William leaves his wife and daughter to start a new life with his young mistress.
But years later, things change, and at a time when William least expects trouble, he is confronted by his grown-up daughter.
William felt a prick of guilt as his wife looked at him with concern.
For a moment he wondered if he should reconsider his decision.
He knew Linda would be shocked if she knew he had a mistress.
William and Linda had been married for 20 years, had a 17-year-old daughter, and led a quiet life in the house Linda had inherited from her parents.
A year ago they had even started a business selling jerky, but it soon stopped generating income and William’s job became their only source of funds.
‘What did you want to talk about, William?’ – Linda broke the silence.
‘I have another, Linda,’ William admitted.
‘I didn’t want this day to come, but I…I couldn’t have it any other way.’
‘What do you mean?’ – Linda’s facial expression changed.
“Do you…have another woman? Answer me, I’m asking you a question!”
William lowered his head.
‘I can’t explain it, but I love her,’ he said.
‘She’s young, different, and there was an instant connection between us.’
‘Do you even hear yourself, William!’ – Linda exploded.
‘We’ve been married for twenty years, we have a daughter, and now…’
She was interrupted by the phone ringing.
‘Yes-yes?’ – she replied, trying to keep her composure, but she soon lost control.
A bailiff was calling her to inform her that their house was to be seized.
They took out a loan for a jerky business and mortgaged the house as collateral.
William had to pay off the debt.
She didn’t even know the payments were late.
“What’s your excuse this time, William? Do you want to leave me and our daughter on the street while you live out your fantasies with your mistress?” – She shouted, hanging up the phone.
“They need $80,000! Where are we going to get that kind of money from?”
‘Linda, I… couldn’t… put enough aside for those payments…’ – William began to justify himself, knowing full well that it was all his fault.
Linda couldn’t stand her worthless husband any longer.
‘OUT!’ – she screamed.
‘Get out of my house!’
Loud car horns brought him back to reality.
William was still standing at the traffic lights.
He was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the light turn red again.
Six years ago, William had left his wife and daughter behind, but he had not found the life he had dreamed of.
Instead, he lived in poverty, lost his job, and lost his new family.
He even started drinking to take his mind off his failure.
Now, heading to his job interview, he hoped to get his life back.
He sat nervously in front of the interview room.
He had applied for a job at the jerky factory.
He felt that his previous experience, even if unsuccessful, could be an advantage.
When his number was called, he walked in and luck was on his side – he was accepted.
William started work as a packer.
On his third day on the job, he was busy putting labels on boxes when his boss, Mr Dunn, approached him.
‘If you don’t want to be stuck in the same position, William, you need to impress our CEO today,’ Mr Dunn smirked and nudged William, who looked puzzled.
‘You didn’t know?’ – Mr Dunn continued, noticing the bewilderment on William’s face.
‘She’s coming for an inspection today!’
William showed no interest.
He politely apologised and went back to his work.
But he was soon distracted by muffled voices and looked towards the entrance where Mr Dunn was greeting the CEO.
William’s jaw dropped when he saw that the CEO appeared to be his daughter.
‘Isabel?’ – He exhaled as she walked up to him.
‘Daddy?’ – She replied confidently.
‘It’s been a while, hasn’t it?’
‘How, how did you become CEO?’ – he blurted out.
‘Are you more interested in my material success than how I live my life?’ – She grinned.
“Don’t let personal matters distract you.
I’m here for inspection and you have a job to do.
And yes,‘ she added before leaving, ’please come to my office this afternoon.”
In the afternoon, William made his way to her office.
‘Come in!’ – she said, and he entered, sitting down uncertainly across from her.
‘Don’t you want to know what you were so interested in that day at the factory?’ – She broke the silence.
“Well, it wasn’t easy, Dad.
After you left, we were left without a home.
We only got a third of the money from the sale of our confiscated house.
And it’s all thanks to you, because you didn’t bother to pay your debts!
Mum gave me the last of her money because she didn’t want me to lose my education.
And then one day, Aunt Georgina called.
Mum had to move in with her, far away from me, and she said…”
Isabel fell silent, remembering one of the hardest moments of her life.
‘Mum’s health was in danger…’
Six years ago…
As Isabel sat in front of the college admissions office checking her paperwork for the umpteenth time, her phone rang.
‘Hi Aunt Georgina, what’s up?’
Isabel clutched the phone between her right ear and shoulder.
‘It’s about your mum, darling,’ Georgina’s voice sounded worried.
“She had symptoms of a heart attack this afternoon.
No surgery is required yet, so I can support her financially.
But the doctors said she has coronary heart disease, and if she has another attack, it will require surgery that will cost over $100,000.”
Isabel’s heart raced as she hung up the phone.
Linda was fine now, but surgery could be needed at any moment.
She knew she needed money for tuition if she applied to college.
But she could save that money and use it for her mother’s treatment if she refused to go to school.
Isabel thought back to her parents’ business selling jerky.
Maybe she could try to make money at it.
But to do that, she needed her parents’ old kitchen appliances, which were still in the confiscated house.
Isabel returned to a friend’s house where she was temporarily living.
She was looking for affordable housing and a used pickup truck to move equipment for her business.
The next day, she went to the garage.
Isabel asked the owner if he had any used pickup trucks for sale, and luckily he had one.
