The journey from Natasha's house to her food stand took her no less than thirty minutes. When she arrived, she immediately set about her usual routine of cleaning and cooking meals as soon as she got there.
She had previously worked as a chef as part of her previous career when she was still a maid. That was how she met Kyle's father, who was the young master of the family she served. Natasha was one of those women whose beauty far exceeded that of other women. Though she was of low class, she possessed a personality and beauty that allowed her to compete with even the top female celebrities and elites.
Natasha's beauty couldn't be ignored which obviously attracted her master. She was young and naive to think that they were both in love. However, the truth dawned upon her when Kyle was born.
He didn't even set his eyes upon his son before casting him aside and he even cruelly threw them away from the mansion without even naming him. Natasha had always felt guilty towards Kyle and she made a promise to herself to do her best to give him all he could ever want.
There was also no doubt that Natasha was also a capable chef and her customers appreciated the quality of the food she prepared. Therefore, one could say her food was always delicious.
If only there wasn't so much debt that she owed, they both would have been living well off by now. When Natasha was kicked out of the family she worked for and then moved to here, there was no choice but to borrow money from a loan shark.
The money enableb her to start up this business and rent an apartment for both her and Kyle to move into.
However for many reasons Natasha was unable to pay up the money on time and the interest had been accumulating for years making it a large sum of debt which she was still struggling to pay with no hope. Though the money borrowed was substantial, the interest was very high but she had no choice.
Kyle's accident was like a blessing in disguise. This is because the money they received as compensation was enough to settle a large portion of their debt which was such a big relief for Natasha.
As expected, customers started coming to her stall and in no time her stall was packed with people who were dining.
Natasha continued to sell until the afternoon, when a regular but unwanted customer suddenly interrupted her business.
"Bitch, you have finally decided to come out of your hole." One of them said as he approached her.
Natasha sighed in order to calm her nerves. This was to be expected but no matter how many times she came across them Natasha would always panic.
Everyone present was already in a panic because these so-called unwanted guests were actually the gangs in charge of the area.
Nobody who has fought against them has ever come out unscathed. By seizing properties, soliciting protection money and even smuggling, they cruelly looted the people living here so they were very popular.
They also worked for the loan shark Natasha borrowed the money from. Due to the fact that she has been unable to pay them, they would always come around to harass her and disrupt her business. They would eat free meals and steal money from her.
"Crazy bitch where the hell did you go all this while? For a moment we actually thought you ran away huh?" The leader commented while glaring at Natasha.
"My son was in the hospital due to an accident, so I stayed with him." Natasha politely explained .
In her mind, she had to endure this just for today, and when she finally settled the debt, then they would stop bothering her.
"I don't care whether you were in heaven but you should know that you must be here to serve us when we arrive. Furthermore, since you are a dedicated mother, you must take care of all your children equally. Did you fucking know how much we starved and how broke we are?" The leader said again.
Natasha bowed slightly. "I'm sorry but I don't think I can do that for you Slick."
Natasha's response shocked everyone because nobody ever refuted this dangerous people but Natasha was actually doing the unexpected despite knowing the consequences.
A lackey of Slick yelled, "What did you just say bitch?".
"You heard me right." Natasha dipped her hand into her apron to bring out the ten thousand dollar bundle and stretched it toward Slick.
"This is the money I owe your boss, take it and don't come back unless it's for protection money."
Again everyone was dumbfounded by what they were witnessing especially Slick and his lackeys. With a confused expression, he collected the money from Natasha.
Their boss intentionally added a high interest rate so that Natasha wouldn't be able to pay back the money. He liked Natasha because she was very attractive. Therefore, he thought that he could use the debt to get her, but nobody expected that she would actually pay it all back.
"Fuck this is really messed up." Slick thought.
If the boss found out about this he knew it wouldn't end well for him. This was because his orders were to make sure Natasha couldn't pay the money but now she was doing just that and this made Slick angry.
" You crazy bitch how did you get this money? Are you finally selling your body to some stupid scum out there and you refused to agree to our boss' terms?"
"How I got this money isn't your concern? Take it and leave." Natasha responded.
