Everyone Used Me for Free, So the Billionaire Taught Me to Send the Bill novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Full Plates

The lunch lady made her way down the aisle on her cane, one slow step at a time.

Nobody helped her.

Nobody in that ballroom wanted to miss it.

She stopped at the foot of the stage and looked up at me.

She was tiny, and I realized I had been afraid of her for nineteen years.

"I gave half portions to all of you," she said.

Her voice shook, but it carried.

"Mrs. Lund wrote the order on a card. Half a chicken, half a roll, half a milk, every child, every day. She said the money was short."

She turned and spoke to the donors.

"The money was never short. I saw the invoices. I saw the full food bills come in and the half plates go out, and I kept my mouth shut because I wanted my job."

Mrs. Lund said, "You are an old woman and you are confused."

The lunch lady did not turn around.

"I called a seven-year-old greedy," she said to me, "because she was the only child at that table who said sorry and handed the plate back. The others cried. You just apologized. It made it easy."

I couldn't say anything.

"I've thought about it every year since," she said. "I'm sorry, Joanna. I'm sorry I made you say it."

My throat closed.

I got down from the stage and put my arms around her, and she was all bones in a cardigan.

"Thank you," I said, and for once I didn't mean it as an apology.

The banker called the vote.

It took less than a minute.

Seven hands went up to remove Mrs. Lund as director of the Brightwater Home, and one stayed down.

It was hers.

"Mrs. Lund will also resign as trustee of the Pennock trust," the banker said, "or the board will refer the accountant's report to the county prosecutor this afternoon."

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