Page 97 of Mother Parker
HWAN
“Ifeel so stupid. How could I not know?” I said for the millionth time, leaning over the gap between the front car seats.
It was strange being in the back of my car with someone else driving it. It felt like a dream. Surreal.
As surreal as what was happening in my life. How could I not have caught what that guy was doing?
“Why would you know what a racketeering scheme is? It’s not like you’ve run a business before,” Parker also repeated for the hundredth time, yet as many times as I heard it, it didn’t make me feel better.
“But how could I not know that saying no would cause more trouble. I wasn’t born yesterday. I should have realized.”
“What done is done,” Halmeoni said from the passenger seat and looked at me through the rearview. “You know now. Stop beating yourself up.”
I looked from her to the side of Parker’s face and sighed.
She had a point, but still.
“I’m just so confused. Why wouldn’t he come back and ask me again? Surely if they caused the trouble to get me to pay them, wouldn’t he come back after the fridge broke down or the graffiti?”
No one had been around since that first time, and it’d already been a week since the graffiti incident.
“They probably want to wear you out until you’re desperate. That’s how these people operate. They prey on the young and innocent,” Parker said.
“Hey!” I complained, although I didn’t know why.
I was young, and apparently way too innocent.
Well, whatever. I wasn’t anymore.
“So how do we get them to stop? How are we going to deal with it?”
“Youare not doing anything. We are. We’re going to get to work and figure it out. Get those ass—idiots busted,” Parker replied and cast a glance at Halmeoni.
“It’s my shop we’re talking about. I can’t just sit and watch it get destroyed.”
Halmeoni’s hand found mine and she patted it affectionately like she’d always done when trying to calm me.
“Listen to the man, Hwanchan-ah. He know what he doing. No reason to act irrationally.”
I inhaled and exhaled and said nothing to that. There was nothing irrational about the way I was feeling. This was my livelihood, my property, my future we were talking about, so how on earth could I sit back and let someone else deal with it?
Granted, I wasn’t an ex-SEAL, but there must be something I could do regardless.
But that was a conversation to have with Parker once we were alone. Not in Halmeoni’s presence. Once she’d decided something, there was no changing her mind.
“It’s going to be okay, Hwan,” he said. “They messed with the wrong people.”
I covered my eyes with my hands again and took deep breaths. I wasn’t going to lose my café like my mom had. I wouldn’t let it happen. I wouldn’t.
“Here we are, Mrs. Nam.”
Parker pulled up at the front door, and before she’d even said anything, he got out and rushed around the other side to open the door for her.
“Don’t spoil her. She’s not the Queen of England.”
“Pfft, the Queen of England doesn’t hold a candle to her,” he said, offering his hand to Halmeoni.
“That right,” Halmeoni agreed and giggled.
