When Thomas, a rich restaurant owner, notices a young dishwasher frequenting the locker room, he suspects her of theft. He shames her in front of everyone and grabs her bag to check, only to regret it after seeing what’s inside.
Thomas was a wealthy widower in his early 50s who considered himself smart and charming. He despised those who called him ‘bald’ and ‘pot belly man’ behind his back.
Thomas thought he could easily hit on any young and beautiful woman. He never grew tired of flirting, not that he was a full-time flirt, but he never missed the chance whenever he saw gorgeous young ladies.
For Thomas, age was just a number, and it wouldn’t stop him from unleashing his pick-up lines and directing his steamy stares toward women, including the waitresses and dishwashers who worked in his restaurant. Among them was 20-year-old Giselle.
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Giselle was pretty new at the restaurant. She’d been working as a dishwasher for a month. She was a poor widow who had recently lost her husband, the love of her life, Mason. She struggled to make ends meet after the tragedy and came across a ‘We are Hiring’ signboard outside Thomas’s eatery. She applied as a dishwasher and immediately started working with all her diligence and dedication.
Thomas hurried to her and snatched the bag from her hand. It was heavier than he thought and he had no idea what was inside.
Her co-workers warned her about their boss’s attitude towards the female staff. “That man likes to flirt and has even invited some on dates. He thinks money can buy anything,” one of them said.
Giselle shrugged it off. She was focused on keeping her job at any cost. “I know my boundaries!” she said confidently.
But one day, she witnessed the ugly side of her boss.
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“Do you have any idea why I hired you, Miss Giselle?” Thomas had blocked her way as she was leaving at the end of her shift. He grabbed a red rose from a table nearby.
“No, sir. Please excuse me. I have to get home soon.”
“Don’t call me sir, Miss Giselle. Call me Tom!”
Giselle felt helpless and trapped because she was the last to leave the eatery. She had a lot of dishes to do that day.
“It’s getting late…I have to go. Good day, sir!”
But Thomas wouldn’t budge. “I was blinded by your beauty the first day I saw you,” he said cheesily. “I can sing praises of your beautiful smile all day! What do you think? We can go to a resort, have plenty of drinks, and shop for everything you want…Hmmm?!”
Annoyed, Giselle gently pushed Thomas out of her way and stormed out, saying: “I’m here to work, sir. I’m not here for anything other than my job. And I respect my workplace. Thank you, but I’m not the type you’re looking for. Good day, sir!”
Thomas was furious. His ego hurt. “She is, after all, an ORDINARY dishwasher…How dare she turn down my offer? Wait until I show you what I’m capable of.”
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Days passed, but Thomas hadn’t gotten over what had happened. He was not ready to accept defeat or rejection. He kept looking for a way to humiliate Giselle.
One day, he saw her arrive at work with a big bag and walk into the staff room. An evil plan flashed into Thomas’s mind, and he waited for the next few days to make sure Giselle carried this bag every day to work.
He often checked on Giselle and saw her frequenting the locker room during her shift. His suspicions brewed, and he waited until the afternoon when the eatery was busy to pounce on her.
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“Have a nice day! I have to go to the market. I took half a day off,” Giselle said to her friends.
Just as she was about to exit the door, Thomas called out loud: “Wait right there, Miss Giselle! What have you got in your bag today? Have you been STEALING leftovers and dishwashing liquid? You’re FIRED!”
Giselle was startled. She turned around and started to sweat in fear. The guests stared back at her and began whispering things. Her coworkers assembled behind Thomas and were equally shocked.
“I know you’ve been stealing from me. I saw you frequent the locker room at least thrice during your shift. Come here, give me your bag. Let me see what’s inside.”
Giselle was frightened. She wanted to step back and run. “It’s nothing, sir. I just have my lunch box and a set of spare clothes in it.”
But Thomas hurried to her and snatched the bag from her hand. It was heavier than he thought.
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Some curious guests and staff flocked around Giselle and Thomas as he put the bag on a table and took out a little blanket from it. “Oh my God! What is this?!” he exclaimed as the rest gaped in shock.
“Mawww…Mawww…Mawww.” A newborn baby girl wriggled inside the bag, staring back at Thomas with big brown eyes. He was stunned.
