My Employer Says My Housekeeper Mom Abused the Elderly

1: 1

My mother came from the countryside. Not long ago, hoping to ease the money pressure at home, she came to the city to look for work.

She took a job as a live-in housekeeper for a retired employee, caring for the man's mother, who was in her eighties.

The day I went with her to sign the contract at the employer's home, that same afternoon they called the police and accused my mother of abusing the old woman.

To pay the settlement, my mother had no choice but to sell our old house without telling my father.

When he found out, the shock hit him too hard. He suffered a sudden heart attack and died.

The people in our village called my mother a curse, a bringer of disaster. The vicious things people wrote online crushed the breath out of her, and in the end she couldn't take the pressure. She drowned herself in the river.

After Nellie Edwards got her settlement money, she started livestreaming her sob story, pulled in a huge following, and lined up plans to sell products on her streams.

On the day of my mother's funeral, Nellie leaned close to my ear and sneered, "Society always rewards clever people like me. Never poor people like you and your mother."

I got to live it all over again. I woke on the day I went with my mother to sign that labor contract.

I snatched the pen out of her hand. "Mom, we're not taking this job."

Nellie's face changed. "Didn't we already agree on everything?" she snapped. "Backing out now? You people have no sense of a deal at all."

My mother nudged my arm and murmured, "Carol James, this job wasn't easy to find. What are you doing?"

"You need money for school now, and your father's medical bills are a big expense too. I need this job."

I looked at her hands, covered in old calluses, and something in my chest twisted.

Remembering everything she'd suffered in the life before, my voice broke. "Mom, I can get a summer job and help carry the money pressure at home. Let's just go."

Nellie lifted her chin, all pride. "Your mother's an old woman fresh out of some village. Landing a job that pays six thousand a month, she got dumb lucky."

"Don't say I didn't warn you. Miss this and there won't be another chance."

My mother pulled her hand out of mine, frowning. "Carol, why are you being so difficult?"

"Your mother doesn't steal and doesn't cheat. I make a living with my own two hands. What's wrong with that?"

"Or is it that you're ashamed of your mother working as a maid? Embarrassed by me, is that it?"

I shook my head quickly. That wasn't it at all.

Nellie folded her arms across her chest and said coldly, "Your mother already pressed her fingerprint on the contract just now. Even without the signature, this contract is already in effect."

"Your mother is a lowly person. Born to wait on others, that's all she is."

I slammed my hand down on the table, looked Nellie dead in the eye, and said each word slowly. "People are born equal. You've got no right to look down on anyone. My mother is not your slave."

I took my mother's hand and walked us straight out of there.

We'd only just reached the stairwell when glass shattered somewhere back inside the apartment.

Nellie shouted after us at the top of her voice, "Your mother already signed a contract with me. If she doesn't show up for work this afternoon, I'll take her to court for breach of contract."

My mother stopped walking and looked at me, torn.

I thought of the life before, of the state my mother had been in when the online mob hounded her to death, and my eyes stung.

I pulled her along and choked out, "Mom, we don't owe that kind of person any deference. Didn't you notice? Everything out of her mouth, there wasn't a shred of respect for us."

"Didn't you tell me since I was little, a person can be poor but can never lose their backbone? There are plenty of jobs out there. Worst case, we find another one."

It was my mother's first time in the city, so I decided to show her around and took her to a nearby park.

We sat on a bench, and I pulled out my phone to show her.

"Mom, my grades this semester were top of the class. I got the school scholarship, so it'll cover part of my tuition."

"And I'm working on a project right now. If the patent application goes through, there'll be a big bonus. By then you won't have to work so hard."

My mother looked at me with tears in her eyes and stroked my hair.

"Carol, you've been smart and sensible since you were little. As long as you have a good life, your mother will have no regrets in this world."

Then her phone rang. It was Nellie.

The second she picked up, the woman was screaming, "Lydia Lambert, you abused my mother. Get yourself back here right now."

"We signed a contract. If you don't come today, I'm calling the police, and I'll see you rot in jail!"

The line went dead. My mother's hand shook and shook around the phone.

"But I didn't do anything. She's just making it up out of thin air. Carol, what do we do?"

I gripped her hand and said calmly, "Mom, don't be scared. We're going to go deal with her."

"This time we have an alibi. Let's see how she keeps spinning her lies now."

2: 2

Mom and I got to Nellie Edwards' place fast, and the second we stepped inside, the living room was wrecked.

Olivia Finch lay on the floor, bruises in a dozen places on her arms and legs, moaning through slurred, broken words.