"I asked you a fucking question bitch, are you trying to ignore me now?" Slick roared.
"Like I said earlier, if that's all then you should kindly take your leave because your presence seems to be making my customers feel uncomfortable." Natasha continued to ignore Slick's questions and said only what she wanted.
"You seem to be forgetting something. We watched your shop for the past two weeks so you need to pay the protection fee along with these."
Natasha didn't argue. She dipped her hand into her apron and brought enough cash to cover the payment of the fee before handing it over to Slick.
"You must be mistaken, this is just half. Where is the rest of it?" Slick asked.
"What do you mean? It is a complete payment for the entire two weeks." Natasha was confused.
''Oh I'm sorry, did I forget to mention that the price has just spiked up and has been doubled over the previous fee?' Slick explained with a smirk.
"That's impossible, you can't just do that without notice." Natasha protested.
"I did give notice but I guess you missed it since you were absent for two weeks and if you think I'm lying as the residents sitting here"
Natasha shifted her gaze to her customers, but no one denied what Slick said even though it was obviously a lie.
"See they can't deny it, so you still have to pay up." Slick said
"Fine..." Natasha removed all the money from her apron and handed it over to Slick again. "That should be able to cover it all."
Slick frowned. "You know that you made the wrong choice bitch."
"I owe you nothing, so please mind the way I'm being spoken to."
"I'm determined to make sure you and that half human you call a son will regret it."
Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
Natasha slapped Slick out of impulse. She could definitely take all the insults but not Kyle because she had always felt guilty for bringing him into this world like that.
"This bitch..." Slick wanted hit Natasha back but as his hand was close to her face, someone else obstructed the motion of his hand.
"What the hell are you doing, Brute?" Slick said while struggling to pull his hand out of Brute's grasp.
"You can't do that Slick, restrain yourself." Brute said.
"What do you mean? Didn't you see the way this bitch slapped me?"
Brute pulled Slick closer and whispered into his ear. "Slick, we all saw that. However do you think that the Big boss would be happy if he found out you dared to hit his woman? You know how much he has become obsessed with this bitch and he will not hesitate to smash us like pancakes if he finds out." Brute took a quick glance at Natasha before he continued.
After listening to Brute's viewpoint, Slick's rage gradually dissipated. "What am I supposed to do then? I can't allow her to gain an advantage on me. I'll just hit her one time, besides she doesn't even know that the boss is that into her and we have limitations of touching her." Slick whispered back to Brute.
"Still we have to be very careful. Allow me to deal with this issue."
It was no surprise to everyone to see Brute calm Slick down and to also step forward to face Natasha. Although Slick was the leader of the gang while Brute was his second-in-command. But it was obvious that Brute was the smarter guy and Slick was just able to maintain his position as leader because Brute was just a new member of the gang.
Brute was able to rise in rank because of his smartness and his powers couldn't not be overlooked. He should have been leading but he still hasn't been able to earn the trust of the main leader compared to Slick who has served the gang for a long time.
"Hey bitch, you're lucky that circumstances won't permit us to physically punish you for daring to slap my boss. However, your actions will have a consequence and it will affect everyone in this district."
Brute climbed onto one of the empty tables in Natasha's stall before he announced loudly.
"Everyone, your protection fee is now four times the current amount you all pay. This is courtesy of the stupid bitch standing over here. She just made us realize that we had never charged you for hospital allowances. She hit my boss in the face. Therefore, we have to take him to the hospital for a check up but we have no money, and we are also risking ourselves to protect your property. Don't you think we also deserve a check-up?" Brute asked with a wicked smile.
Slick and the other gang members were grining as Brute made this announcement. Of course, it a load of bullshit and they never even protected a single stone except they would come and destroy of they weren't given any money.
"You...You can't do that?" Natasha uttered.
"Hahaha.....I just did and there is nothing you can do about it." Brute laughed. "When we come back next time, our money must be ready. You all should remember that failure to comply will be the same as defying Big Joe."
Brute stepped down from the table and walked over to his bike where the rest of his subordinates had been waiting for him.
They started their bikes and drove off leaving everyone in a totally different type of dilemma.
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