“Sir, I can explain,” began Giselle…
“My husband died a few months ago when I was pregnant. After my baby came, I could not find work, and I had nobody to look after her when I joined here. I could not leave her alone at home, so I hid her in the bag and carried her to work. I frequented the staff to feed her and make sure she never made any noise. I was just protecting my baby. I’m not a thief. I didn’t take a crumb from here.”
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Thomas was moved to tears as the baby reminded him of the child he had lost way back. That day, he cried like a kid in front of everyone, exposing a side of him that nobody knew. Thomas folded his palms and immediately apologized to Giselle.
“I’m sorry, Miss Giselle. I lost my wife and child in an accident many years ago. I remained single after that because I feared losing my loved ones again. I never found true love after that. My loneliness turned me into a monster. I’m not bad at heart, but it’s just that I lived with the assumption that money could buy anything, even love. I was wrong.”
Giselle was teary-eyed after learning Thomas’s story. “Sir, I’m sorry for what you went through after losing your family. I’m glad you realized your mistake, at least now.”
Thomas returned the bag with the baby to Giselle. “You may return to work after a month. I’m giving you paid leave so that you can spend time with your child.”
Giselle smiled, and she left the eatery with her baby.
Thomas had decided to double Giselle’s salary once she returned to work so that it would help her hire a nanny to babysit her child while she was away at work. But did he stop flirting after that?!
Unsurprisingly, some old habits die hard, which was true in Thomas’s case! Although he stopped flirting with his female staff, he still did not completely stop hitting on other random women. Only time will tell if Thomas will succeed in finding true love again. But everyone, including Giselle, is glad he realized money isn’t everything.
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What can we learn from this story?
- Never take somebody’s helplessness for granted. Thomas took advantage of his position to flirt with his employee and coerce her to go on a date with him, regretting it later.
- A mother will do anything to protect her child. Giselle secretly brought her newborn baby to work in order to care for her while earning her keep. She risked her job to protect and care for her baby.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
A woman told her daughter that her father had passed away – years later, the girl uncovered a heartbreaking truth
When Cassie returns from a getaway with her husband and son, she walks into her home to see a cryptic message from her mother — telling her to watch a video. As Cassie presses play, her entire life changes. In the end, she’s left wondering which of her parents are worthy of forgiveness.
In my eyes, my father could do no wrong. He was everything I needed him to be and more. He was a businessman who was always traveling, but he ensured that he made enough time for me.
“You’re my little girl, Cassie,” he would say, bopping my nose with his index finger. “You’re the most special.”
My parents always went out of their way for me — ensuring that despite their busy schedules, we would have family dinner almost every night.
It was the one thing that kept me grounded while both of my friends from school were in the middle of their parents’ messy divorces.
“I think it’s trendy now,” I told my mother as she cut slices of banana bread for me after school one day.
“Cas, you cannot think that divorce is trendy,” she laughed. “It’s devastating and traumatic, and very few families actually keep things civil.”
“I’m just saying that it’s trendy because a lot of kids live between two homes,” I explained to her. “It’s one of those things we were talking about in class today.”
I was fourteen, and the world seemed more dramatic than it should have been.
But what I didn’t know was that my words seemed to be an incantation that settled over our home.
A few weeks after that conversation, my father went away on a business trip. A few hours after he had been gone, there was news of his passing.
“How?” I asked. “How did he die?”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Cassie,” she replied. “I’m just saying what the paramedics told me.”
“So what will we do next?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” she asked, puzzled by the question.
“For the funeral?” I asked. “Aren’t we going to have one?”
“I don’t think so,” my mother replied. “Dad wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread at the beach. Let’s do that instead.”
I couldn’t fathom why my mother would want to do that — but at the end of the day, she knew my father best. And the longer I thought about it, the more beautiful and sentimental a private ceremony at the beach felt.
“Don’t be difficult, Cassie,” my mother said when she saw me thinking about my next move.
“I’m not,” I said. “Really. I was just thinking about it. It’s a great idea, Mom.”
I could have fought her for a send-off that I thought would have been more appropriate. But what use would it have been? At the end of the day, we had both lost him.
The months following the beach ceremony felt weighted, and I knew that I was becoming deeply depressed — my father had been our world. And his absence was felt more than anything.
But, with time, I learned to live with it.
