Chapter 1

I bought the cabbages from my roommate's family farm for two dollars a head, which was the fair market price.

In my family's restaurant, we turned them into a signature dish and sold them for twelve dollars each.

When my roommate found out, she cornered me. "Chloe Vance, how can you be so greedy? You're just exploiting me because I'm from a farming family, aren't you?"

"I'm warning you. You better hand over all the profit you made, or I'll make your life a living hell!"

When I refused to give her every cent, she started sending rotten produce to our restaurant and spreading rumors that I was a total slut.

I didn't bother explaining myself. Instead, I just watched as her family's crops rotted in the fields without me there to buy them.

Eventually, she was forced to go back to her small town to marry some creep just to pay her bills. "I thought I was insulting you by paying you? Well, I've stopped now, so why aren't you happy?"

......

I had just received the daily revenue report for the restaurant when I started processing the payroll for the students I hired for part-time work.

Experienced staff were easier to find, but I worried about theft. Plus, I wanted to help out the struggling students at our university.

However, the manager called me to report that many of the student workers were whispering behind my back. Some had even quit on the spot.

I assumed they were just overwhelmed with midterms. Then, I saw a message on my phone from one of them, filled with pure rage.

"You buy two-dollar cabbages, put them on a plate, and sell them for twelve? You move so much volume, you must be swimming in cash!"

"You make that much and still pay us these pennies? You're a heartless capitalist. If you love money so much, why don't you just go sell your body on the street?"

I was completely baffled. Before I could even ask for clarification, the person blocked me.

The local minimum wage was twelve dollars an hour. I paid them twelve dollars plus free meals, which I thought was a generous deal for campus work.

As for the ten-dollar markup on the cabbage, that wasn't pure profit. Did they think labor, rent, and electricity were free?

My roommate, Susie Miller, saw the look of disgust on my face and smirked.

"Got what you deserved for being so greedy, didn't you?"

That's when I realized she was the one behind the sabotage. Still, trying to be a good roommate, I attempted to reason with her.

"Susie, you don't understand the overhead..."

She didn't let me finish. She cut me off with a sneer.

"Stop lying to me! You think just because we're from the rural outskirts, we're easy targets, right?"

"The profit margin on a single pound of cabbage is insane. My family has supplied you with thousands of pounds. You've made a fortune off our backs, and now you're just exploiting us!"

"Since we're roommates, I won't ask for much in damages. Just give me the difference you've kept for yourself. I did the math. It's only about three hundred thousand dollars."

I nearly choked. Three hundred thousand dollars for cabbage? Was it garnished with gold flakes? If it were that easy, I'd be a billionaire by now.

Seeing my silence, Susie got even more aggressive. She swept everything off my desk, and my expensive skincare bottles shattered across the floor.

"What are you acting so high and mighty for? You say you're helping us, but you just want us to treat you like a princess. You want to stand on your moral high ground and look down on us."

"Well, guess what! My family is done supplying you. I'll sell the crops myself!"

My phone started buzzing with more messages from other students.

"You bitch, you took advantage of our ignorance!"

"I quit! I'm going to work with Susie. I'll make way more than I ever did with a snake like you!"

"Give Susie her money, or we'll hunt you down!"

Susie saw me hesitating and thought I was scared. she looked at me with pure provocation.

"Don't play dumb. Your family has plenty of other products. You've made so much, yet you're still trying to screw me over for these crumbs?"

She left me with those words and a cold shoulder.

My heart felt heavy. This was a classic case of no good deed going unpunished.

In reality, the profit on a plate of cabbage was razor-thin. I actually had to use profits from other dishes just to make it work.

I only started buying from her because I overheard her crying to her parents once. She said she couldn't afford to eat.

Her family's cabbage was going to rot in the fields because wholesalers were only offering fifty cents a head. That wasn't even enough to cover next year's seeds, let alone her tuition.

If she couldn't make the money, she was going to be sold off as a bride to some local idiot in their village for the dowry money.

I felt sorry for her. I asked about her situation, and after verifying the quality was okay, I offered her two dollars a head―double what the market was paying.

My parents were confused at first. They knew I wasn't the type to make a deal that was clearly a loss for us.

But I was adamant about helping her. They just told me I hadn't been kicked around by the real world enough yet.

They warned me that the world isn't always full of good people.

It didn't take long for their words to come true. The person who once knelt and thanked me for saving her was now stabbing me in the heart.