Beef And A Thirty-Year Grudge

My brother was only nineteen when he was sent to prison.

He stole three pounds of beef from the local butcher shop because our mother had been starving in bed for three days.

The butcher insisted on pressing charges and threw my brother to the cops.

My mother dragged her sick body to the butcher's doorstep, dropping to her knees to beg him to drop the case.

The owner spat a thick wad of phlegm onto the dirt right next to her. "Stealing is stealing. Three pounds is still a crime."

My brother got a year behind bars. By the time he was released, our mother was already dead.

He lost his mind. He was completely, irreversibly broken.

Thirty years later, I am the CEO of my own company.

One afternoon, a gray-haired old man was brought into my office.

His son had embezzled fifty thousand dollars of company funds, and I had handed him straight to the police.

The old man's hands shook violently as he pulled a thick stack of medical records from his pocket.

"Boss, I have kidney failure. He is my only son."

"Please, show some mercy. He knows he messed up."

I flipped through the medical files. I saw that painfully familiar name at the top of the page. I slowly raised my eyes.

"A crime is a crime. Fifty thousand dollars is still a crime."

"Brian, don't you think that is a little too cold-blooded?"

The office door was violently shoved open. My fianc and the company's Vice President, Tristan, marched into the room.

His suit jacket was draped over his arm, his brows knitted together in deep disapproval. His leather shoes made no sound against the plush carpet, but his entire aura was aggressively overbearing.

"It is only fifty grand. That is pocket change for this company. Do you really need to push a man to the brink of death?"

Kneeling on the floor, Gary was shaking uncontrollably. The moment he saw Tristan, his eyes lit up like he had seen a savior.

He scrambled across the floor, practically throwing himself at Tristan's legs, his wails growing even louder.

"Please, sir! You have to help me!"

"My boy is a good kid! He only did something so stupid because he was trying to pay for my medical bills!"

Sobbing, Gary pulled up his faded, yellowed shirt. He exposed a shriveled stomach covered in a dense cluster of needle marks.

"Look at this! I have end-stage kidney failure. The dialysis alone costs a fortune every month."

"Derek just could not bear to see his old man suffer! I am the one dragging him down!"

Tristan stared at those bruised needle marks. A flash of profound sympathy crossed his eyes. He bent down and gently pulled Gary to his feet.

"Please stand up, sir. The floor is cold."

He turned his head, shooting me a blistering, judgmental glare.

"Brian! Look at how sick this man is. Do you not have a single shred of empathy left?"

"Derek has busted his ass for this company for three years. Even if he made a mistake, he has put in the work."

"He took that money to save his dying father. That is completely justifiable!"

I watched their touching little master-and-servant performance. I tapped my index finger against the mahogany desk twice.

"Justifiable? If everyone justified stealing like that, how exactly are we supposed to run a business?"

"Section three of our corporate handbook is crystal clear. Any embezzlement over ten thousand dollars is immediately handed over to the authorities."

"Tristan, as the Vice President, did you somehow forget the absolute baseline of our company policies?"

Tristan's face darkened.

"Rules are rigid. People are alive."

"We are at a critical stage right before our IPO."

"If we send a devoted son to prison over fifty grand when he was just trying to save his dad, how do you think the media will spin it?"

"They will brand us as bloodsucking corporate vultures. They will say we drove an old man with kidney failure to his grave!"

"Have you even calculated the catastrophic PR nightmare this will cause?"

I stared right into Tristan's self-righteous face.

"A corporate image is built on following the law. Not on harboring criminals."

"He stole money from this company. That is a crime."

"Needing medical treatment does not give him a free pass to embezzle."

Gary stood off to the side, wiping his tears. His cloudy eyes secretly sized me up.

"Ms. Brian, I know you are a big shot. You don't need this kind of chump change."

"If you just drop the charges and let my son go, we will sell everything we own to pay you back!"

"I will bow down to you!"

He made a dramatic motion to drop to his knees again. Tristan grabbed his arm to stop him, whipping his head around to scream at me.

"Brian, will you only be satisfied when you force this man into a coffin?!"

"I know you are ruthless in the boardroom, but do you have to be this heartless to a dying old man?"

The blinds in my office were not fully closed. Out in the bullpen, several employees were craning their necks, whispering and watching the spectacle.

Tristan took a deep breath. He seemed to make a decision. He straightened his posture and adjusted his tie.

"You are off this case."

"As the Vice President, I have the authority to handle crisis management."

"I will have the legal department drop the charges immediately. We will also issue a five-thousand-dollar donation to Gary as a humanitarian gesture from the company."

I looked at him. A dry laugh bubbled up in my throat.