She bought the one she could afford, and it wasn’t as bad as she expected.
It rattled a bit at first, but the mechanic fixed it and it was ready to use.
She gathered her things from her friend’s house and drove to the studio flat she’d found online.
The room was smaller than it appeared in the photos, but it was enough, so Isabel signed the lease and paid the first month’s rent up front.
That night she parked her pickup truck in front of her parents’ old house.
But when she went to the front door and made sure no one was watching, she noticed a large, rusty lock hanging on the door.
She didn’t have a key, and the back door didn’t exist.
Isabel’s gaze slid to the dormer window on the sloping side of the roof.
The glass was still broken – the same one Linda had always asked William to fix, but he’d put it off.
Isabel had an idea.
She parked her pickup truck in front of a window on the first floor and climbed up the pipe that ran parallel to the dormer window.
She climbed through the window into the attic and switched on the torch on her phone.
Dust and cobwebs filled the space and the light no longer worked.
Isabel noticed a box labelled ‘KITCHEN’ in the corner.
She ripped off the scotch tape and found the supplies Linda used to make jerky.
She also found another box that contained Linda’s cookbooks and an industrial oven.
Isabel carried both boxes downstairs and loaded them into her pickup truck through the first floor window.
She closed the window so no one would suspect she was here.
She got out of the house through the skylight and drove to an abandoned house a few blocks from her studio.
She had decided to set up her production space there since her studio was too small and she didn’t have enough money to rent another space.
Stopping at an abandoned house, she looked around to make sure no one was following her.
She then quickly headed into the courtyard, but the door was locked with a small padlock.
Isabel pulled out a stiletto, picked the lock, and… click!
The door creaked open.
Isabel moved everything into the basement and set up a small production area.
However, she had to wait for the lights to be installed.
She couldn’t cook in the dark or during the day.
She couldn’t risk getting caught for trespassing.
Several days passed.
At first Isabel followed her mother’s recipe, but the jerky turned out horrible.
Something wasn’t right.
She started experimenting with the marinade because she wanted her jerky to have a unique flavour.
Isabel didn’t want to limit herself like her parents did by creating a product that was only sold to people she knew.
She dreamed of selling it all over the state and in major retail chains across the United States.
‘Oh my God, this is it!’ – she exclaimed as she tasted a fresh batch.
She finally had the product she wanted.
But there was more work to be done.
Isabelle spent the next month perfecting her sales pitch, sending out cold emails to major retailers and sending samples.
Finally, the response came.
Subject: jerky product proposal
Dear Isabel,
I hope this letter finds you in good health.
We thank you for your recent proposal.
After careful consideration, we feel that your beer jerky snack is a perfect fit for our customers’ interests.
We would like to try your samples…..
Isabel didn’t bother to read further.
She responded immediately, and a week later she was sitting in the retailer’s office with the food evaluation team.
She managed to fulfil the order for 1000 packs as requested.
Isabel’s product was passed round and when manager Chris tasted it, he asked her to wait outside.
‘We’ll let you know the result in an hour,’ he said.
Isabel’s heart raced as she waited.
But when she was invited back into the office an hour later, she heard the good news.
“We like your product, Isabelle, and we want to discuss next steps.
However, we need to visit your factory and do a hygiene check.
If you meet our standards, will you be able to produce 10,000 packs a month?” – Chris asked.
Isabel couldn’t say no because she didn’t know when the next opportunity would present itself.
Leaving the office, she went into a café and began to think about how to organise things.
Chris’s inspection was scheduled in a fortnight.
Her phone vibrated, snapping her out of her thoughts.
‘Hello, Aunt Georgina,’ she answered.
‘Honey, your mum’s taken a turn for the worse,’ Georgina said worriedly.
It turned out that there was an error in Linda’s medical report and she urgently needed an operation within a month.
‘But how could the doctors have made such a serious mistake?’ – Isabel was outraged, inwardly worried for Linda.
‘I wish there was something I could do to help you both…’ – Georgina sighed sadly.
Isabel knew there was only one way to help her mother.
She went to her former classmate’s father, Mr Navarro, a wealthy businessman.
She told him about all the difficulties she had encountered in producing her first batches of jerky.
“But I know you’re a real businessman, so I’ve come with a proposition.
If you invest in me and everything goes well, I can offer you 35% of the factory’s income.”
‘Business is business, my dear,’ Mr Navarro smiled.
“So I have one condition: I’ll take 35%, plus one-third of the sale price of your foreclosed home.
Agreed?”
Present tense…
“Mr Navarro and I made a deal.
I passed Chris’s inspection and got my first cheque.
It helped us get the house back and I was able to pay for my mum’s medical treatment.
We outlived Dad.
But I can’t stand betrayal, so you don’t work here anymore.
Wait for me behind the warehouse.”
About fifteen minutes later, Isabel came to meet William, but not alone – a worker was carrying two boxes.
‘Open them, Daddy,’ she said as the worker handed William the boxes.
Inside he found old kitchen equipment and an industrial oven, the remnants of his and Linda’s failing business.
“I think we’re even now, Dad.
You’ve got everything you need to start your own business, to grow and change your life.
Just trust me.
I’ve been through it myself,” Isabel said with a smile and walked away.
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