Nellie strode over and jabbed a finger in Mom's face. "Lydia Lambert, you animal. Is this how you take care of my mother?"

"She can't even care for herself anymore. You're the housekeeper, and you'd raise your hand to her like this? Aren't you afraid of what's coming to you?"

I stepped in front of Mom and said, firm, "Quit throwing dirt on us. Mom and I already left. There's no way we could have laid a hand on your mother."

Nellie planted both hands on her hips, chin up, brazen. "Don't waste your breath. Have your mother pay up. Two hundred thousand, not a cent less."

"If you don't pay today, I'll make sure your mother eats prison food."

The building manager showed up right on cue, all smiles for Nellie.

"Our valued resident, what's got you this upset?"

Nellie looked down her nose at the two of us, voice thick with resentment. "The new housekeeper I hired. She abused my mother the moment I wasn't around."

"And fifty thousand from my wallet is gone. It has to be these two who stole it."

The manager shot us a look of pure disdain. "A couple of country hicks. Poor people have no pride, and their hands are never clean."

"If you ask me, you should just call the police. Let them eat prison food."

Mom panicked completely at that, shaking her head over and over. "I really didn't abuse anyone. I never even started the job."

"My daughter and I just went to the park nearby. The cameras there should have it all recorded."

The manager gave a cold snort. "The cameras at that park broke a month ago. Stop making excuses for yourself and pay up."

The corner of Nellie's mouth curled into a flicker of satisfaction, almost too faint to catch.

"Lydia Lambert, your daughter's a college student. If this really blows up and you land in prison with a record,"

"then your daughter's future is finished too. So think about it. Settle privately, or the police?"

Hearing that, Mom broke down. She rushed to stop me. "Please, no. My daughter fought her way out of those mountains. I can't ruin it for her."

Nellie folded her arms across her chest and spoke in a cold voice. "Then pay up. My mother's medical bills, and compensation for the emotional damage."

"Plus the fifty thousand you stole. Give me two hundred thousand and we'll settle this privately."

Mom's eyes went wide, disbelieving. "Two hundred thousand? I'm a woman from the countryside. Where would I ever get that kind of money? Can't it be less?"

The manager shouted at Mom, "Can't scrape the money together now, so now you're scared? Where's all that swagger from when you were abusing an old woman?"

"If you can't produce the money today, don't even think about walking out of here!"

I shielded Mom behind me and looked Nellie dead in the eye.

"My mother didn't abuse anyone. It's all your lie. Go ahead and call the police. The innocent have nothing to fear."

Seeing that I wasn't scared, Nellie turned to her eighty-year-old mother and put on a wronged, pitiful face.

"I never thought my mother, over eighty years old, would have to suffer like this. I never thought those elder-abuse stories online would one day happen to me."

The manager pointed at Mom's face and accused her loudly, "An animal who abuses old people like this, you'll get what's coming to you."

Then a message popped up on my phone.

Once I saw what it said, I let out a breath and stared straight into Nellie's eyes.

I told myself: This time I'll tear your lie wide open, and you'll reap what you've sown.

3: 3

The building manager saw that I hadn't answered and sneered, "What, you country girl, gone mute all of a sudden? Tell your mother to pay up, or this isn't over."

I only grew firmer, my face dead serious. "We won't confess to something we didn't do. Stop throwing filth at my mother."

As the argument went on, more and more people from the building gathered to watch.

Once Nellie had fed them her version of things, the crowd looked at us like they wanted to swallow us whole.

A heavyset middle-aged woman spat as she screamed at my mother, "You wicked snake of a woman. They hired a country nobody like you to keep house, paid you good money too."

"And this is how you treat an old lady? You're an animal in human skin."

Another girl with narrow, squinting eyes shot my mother a look, her tone dripping with contempt.

"If you didn't have the patience to look after people, you shouldn't have taken the job. You think they hired you to be the queen of the house?"

"Someone as heartless as you deserves to be poor and broke for the rest of your life."

"Cough up the fifty thousand you stole. Half in the grave already and still this shameless. Careful you don't shave years off your own life."

My mother was shaking all over with rage, her lips visibly turning purple.

I glared at the narrow-eyed girl and said furiously, "Shut your mouth. Stop talking nonsense."

"Nellie's got you all fooled. It's just her word, and that proves nothing about my mother abusing anyone."

My mother clutched her chest, dragging in big gulps of air.

"I, Lydia Lambert, have lived my whole life upright and honest. I've never done a single cruel or wicked thing."

