Chapter 13: Luck Talisman (Athena)

Oh my God! What is going on? I pulled my children back as I watched some men beat my husband before they glared at us and left.

I ran to Seth who was lying on the ground. I sighed in relief when I saw him breathing.

"Let's go to the hospital." I said as I helped him up.

It's a good thing that the hospital was near here.

"No need. It's nothing serious." Seth said with difficulty.

"Who are those guys? Is it because of the store?" I asked fearfully.

I am legitly scared. Is it those thugs that ask for protection fees?

"No. Those are from Michelle's father." Seth replied as I helped him stand up.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Those men are veterans. Plus, some of those men were the same people that beat me up before I went home from the army." Seth explained.

"Oh my God! Boss! What happened?!" Cynthia exclaimed when she reached the store.

"Some thugs beat up Seth. Sorry Cynthia, can you help in cleaning up the store?" I told her as I helped Seth sit down on a chair.

I then gave some money to Ashley and told her to buy some medicine for her father. After that I let Brittany cook breakfast while the other children cleaned up the store.

"Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?" I asked.

I'm scared that there might be some internal bleedings or broken bones but Seth just shook his head. Ashley came back with the medicine and I put on the medicine on Seth.

After the children had breakfast, I sent all of them to school except for the younger ones so as to not stress them more about the store. I helped Cynthia clean up the store and we removed everything that was broken and made use of those that can still be used.

When the place looks relatively cleaned, we open the store.

"Athena, what happened to your store?" One of our regular customers asked.

"Madam." I said tearfully.

This madam was one of the famous gossipers in this area.

"Some woman came to our house yesterday and was forcing my husband to divorce me and marry her because he told her she's pretty and then this morning, some men came to our shop and beat my husband." I replied pitifully.

"What?! What kind of woman is that? Trying to snatch a husband?! What kind of parents brought up such a child!" Another regular customer exclaimed when she heard what I said.

"Madam, you can't say that. Her father was my husband's former commanding officer in the army." I replied as I wiped my tears.

"What? A daughter of an army commander? How can she act like that? Doesn't she want a face for her father?" Another customer chimed in.

A lot of people entered the shop when we opened up, they just probably wanted to hear some gossip. That's why they are here but that's good. I'll let them hear one and they better spread it far and wide.

The customers started cursing Michelle and her father. It was also at this time where the woman of the hour arrived in the shop. She ignored everyone and immediately headed to the register where Seth was sitting.

"Oh my God, Seth, what happened to you? Who did this?" She exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" Seth replied angrily.

"What do you mean? I came here to help you. I know you're just shy to say it in front of your mother so let's take it slow, okay?" Michelle said eagerly.

I swear this woman is delusional.

"Is that the woman?" A customer asked.

I didn't answer but I let out a pitiful cry.

"I can't believe the guts of other women these days. Stealing husbands in daylight!" A customer exclaimed loudly.

"Woaahhh… Some people's guts are really big. They ask their father to beat him up and then come running here as if she knows nothing about it." Another one chimed in.

"Such a shameless vixen. He didn't even tell her he liked her." Another one said.

The other customers also started to criticize Michelle. At first, she ignored it as it had nothing to do with her but soon she figured out that they were talking about her.

"You! What did you say? How dare you!" Michelle said as she grabbed a customer's hand.

"I said some woman is too thick-skinned to cling to a man who was not interested in her that even if she spreads her legs in front of him, he'll ask her to leave." The customer replied and Michelle's face turned a scary shade of red.

She started grabbing the hair of that customer and a fight quickly ensued. I told Cynthia to call the police to stop them. The police came quickly and broke up the fight. When they stopped I saw some customers were injured and were bleeding while Michelle was almost stripped naked.

She was crying pitifully on the floor.

"You wait until I tell my father about this!" She cried out.

"What are you waiting for? Arrest that woman! She assaulted me." The madam who was first attacked by Michelle cried out.

The police looked at each other before deciding to separate the two of them and interrogate everyone that was there. It just so happens that the woman that Michelle attacked was affiliated with someone powerful, her nephew was a counselor.

She was very adamant on filing an assault case on Michelle after all, her face was full of bruises, and have a broken nose. She was sent to the hospital while the policeman continued to take down what happened.

I told them what I know happened like how it was Michelle who hit the madam first and so on. Michelle was then sent to the police station with assault charges.

"Madam, I know it's a bit improper to say this but we're lucky that the customer has some strong backing. We benefited from her." Cynthia told me after all the ruckus.

Cynthia and I closed the store after they left as the store got messed up again while Seth went to the police station to file charges about his assault this morning since the police already found out from the crowd.

"Yeah, we got really lucky." I agreed.

Of course we should be lucky if not this system is a fraud. I already got 2 lucky talismans from the twins, Kelly and Lisa, as they both reached the proper BMI for their age. I think Irene and Justin are close too, especially Justin.

I used one lucky talisman after we opened the shop, I wrote, 'get Michelle and her father off our backs'. Lo and behold, within the hour, Michelle came in, got bullied and threw a punch on a madam whose nephew is a counselor. I don't know if this is enough to take down her father but I'm pretty satisfied with the current result.

Cynthia went to clean up the shop again while I went into the stockroom to check up on the younger ones again.

"Mother, is the bad lady caught by the police?" Faith asked.

"Yes. They did. There's nothing to be scared off now." I told them.

I checked on the kids when I saw the fight started to make sure the fight wouldn't reach them. After all, they are pretty close to the register. When I entered, they didn't look scared but were curious about the noise they were hearing outside.

I told them that the bad lady came and made trouble so the older madams were scolding her. I told them to stay inside and ignore the noise outside.

"Madam, the store is already cleaned up. Are we opening again?" Cynthia asked cautiously.

"Sure, let's open. As long as we sell one cloth, it would be great for us today." I told her.

I checked on the twins and saw that they were awake and were busy playing with their toes. I checked what the children were doing and played with them while slowly teaching them how to count and recognize colors.

The whole day passed without Seth returning which made me really worried. He's not in jail, right?

I honestly thought that the shop won't be able to sell anything today but we were still able to sell five clothes.

Seth came back with the children that day. He told me that it took a long time for him to finish in the hospital for his medical result for the injury he received this morning.

"I've called my grandfather and told him what happened. He said he's gonna try and tap his connections to get the commander to stop bullying me." Seth told me.

"That's good news." I replied.