Chapter 52

John turned and saw three ladies atring at his wide eyes, and then came the loud shriek.

“Oh my goodness, it's him!” John rolled his eyes and walked away.

He went to the manager's office. An old couple ran the restaurant, and they were so sweet to him when he first arrived.

“Mr. and Mrs. Luca,” he pretended to tip his hat.

"Oh, silly boy, we've told you to call us by our names. Everyone here is a family to us, you included.” Mrs. Harriet Luca grinned at him.

Mr. Mario Luca huffed, “You're just smitten by his beauty. He has a wife, remember?”

“And I have a husband. What's the difference?” Harriet laughed at her husband, and Mario folded his arms.

John could see the love between the two of them, and he smiled. This was what he wished to have with Belinda.

“Be careful, okay, the road isn't safe. I do not support delivery riders, but a lot of our orders are home deliveries. And so, from her persistent pushing, I caved.” Mario smiled, and John handed him a helmet and said, “Here, don't ever not strap this on.”

John nodded. “Thank you, Mario, Harriet." He winked at her, and she blushed.

“Take your paws off my wife, you silly goose. Get out of here.” He ran out quickly, laughing, trying to evade Mario’s walking cane.

He grabbed the orders from the counter and said, “Thank you, Juliet.” Juliet was Mario's and Harriet’s daughter.

“You're welcome. Ride safely, John.” She waved at him and scowled at the ladies who were taking pictures of him.

“Have some shame, will you? He's married!” She really wanted to whack them with a spoon.

“Ignore them; it's good for publicity.” Her husband, Dan, walked up to her and pecked her cheek.

“Exactly, pregnant penguin! Mind your business.” One of the blonde plastic ladies yelled out to Juliet, and she gasped.

Dan growled. That foolish woman doesn't know how sensitive pregnant ladies are.

He walked away from Juliet and went to the table those ladies were at, slamming his two palms on it.

They flinched from the sound and turned to tell him, but the anger in his eyes shut them up.

“You either eat your food quietly or you order it and leave. Don't you dare speak to my wife like that ever again, am I clear?”

Everyone's attention was now on Dan and the three ladies, who were nodding their heads like agamas.

People who frequented De Luca knew that the men in it were very possessive of their wives.

“Now scram!” They stood up, grabbed their bags, and skedaddled out of there.

“They're customers, Dan.” Juliet said silently,

“And they insulted you.”

“Ugh! Jeez, can you both leave the love drama at home for once? You're oppressing me here!” A young man yelled from the back, and everyone burst into laughter, and just like that, the atmosphere went back to its normal busy ones.

Before the end of his shift that day, De Luca made three times his usual daily income, and it's crazy that people even made reservations, which Juliet had a hard time denying because people just refused to believe that there were restaurants that didn't take reservations.

“I've never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of counting money.” Juliet sighed as she collapsed on the couch that night.

Dan laughed and asked her to hand it to him.

“Some crazy ladies even paid for a meal but never ordered; they kept waiting for you to come. I had to kick them out with broom sticks!” She shrieked.

“I guess news about John Callahan always travels fast.” Dan slapped John playfully at the back of his shoulder.

“We don't always believe what we see or hear on the news, but things must have been really hard for you, boy. If you ever need people to talk to, we're always here for you.” Mario nodded at him.

The emotions were so overwhelming for John that he didn't dare speak; all he could do was nod his head.

“Awwn… He's such a crying baby.” Juliet grinned, “Just like my Dan. This cold stone bawled his eyes out the day I told him I was pregnant.”

“Juliet,” Dan drawled. “You're reducing my manliness in front of this billionaire.”

John knew Dan wasn't trying to taunt him or anything; this family still saw him for the billionaire he wasn't.

In fact, it felt like the world still saw him as the billionaire he wasn't.

The phone was ringing in the distance, but they all ignored it—those silly customers that wanted him to keep delivering food to their doorsteps just to see his face.

Thankfully, John was able to convince a lot of them to try the food.

“You should go back to your wife quickly; she's probably missing you already. I'll be fuming if my husband were the center of attention all over the TV.” Juliet grinned.

“Honey, should we close the store tomorrow? I fear we might have a crowd surge here.” Harriet said as she wiggled her eyebrows at John.

“Then we'll use it to our advantage.” Dan smirked.

John went home with over 500 dollars that night. He didn't even want to know how much De Luca had earned that day.

Belinda was pacing at the door, waiting for John to come home.

When she heard his motorbike in the driveway, she dashed out of the house immediately and jumped into his arms.

“Hey, someone missed me a lot.” He grinned.

“More than a lot." She buried her face in his chest.

“I missed you too, love. And today was hectic.” He chuckled and carried her in his arms into the house.

“Yeah, it was all over the news. All those women touching my husband annoyed me.” Belinda huffed, and John cocked his head.

“Are you pregnant?”

She blinked. “What?”

“It's just that you said the same thing as the pregnant daughter of my boss today.”

“No, no, I'm not pregnant.” Belinda shook her head.

Bummer!

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The month went by, with John and the whole country chasing after him.

Some mocked him online, some fell in love with the sexy pictures of him covered in sweat as he delivered food with all his biceps showing, others hated on Belinda for reducing him to nothing, and of course he had their names written down in his death note.

He even found a draft of his schedule flying around online. So people knew where he would be every day of the week except Sunday, where he spent it all alone with his belinda.

Belinda never received a call back from Alex; she wasn't really bothered by it, since she began searching for other jobs immediately the second day.

She knew he wouldn't call her back, but she hoped she would get a job soon.

She didn't like how John overworked himself till late at night and got up very early the next morning.

One day, while John was on his usual work routine, he decided to relax in the alleyway.

He’d just brought out the lunch Belinda made for him when an old man came to beg.

“Please help me; I haven't eaten in days. I am very hungry right now. Please. I can help you wash your bike’s tires in return.”

John looked up, and his eyes met with the man's gray ones.

“Mr. Callahan!”.

“Carson Brin!”

It was the secretary of Limestone Mine Inc. The man who had come late for his meeting was the one he'd blacklisted from working anywhere.

“Wh-what are you doing here? Why are you dressed like that?” The man asked. Tears in his eyes as he remembered all he'd lost because of John.

“You don't read the papers?”

Carson shrugged. “Only the ones with a roof on their head and food on their table read the papers.”

John felt a sucker punch in his gut. “I’m sorry.” His head fell in shame.

The man smiled in pain and said, “You don't even know what you did wrong, and you're apologizing. Don't worry, I'll tell you.”

Carson began to tell him why he'd missed the appointment time that day.

Traffic was bad, and his daughter was in labor. He'd promised he would make it for his granddaughter’s birth. But his boss has asked him to deliver the documents.

John had kicked him out without letting him explain that traffic wasn't good. When he got to the hospital, his only daughter had died while giving birth.

John winced at that.

Carson’s daughter’s husband told him never to come near him or his daughter ever again.

Carson never had time for his daughter, even in her moment of death.

Since John had blacklisted his home, no one wanted to employ him, and the laborers said he was weak and old.

He couldn't afford rent, and when he got kicked out, he had to start begging to live.

“Being in a position of power makes you oblivious to every other person’s suffering.

I don't wish you bad, but I think Karma’s finally caught up with you, Mr. Callahan.

This is Karma serving you hot what you served people cold.” Carson said this and left John to drown in his guilty conscience.