"You want to use my company's money to buy yourself some good karma?"

"What makes you think you can bypass me and issue that order?"

Tristan shoved his hands into his pockets. Absolute arrogance dripped from his eyes.

"Because I am your fianc. And I am the second-in-command."

"Brian, women shouldn't be so aggressively stubborn. You need to know when to back down."

"Listen to me on this. It is the best move for you and the company."

He turned back to Gary, his tone softening into something gentle.

"Sir, you go home and get some rest. I personally guarantee Derek's situation will be sorted out by this afternoon."

Gary trembled with intense excitement. He took two steps back, bowing repeatedly.

"Thank you, Mr. Tristan! You are a living saint!"

"God bless you!"

Right before he walked out the door, he shot me one last look. There was no gratitude in his eyes. Only a smug, victorious provocation.

The office door clicked shut. I kept my eyes on Tristan.

"Tristan, are you absolutely sure you want to shield a criminal?"

Tristan walked up to my desk, looking down at me from his high horse.

"I am saving our company's reputation. And I am teaching you how to be a decent human being."

"Teaching me?"

I leaned back in my leather chair, silently studying Tristan.

His eyes were swollen with self-important superiority. He genuinely believed he was some compassionate savior descending from the heavens.

Tristan ignored my sarcastic question.

He turned around, walked over to my desk, and picked up the intercom phone.

"Tell Lawson from Legal to come to my office immediately. Bring the corporate seals and draft a formal letter of forgiveness."

He hung up the receiver and looked back at me.

"Brian, the decision is made. Stop throwing a tantrum."

"Once Derek is released, I will make him apologize to you in person. Then we can finally put this behind us."

I didn't say a word. I simply opened my desk drawer and pulled out a sleek black lockbox.

I punched in the code and popped the lid. Resting quietly on the velvet lining were the official corporate seals and my personal signature stamp.

Tristan's face dropped.

"What are you doing?"

I snapped the box shut and rested my hand flat on top of it.

"I am making myself perfectly clear. Without my signature and my stamp, Legal cannot issue a single valid document."

"Derek's case will not be dropped. I am never signing a letter of forgiveness."

Tristan slammed his hand against my desk.

"Brian, you are being completely unreasonable!"

"Do you have any idea how pathologically cold-blooded you look right now?"

"I am starting to wonder if you even have a heart beating in your chest!"

He pointed a finger right at my nose, his chest heaving with dramatic rage.

"Let me make this clear. If you refuse to back down today, I will call a board meeting and have you removed from your position!"

"Be my guest."

I turned to my laptop and pulled up my schedule for the day.

"I have a meeting in ten minutes. The door is right behind you. Don't let it hit you on the way out."

Tristan stormed out in a blind fury, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the glass panes.

Silence finally returned to the room.

But I knew it was just the quiet before the storm.

Sure enough, less than two hours later, the situation spiraled completely out of control.

My secretary, Sarah, burst into the office in a total panic.

"Brian, it is bad! You need to look at this live stream right now!"

I took the tablet from her shaking hands.

On the screen, Gary was sitting cross-legged right in the middle of our company's ground-floor lobby.

He was wearing a massive cardboard sign around his neck. The black marker read: HEARTLESS FEMALE CEO DRIVES SICK OLD MAN TO DEATH.

Standing right next to him was a young woman holding up a phone on a tripod. It was his daughter, Hailey.

"Listen to me, guys! You need to expose this evil corporation!"

Hailey cried into the camera, tears streaming down her face.

"My dad has kidney failure. He needs dialysis every month. My brother was desperate to save our dad, so he made a stupid mistake and borrowed some money from work."

"We begged them! We promised to sell our house to pay it back! But the CEO, Brian, is demanding my brother be locked up in prison!"

"She is trying to destroy our entire family!"

Right on cue, Gary clutched his chest and broke into a violent, hacking cough, acting as if he were taking his dying breath.

The viewer count in the live stream had already broken one hundred thousand. The chat was moving at warp speed.

"What a bloodsucking vampire!"

"Fifty grand for a human life? Capitalists have zero conscience!"

"Dox her! Bankrupt her company!"

"Boycott all their products!"

My phone started vibrating violently against the desk. An endless stream of unknown numbers flooded the screen, hurling abusive messages. I just held down the power button and shut it off.

The office door was kicked open again. Tristan charged in, completely unhinged.

He snatched the tablet from Sarah's hands and smashed it down onto my desk. The screen shattered instantly.

"Look at what you have done!"

Tristan pointed at my face, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Our stock just dropped three points in the last ten minutes! Millions of dollars in valuation just vanished into thin air!"

"My phone is blowing up with furious investors!"

"Is this what your precious principles get us?!"

