinez's car around the corner as usual. What is he doing at this time? I thought he'll come only during the night while I'm closing the restaurant.

I walked to his car and saw him leaning back on the seat, acting like he's sleeping. I tapped on the window which made him wake up from his fake sleep. He opened the window and said, "Hi." And smiled at me in an awkward way.

"If you stayed here all day, who would look after the office?"

"I have people. Hey, I'm not here all day. I come only during my breaks."

"You said you're getting married, doesn't that woman get jealous that her man is after another girl?"

"She won't be jealous."

"And, how are you sure about that?"

"Because I won't make her know this. This is a secret."

"Whatever, I need a favour from you. Can you do it?"

"What is it?"

"Did you check the news? They were talking about my restaurant. A customer from my restaurant got a bad stomach and complained that we serve expired and rotten foods. When I tried to contact that person to have a talk with him, I couldn't. On the other hand, There's also reviews too. They're really bad. My chef's and employees didn't care about it and asked me to not worry about it, but I do. The news, I-I don't know, something tells me that was a fake."

"I'll look into it."

"Thank you."

When I tried to leave, he said, "Wait."

"What?"

"Don't go around and investigate by yourself. I'll do it."

"Okay." I nodded and walked back into the restaurant.

After some days, I got a call from Julian while I was closing the restaurant.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, I got the source."

"What?"

"The source. You asked me to find who was behind the tweets. When I looked it up, there were six accounts which repeatedly tweeted bad reviews about your restaurant. You'll be surprised if you hear this, those six accounts belong to one person. The IP addresses of all those six accounts were the same and he was using six different accounts just to give a bad review for your restaurant."

"I knew there was something wrong."

"What about that guy who complained against you?"

"I asked someone to look it up."

"Okay, let me know if you want something."

"Thank you."

"Hey, Don't forget those macaroons."

"Yeah, I remember. I'll make sure you get it by tomorrow."

I ended the call with Julian and thought about what he said. Who's doing this? What does that person want from me by doing this?

Before closing the restaurant, I came to see if Mr Martinez was outside but he wasn't. Since I asked him to investigate the person who filed a complaint against my restaurant, Mr Martinez wasn't coming here. He took the job seriously, I guess.

The next day,

The number of customers coming to our restaurant decreased half the amount of people who came before. But the regulars are still coming.

While I was serving the customers, suddenly Mr Martinez entered the restaurant and walked towards me and said, "I want to talk to you. Come with me."

"What is it? Did you find him?"

"Let's talk about it outside."

"Wait for me."

I finished serving the customers and walked outside the restaurant with him and asked, "Who is he?"

He opened the car door and said, "Let's go and meet him in person. The person who filed the complaint."

"How did you find him? When I asked the guy who published the article, he didn't give me a proper response."

"Don't forget you're talking to the CEO of Skyland corporation."

I gave an eye roll and got into his car.

After a while, we reached the place. It was an apartment building. We got out of the car and he took me to the floor where that guy was staying.

The door was wide open before the person who lives in it opened for us. When Mr Martinez tried to enter, I held his hand and asked, "Shouldn't we knock?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's open."

When we entered the apartment, I saw things scattered around the floor, some were broken and some were just lying on the floor. It looked like something bad happened here.

While I was looking at the messed up place, Mr Martinez said, "Come."

I walked after Mr Martinez, inside the apartment and saw a guy who was picking up the broken pieces off the floor.

Seeing us entering his place, that guy asked, "Why are you here again? I told you everything."

The guy who was shouting at us looked messed up with his bruised face.

Mr Martinez pointed at me and said, "Tell everything once again to her."

I asked, "What do you mean 'once again'? Have you come here before? Are you the reason that this place is like this? Did you beat him?"

"Not me. This place was messed up before I came."

"What about the bruises?"

"Maybe it's me."

While I was staring at Mr Martinez, he signalled that guy to talk.

The bruised guy started to talk, "Listen, I did only what I asked to do. The package came with the money and the picture of the restaurant. At the back of the picture, they asked me to dine in and asked me to file a complaint that the restaurant was serving bad food. I did as they said. I don't know from whom it came from since the package didn't have any name on it."

I asked him, "Where's it now? The package?"

"I throwed it away."

Mr Martinez said, "The package wasn't in the house, I checked the whole place."

I asked the guy, "Did he do this?"

"These were the doings of loan sharks."

"How much do you need?"

"One thousand dollars."

"Is that all?"

He nodded at me.