Last week, I decided to book a cabin in the woods for a little family vacation. My son was adamant that camping was the new best thing, and I knew that despite the wonders of nature, I wasn’t going to camp in a tent without a bathroom in sight.
Instead, I thought that a cabin would be the best option — my husband, Derek, could camp outside with Drew, our son, if he insisted on it.
We had a dog, therefore, I asked my mother to house-sit for the week so that we could be at peace, knowing that Romeo was taken care of.
A week away was more than enough to restore my mind — and eventually, when we went back home, I was surprised to see that my mother wasn’t there. In fact, it looked like she had never been there.
But there, on the coffee table, was a note beneath the TV remote.
Watch this, Cassie. I’m sorry. — Mom
I didn’t know what was in store for me, but while Derek got Drew into the bath, I put the TV on and began to watch whatever my mother had planned.
The TV flickered to life, and there he was, my father, his voice a long-lost melody, his image aged but still, unmistakably him.
Tears streamed down my face as the realization that he was still alive enveloped me in a mix of joy and disbelief.
The video message was nothing short of unpredictable.
My dear Cassie, I’m still here, alive. I’m so sorry for the pain that you must have felt from my loss. But it was needed. I needed to be removed from your life because of the sordid truth of my past. Your mother knows everything, please ask her for the truth.
My health is on a steady decline, and I would love to see you and explain it all.
Love you, Dad.
Without telling Derek or Drew anything, I grabbed the car keys and ran out. I needed my mother to explain.
“So, I bet you’ve got questions for me,” she said, opening the door.
“Explain it all,” I said.
“Cassie, it’s heavy. You look tired from your trip; are you sure you want to do this now?” she asked.
I nodded. It was now or never. I needed to know why my father faked his own death to get out of our lives.
My mother made us some tea and took out some shortbread.
“Darling,” she said. “I’ll understand if you don’t forgive me, but there’s so much about that time that I need to tell you.”
I sipped my tea, trying to figure out what my mother was about to tell me.
“I remember that you were telling me about your friend’s parents getting divorced. Do you remember that?” she asked.
I nodded. Of course, I did. It was the strangest thing, but it was so common when I was in school.
“Well, your father and I were not legally married. So when I told him about our conversation regarding divorce, he was actually relieved. Without being married, there would be no divorce.”
“What’s the big deal?” I asked.
“Then I found out that the real reason that we didn’t get married was because your father was already married to another woman.”
“What?” I exclaimed, almost dropping my cup. “To who?”
“To a woman in the town where he always had his business trips.”
“You didn’t know?” I asked, unable to believe her words.
“Of course not!” she exclaimed. “But when I pressed him about it, he decided to choose that family over us. So, I told him that the story was going to be his death.”
We were both silent for a moment.
Turns out that my mother told him that she would never tell me the truth, not when he was my favorite person. She couldn’t burst my bubble in that way. And she refused to let him see me one more time.
“It was better for you to think that it was an accident,” my mother said. “It just made more sense.”
Now, I understood why we didn’t have a funeral for him.
“What did we throw into the sea, then?” I asked.
“Dust,” she replied with a straight face.
My mother had spoken to him twice over the years. The second time being a day ago.
During their meeting, my father confessed his imminent death due to illness and requested that she give me the recording. My mother, torn by guilt and love, chose to write me the note and have the recording all set for me to watch.
“I would have taken the secret to my grave,” she said. “But knowing that he was ill and wanted to see you just struck something in me.”
Compelled by a need to confront the reality of my father’s existence, I traveled to the state where he lived with his other family.
I spent a few weeks with my father — going in and out of hospitals, watching him take an array of different medication, and growing weaker by the day.
Sitting at his bedside, I listened to his stories, the regrets, the moments of joy, and the love he had for all his children — myself included.
When things started to go downhill, I asked Derek to fly over with Drew. It was going to be a fleeting moment, but at least I’d know that my son had met my father.
A few days later, my father died.
Even now, I don’t know if I’ve forgiven him for the lie of having a double life. I just know that when it came to it in the end — I wanted to spend time with him. I had shoved my feelings aside, hoping for memories that I could figure out later.
But now that the dust has settled, I’m trying to figure out if I should forgive my mother for lying.
What would you do?
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