I glanced at the spiderweb cracks on the screen.

"They are trespassing and causing a disturbance in our lobby. Why haven't the security guards thrown them out?"

"Throw them out?"

Tristan barked out a harsh, manic laugh.

"The lobby is swarming with clout-chasing vloggers and cameras right now! You touch them, and see what happens!"

"The second a guard lays a finger on that old man, the media will brand us as a violent crime syndicate by tomorrow morning!"

He leaned over the desk, glaring at me like a cornered animal.

"Brian, as the Vice President of this company, I am ordering you to come downstairs with me right now!"

"You are going to apologize to Gary in front of every single camera down there!"

"And you are going to sign that letter of forgiveness right on the spot!"

I looked up, meeting his frantic gaze head-on.

"I didn't do anything wrong. Why would I apologize?"

Tristan froze. He genuinely could not comprehend how I was still standing my ground.

"Are you insane?! Do you want to drag this entire company into the grave with you?!"

"Brian, I usually let you have your stubborn little moments, but this is a matter of life and death for our business!"

He took a massive breath. His tone dropped into a sinister, icy threat.

"If you do not go down there and apologize, I will use the board of directors to suspend your authority as CEO."

"And another thing."

He paused, his eyes narrowing into a vicious glare.

"If you don't go down there right now, the wedding is off."

Sarah was backed into the corner of the room, too terrified to even breathe.

I stared at the man I had been engaged to for two years. He was using our marriage as a bargaining chip to force me to bow down to a criminal.

I stood up and smoothed out the hem of my blazer.

"Fine. The wedding is off."

"What did you just say?"

Tristan stood frozen in place. The furious color instantly drained from his face.

He probably thought my desperation for marriage was my ultimate weakness. He thought dropping the ultimate ultimatum would force me to surrender immediately.

"I said, the wedding is off."

I repeated it slowly, keeping my voice perfectly flat.

"As for my suspension, feel free to convene the board whenever you want. Assuming you can scrape together a majority vote."

Tristan's face shifted from green to pale white. His finger trembled as he pointed at me.

"Brian, do not regret this! You really think you can keep this empire running without me?!"

"You are just bluffing to save face. Let me tell you right now, I am done tolerating your ego!"

He spun on his heel and stormed out, slamming the door so hard the walls vibrated.

I sank back into my chair and rubbed my throbbing temples. Suddenly, the landline on my desk rang.

"Hello, is this the family of Jack?"

An urgent, panicked female voice came through the speaker.

"This is the West End Psychiatric Facility. Your brother was severely triggered a few minutes ago. He went into a manic episode and smashed his head against the wall."

"He needs stitches right now. You need to get here immediately!"

"I am on my way!"

I grabbed my car keys, sprinting out of the office. I blew through two red lights and screeched into the hospital parking lot.

The second I stepped into the inpatient hallway, a shrill, hysterical voice echoed off the linoleum walls.

"Don't you dare block me! I am going to show everyone exactly how this psychopath beats people up!"

"His sister is trying to murder my dad, and he is sitting here faking insanity to assault people!"

I shoved my way through the crowd of nurses and patients. At the end of the hall, my brother Jack was pinned down on a bench by two large orderlies.

Thick layers of gauze were wrapped around his forehead. Fresh, bright red blood was already seeping through, staining the white fabric.

He was violently shaking, mumbling incoherently through chattering teeth.

"I won't steal anymore. I promise I won't steal again. Please don't hit my mom..."

And right there, shoving her phone aggressively into my bleeding brother's face, was Hailey.

She was practically shouting into the lens.

"Look at this, guys! This is the evil CEO's actual brother!"

"He is an absolute lunatic! He just tried to strangle me!"

The blood rushed straight to my brain. I lunged forward, snatched the phone right out of Hailey's grip, and smashed it mercilessly against the concrete floor.

The screen exploded into a million shards. Hailey shrieked and jumped back.

"What are you doing?! You have no right to break my phone!"

She lunged at me like a feral cat, her manicured nails aiming straight for my eyes.

I sidestepped her sloppy attack, raised my hand, and slapped her hard across the cheek. The crack echoed sharply down the corridor.

Hailey stumbled, completely stunned. She clutched her red cheek, staring at me in pure disbelief.

"You hit me. You actually hit me!"

She threw herself onto the dirty floor and started thrashing around, kicking her legs.

"Murder! The evil boss is trying to murder me!"

Heavy, frantic footsteps echoed from the other end of the hall.

"Stop it right now!"

Tristan sprinted over, breathless. He didn't even glance at my brother, whose head was still leaking blood.

He went straight to Hailey, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pull her up.

"Hailey, are you okay?"