I gave him one thousand dollars from my bag and said, "I'm not bribing you but don't do this to any restaurants because everyone is working hard to achieve something they wanted to. Give this to them first."

When we got into the car, Mr Martinez asked, "What about the guy you told me? Do you want me to find him?"

"I'm thinking about letting it go like my employees said. What's the point of running behind them? We'll only waste our time so I'm planning to work hard on my restaurant for now."

"Then why did you want to find them?"

"Just wanted to make sure of something."

"What is it?"

While he was in the main street, I said, "I'll tell you later."

Mr Martinez let out a chuckle.

"What?"

He said, "You talk like a grown-up. It doesn't suit you."

I hit him on his shoulder and said, "Ofcourse, I'm a grown up. Do I look like a kid to you?"

He nodded while smiling at me.

"Stop looking at me and face the front while driving the car."

After a while, "Stop the car, I'll get off here."

"I'll drop you in front of the restaurant."

"I have somewhere to go."

"Where?"

I let out a sigh and said, "JU restaurant."

"Okay."

When I got out of the car, I said, "You can leave. I'll go by myself."

He nodded and left.

I walked into the JU restaurant and came to the cabin. I thought Jeremy would be here but to my surprise I saw Mr Williams, Jeremy's father.

"It was a surprise! Take the seat."

I sat in front of him and said, "Hello, Sir."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came here to see Jeremy. Do you know where he is?"

"I thought you came in to dine since your restaurant serves rotten foods over there."

"That was a fake complaint, Sir. Soon, it'll be known to everyone."

"You speak like a newbie. Yes, you are a newbie. In this business, if you get a blackmark, you're out of business. You can't give a comeback like a music band. Because, This is not an entertainment industry. This is a restaurant business. Have you heard about Michael Hall's bakery? It was one of the popular bakeries in which they serve high quality desserts. One of his employees served dessert with insects inside it carelessly, it was all over the news and made the headlines too. After that, everyone stopped going there which made the place closed. Once you're done, you're blacked out from the business. I don't help people in the same stream of business but since you're my son's friend, I'm willing to do that for you."

I stood from the seat and said, "It's my restaurant so I'll take care of it. And, thanks for the offer, Sir."

We reported that the news was fake but no one believed us. They told us we bribed that guy to speak for us and made things more complicated. Like Mr Williams said, we became the hot search for them. Everyone talked bad about us, which decreased the number of customers day by day.

While I was working in the restaurant, I heard people gossiping about the news and was making fun of it. People nicknamed our restaurant as a rotten restaurant on the internet. I endured it thinking it will change one day.

In the JU restaurant's cabin,

I placed the package on the table in front of Mr Williams.

"What is this?"

"A gift from our restaurant."

"A gift?"

"Yes." I opened the package, and while I was opening, Mr Williams said, "What's that smell?"

After the package was unpacked, Mr Williams shouted, "What the hell is that? Why does it smell like garbage?"

"It's a rotten chicken from the rotten restaurant, Sir. Let me serve you."

I endured the smell and began cutting it into small pieces.

Mr Williams, "What are you doing? Cutting it makes the stench worse. Stop doing that. Are you gone nuts?"

I didn't stop and continued cutting it.

Jeremy rushed into the room and stopped me and said, "What are you doing?" While clenching his nose.

Mr Williams said to his son, "What is she doing? Get her out of this place. Take her along with you."

Jeremy grabbed my hand and made me move out of the cabin and asked, "Are you crazy? What's that for?"

"The reason for my restaurant being like this is because of your father."

"What?"

"Your father is the one who was behind this. He hired a person and made him file a fake complaint against my restaurant."

"Do you have any proof for that?"

"No, I'm sure he's the one. Everyone's talking like that. Since my restaurant went down, your restaurant is filled with customers. What does that mean?"

He let out a sigh and said, "Just because you hate your father, don't think everyone is the same."

I held his collar and asked, "What did you just say?"

"I'm not wrong though."

I let him go and walked out of the restaurant being mad. How could he talk like that to me? Why did he drag that guy into the conversation all of a sudden? Was he defending his father? Does he have a part in this too? I hate when people are all nice to me when they face me and do bad things behind my back. Don't they feel guilty? Why is this adult world so complicated? It was so much better while I was in school. Even when they bullied me, I know who did that. But here, we can't find that person even when we try hard.

Suddenly, someone pushed me away and made me realise that I was on the road. When I looked at that person, It's Mr Martinez. Why did he push me on the ground? When I turned, I saw a car speeding towards us and Mr Martinez was standing where I was before. Why are you still standing there? I got up and pulled him towards me and we both hit the ground hard.

I felt it in the back of my head since I hit the ground on my back.

"Are you alright?" Mr Martinez asked me while he was slapping my cheeks hard.

I stopped him and said, "It hurts."

"Sorry… Ouch!"

"What happened?"

"I think I twisted my leg when I pushed you away."

I put his hand around my neck and stood from the ground along with him and asked, "Where's your car?"

"Around the street."

"Lock it."

"Already done."

"Okay. Let's get to the hospital first."

In the hospital,

The doctor said, "It's a twisted ankle. You need to take a rest for a week and this bandage has to be changed every day."

After the doctor left, I asked him, "How are you feeling now?"

He grabbed my collar and pulled towards him and asked, "Do you like getting hit by the car that much?"

I smiled and said, "Seems like you're okay now. And, how did you get there?"

"I happened to be there. What if I didn't push you?"

"I would have gotten hit by the car."

"Why are you so careless? Can't you see while you're walking on the road? You have to be careful while you're on the road, especially on the crosswalk."

"I was thinking about…"

Big brother rushed into the room and asked about Mr Martinez's health. After they finished talking, Big brother asked me, "Are you gone nuts?"

"Are you mad that i hurted your boss?"

"No!"

Mr Martinez gave a stare at big brother while I was smiling at him.

"I-I mean I'm mad about that too but why did you do that?"

"What did I do?"

"Why did you go to JU restaurant?"

I let out a sigh and said, "News does spread fast. Who told you?"

"Mr Williams made a call to me since I'm your brother."

Mr Martinez asked, "What's going on here?"

Big brother said, "Bella delivered a gift package to Mr Williams. She opened it for him. Do you know what she took as a gift? It's a rotten chicken. She cutted it to make it worse. His office is filled with a stench smell."

I laughed when I heard about it.

"Don't laugh. Are you a kid who plays pranks? Can't you behave like a grown-up for once?"

I gave a stare and said, "He's the one who started it! He's the one who hired that guy to file a fake complaint. How can I let him go easily? He and his son did this together."

"How are you sure about that? How do you know that? Do you have any evidence against them?"

I remained silent.

"I asked you a question, Isabella."

I let out a sigh and said in a low tone, "I don't."

"I can't hear you."

I shouted, "I said I don't! I don't have any evidence. So what, do I need evidence to accuse them? I know it's them. The whole city is talking like that."

A nurse walked in and warned us to be silent and left.

"I'll get going then."

In the restaurant, while I was cleaning the kitchen area, I saw some money bills in Mike's cabinet. When I opened it, there was a lot of money inside. Why does he keep his money here? Doesn't he know what banks are for? I kept the money which I took in between the cabinets inside and closed it.

Mike, "What are you doing here?"

"I was cleaning the place and saw a money bill stuck in between the cabinets. You can deposit these in the bank, right? What if it flew away?"

"Okay."

While I was walking away, I remembered what that guy said. The package with money and the photograph. The photograph. Why does that photograph pop up inside my head now?

After the restaurant closed at 9, I went to that guy's apartment and knocked on his door.

He opened the door while yawning, "Who are you?"

"The owner of the restaurant which you filed a complaint against."

"Why are you here?"

"Can I come inside?"

He backed away and opened the door widely for me.

"You said that the package came with money and the photograph, right?"

"Yeah, but I threw away the package. I told you that day."

"What about the photograph? Do you have it?"

"Yes."

"I need that."

"Then, you gotta wait. Because I don't know where it is in this mess." And searched the place.

I searched along with him, and he said, "It's the picture of your restaurant. What are you going to do with that?"

"Just an intuition."

"Ah! Here it is! Found it!" He raised the photograph in the air and waved it.

I took it from him and looked at the photograph. I was shocked to see the photograph.

"I'll take it with me. Is it okay for you?"

"It's not even mine in the beginning. Why bother asking me?"

I smiled and thanked him.

While I was leaving, he said, "I paid all my debts, I'm indebted to you."

I laughed and said, "Thank you for telling me the truth. And, thank you for opening the door in the middle of night, and searching for the photograph while you're all sleepy. And, for the photograph too. Good night."

I got a call from Mr Martinez while I was coming out of the building. I answered.

"Where are you?"

I looked around and said, "Outside."

"Come to the hospital."

"I thought you would have gone to the house. Why are you still there?"

"The doctor made me stay."

I laughed and asked, "How's the atmosphere over there?"

"I'm feeling alone. Come here."