Tristan's voice was dripping with intense, protective concern. There was absolutely no way these two were just strangers or 'employee and family'.

Hailey immediately collapsed against Tristan's chest, sobbing into his shirt.

"Tristan, she hit me! She smashed my phone into pieces and slapped me!"

"I just came here to check on her brother. How was I supposed to know he was a dangerous psycho who attacks people unprovoked..."

Tristan whipped his head around, his eyes burning with disgust.

"Brian, have you completely lost your mind?! Why the hell did you break her phone?!"

"She is just a naive young girl! Why are you bullying her?!"

"Your brother is a certified lunatic. For all we know, he bashed his own head against the wall just to cause a scene!"

I watched Tristan instinctively shield Hailey with his body. I looked at his absurd, self-righteous expression, and the absolute last shred of warmth I had for him turned to ice.

"She intentionally triggered my brother. Smashing her phone is letting her off easy."

I pointed a rigid finger at Hailey.

"She showed up at a psychiatric ward with a live stream, deliberately provoking a severely mentally ill patient."

"Tristan, are you legally blind?"

Tristan shoved Hailey further behind him.

"Brian, stop spewing venom! Hailey is innocent. She doesn't understand how these things work!"

"You are so consumed by hatred you have become completely unhinged!"

He pointed dismissively at my brother.

"Look at him. He is a pathetic ghost. All he does is drag you down and cause nightmares for everyone around him!"

"Besides, he is literally insane. Who knows if he didn't just snap and attack her?!"

Hailey peeked out from behind Tristan's broad shoulders, a sickeningly smug smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

The elevator doors chimed at the end of the hall. Gary slowly limped out, leaning heavily on a cane, supported by two people.

His cloudy eyes locked onto Jack's blood-soaked bandages. A flash of pure, venomous malice crossed his shriveled face.

"Oh my, how on earth did that happen?"

He let out a fake, dramatic sigh, hobbling closer to drop his voice into a sinister whisper.

"Brian, look at your brother. That is what we call karma."

"You can't be too ruthless in this life. You push people to the edge, and the heavens will strike you down."

I curled my hands into tight fists, my nails biting deeply into my palms.

A nurse walked over holding a clipboard.

"Family of Jack? The laceration is very deep. We need to suture it immediately."

"We also need an emergency CT scan to rule out internal bleeding."

"Please go down to the first-floor billing department right now. The total is eight thousand six hundred dollars."

I snatched the invoice from her and pulled out a joint debit card from my wallet.

It was a dedicated medical account Tristan and I had set up specifically to cover Jack's facility bills.

I ran downstairs to the billing window and handed the card to the clerk.

She swiped it once. Her brow furrowed.

"Ma'am, this card has been frozen."

I froze.

"That is impossible. There is over a hundred grand in that account."

The clerk slid the card back under the glass.

"The system shows the primary account holder reported it lost and froze the assets thirty minutes ago."

The primary account holder was Tristan. I grabbed the card and spun around to face the lobby.

Tristan was slowly walking down the grand staircase. He held a thin stack of papers in his right hand.

Gary and Hailey were following closely behind him like loyal shadows.

Tristan stopped right in front of me and held out the papers. It was the legal letter of forgiveness.

"Brian. All you have to do is sign your name right here."

Tristan's voice was eerily calm. He possessed the sickening confidence of a man who held all the winning cards.

"The second you sign, I will make the call to unfreeze the account."

"And your brother can get his life-saving surgery."

I stared dead into his eyes.

"You are using my brother's medical emergency to blackmail me?"

Tristan frowned, acting highly offended by my phrasing.

"Don't make it sound so ugly. I am looking out for the big picture here."

"Your brother's life matters, but Gary's life matters too."

"Sign the paper. Everyone wins."

Gary leaned heavily on his cane, shuffling forward until his rotting breath hit my ear.

"You stupid little bitch. Did you really think becoming a CEO meant you could step on me?"

"Thirty years ago, your mother smashed her forehead against the concrete outside my butcher shop, and I still didn't bat an eye."

"Let's see if you drop to your knees today."

He pulled his lips back, exposing a row of yellowed, decaying teeth.

"If you don't sign, your brother bleeds out. I have all the time in the world. Let's see if your brother does."

The memories of thirty years ago violently crashed into my brain.

The greasy cobblestones. My mother's agonizing wails.

The thick wad of spit Gary shot onto the dirt. The sheer terror in my brother's eyes as the police shoved him into the cruiser.

It all played out perfectly clear in my mind.

I looked at Gary's twisted face. I looked at Tristan's arrogant, triumphant smirk.

I reached into my pocket, pulled out my phone, and dialed a number.