"Why are you calling me? Make a call to your fiance. Wasn't she supposed to be there with you now?"

"She's asleep. Are you coming or not?"

"Why does it feel like we're having a affair?"

He ended the call.

I came to the hospital in the end.

I knocked on the door and didn't get a reply. Did he fell asleep already?

I called out, "Mr Martinez?"

"Come in."

I walked into the room and asked, "Why didn't you answer when i knocked?"

"I thought it was a nurse."

I sat beside him and asked, "Why did you call me?"

"I conveyed it on the phone."

"I didn't hear it properly." And teased him.

"Uh-huh, stop teasing me." He took my bag and said, "What do you have inside?"

I always keep some eatables in my bag since i was living in his house since he doesn't let me eat junk foods outside. He took the snack bar out of the bag.

"You yell at me whenever i ate this, now you're going for it. This isn't fair."

"I'm hungry."

"If you're hungry, you should have called the nurse? Why did you called me?"

He showed the snack bar and asked, "Do you want it?"

"I already ate."

He started munching on it and asked, "What is this?"

He was holding the photograph which i got from that guy.

"Why are you carrying this? People carry their loves ones pictures along with them. Look at you, you're carrying your restaurant… hey, why do you look upset?"

"Nothing."

"What happened?"

"Do you remember this photograph?"

He looked into it and said, "You took this while you were hunting for the restaurants, right?"

"Yes. I got it from the guy who filed a complaint against my restaurant."

"What?"

"Yes, he said that he received the package with money and the photograph of my restaurant. This was the photograph he received with the money."

"How did he?"

"I know who was behind all this."

"Who's it?"

"Mike."

"Mr Halls? The one who got the restaurant from?"

"Yes. I gave this photograph to him since he said it looked beautiful and he wanted this as an memory for him before the renovation. When i was being confused, i then remembered what Mr Williams said to me."

"What did he say?"

"About Mike and his restaurant. The reason why he closed the restaurant. By looking at it, he was the who told me not look for the person. I thought he cared but he was being careful."

"What about the person who gave bad reviews?"

"I met him too. He received a package with money and the photograph like the other guy. No name. No address."

Mr Martinez placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "What are you going to do now? Shall i file a complaint against Mr Halls if it's hard for you to do?"

I shook my head and said, "I'm not going to lose my Pastry chef."

"We can find another person in no time. There's lot of…"

"Stop talking like I'm going to fire him. I'm not going to fire Mike. He's a good person. He didn't do this out of jealousy or revenge. He might have been upset about what happened to him. He's a part of this restaurant too. I don't want him to face another situation like what happened in the past. I decided, I'm going to keep him."

The door opened, Mike walked in.

I stood up and said, "Mike…"

He walked towards me and said, "I'm resigning."

"What? No, you can't do that. Our restaurant needs a pastry chef. And, that can be only you."

"I was happy when the restaurant was picking up everyone's attention but felt anxious when i saw them. They abandoned me and my restaurant even after I corrected the mistake so i got angry on those customers day by day. That's why i…"

"Mike, it's done. We don't have to talk about it again and again. Mouring about the past doesn't bring you anything, which I learnt it from someone. I won't talk about this to anyone. This will be the secret between us including Mr Martinez."

I turned to Mr Martinez and asked, "Will you keep it as a secret?"

He nodded and gave a thumbs up.

I said to Mike, "Please, don't leave the restaurant. I'm not ready to lose my Pastry chef, Mike."

He let out a sigh and said, "Okay."

"Um, how did you know i was here?"

"I saw you walking into this hospital so I followed you here. I'll get going then."

While he was leaving, i said, "I'll waiting for you in the restaurant tomorrow."

He gave me a smile and left.

I sat beside Mr Martinez who was still eating the snack bar, "How long are you going to eat that? Well, when is your wedding?"

He choked up on the food and coughed.

I gave him a water to drink and asked, "Don't hurry. I'm not going to snatch it from you."

While he was eating, i asked him again.

He said, "Didn't i say that before?"

"No, you only said about the wedding. You didn't mention the date, wedding Avenue an the time. When is your wedding?"

"W-We didn't discuss about it yet."

"Oh, okay. Let me know when you decided." I stood to leave.

"Where are you leaving?"

"To my place."

"Why? Aren't you staying?"

"Duh! This is a hospital. And, i hate hospitals. Don't expect me to stay here. If you wanted someone to be here, call your fiance. I'm leaving."

Before leaving the room, i said, "Have a good night, Mr Martinez." And walked out of the room.