"My in-laws had three sons and three daughters-in-law, but I'm the one who cared for the two of them to the very end, and I never said one word of complaint."

Nellie choked out, "What are you trying to say? You think I'd wrongly accuse you?"

I watched her clumsy little performance and couldn't hold back. "You are wrongly accusing us. You say Mom abused an old woman. Where's your proof?"

"You live in a nice building like this, with an elderly person here who can barely move around. Don't tell me there isn't a single camera in the living room."

"Pull up the footage, and won't the whole truth be right there?"

My question stopped Nellie cold. She froze for a beat, then stammered, "I... our camera's broken. We haven't gotten it fixed yet."

"But that's no excuse for you people to dodge responsibility. I will get justice for my mother."

The narrow-eyed girl pulled out her phone and started filming me and my mother nonstop, and Nellie's mother too.

"I'm posting you two lowlifes online as a cautionary tale, so everyone can see your ugly faces."

My mother reached out to grab the phone, stumbled, and dropped straight to the floor.

The woman with the phone shoved it right in my mother's face and kept filming.

"This is what evil people get. Heaven's punishing you. Why didn't the fall just kill you? That'd be justice served."

I quickly helped my mother up and turned a furious stare on her.

"Watch your mouth. My mother stands straight, so she doesn't fear a crooked shadow. Until the truth is clear, you have no right to spew this poison at her."

Nellie put on a wounded look, pulled her mother into her arms, and sobbed, "The truth speaks for itself. Mom, are a widow and her daughter just meant to be trampled on?"

The heavyset middle-aged woman glowered at us and said through gritted teeth, "Don't worry, no one's going to trample on anyone. Since you won't admit it, we'll let the police handle it."

Hearing that, I sent off a message on my phone.

Then I pulled out my phone, dialed, and said in a cold voice, "Is this 911? Someone here is falsely accusing my mother of abusing an elderly woman. You can have the alleged victim examined for injuries and prove my mother's innocence."

4: 4

Nellie rushed over and snatched the phone right out of my hand.

I don't want this getting ugly either. Just hand over a two-hundred-thousand payout and we can settle it quietly.

You're the only college student in your family. I don't want to saddle you with a record. I only want to get justice for my mother.

The middle-aged woman looked at Nellie with an aching sort of pity.

You're too soft-hearted, that's why people walk all over you. With animals like this mother and daughter, you have to be harsh.

Otherwise who knows what other heartless things they'll pull down the road.

The middle-aged woman shoved my mother and said impatiently, What are you standing there for? If you don't want to ruin your daughter's future, hurry up and pay the compensation!

My mother was so wronged she was on the verge of tears, and she said miserably, I never abused any old woman. Besides, even if you sold me off, I couldn't come up with two hundred thousand.

The property manager shot my mother a glance and said impatiently, Then sell your house, sell your land, and if that's not enough, go sell your blood.

Either way, you've got exactly two roads. Pay up, or go to prison.

My mother turned to me with a pleading look, tears shining in her eyes.

I grabbed my mother's arm and said firmly, Mom, we didn't do it, so don't admit to it.

In a minute I'm going to expose Nellie's lie and clear your name.

The property manager looked me over with distaste and sneered, You two hicks can quit putting on your loving-mother-and-daughter act. Just pay up!

Nellie squeezed out two tears and played up how pitiful she looked.

After the fifty thousand you stole, fifteen thousand more isn't asking too much.

My mother is over eighty. Your mother nearly beat her to death. Life is priceless, don't you understand that?

The people around us were moved by the scene, and they turned sympathetic eyes toward Nellie.

What a poor woman. How could someone that old be put through this? There's no justice in the world.

The middle-aged woman glared at my mother, jabbing a finger in her face, and snapped, You heartless piece of trash, get down and kowtow an apology to the old woman right now.

The crowd chimed in loudly too, Apologize! Apologize now! On your knees! Kowtow!

Seeing public opinion swing her way, Nellie could barely keep the smile off her lips.

My mother stood frozen in place, helpless as a child, not knowing what to do.

I stepped forward, seething, and said, Until the truth of this has been properly investigated, none of you has any right to pass judgment on my mother.

The property manager gave me a hard shove and said mockingly, You broke little wretch, you dare to make noise here? This is a high-end community, not somewhere for you to bark.

The middle-aged woman strode over and grabbed my mother by the collar.

If you don't apologize today, don't even think about leaving here!

I tried to get to my mother, but the people around held me back so tightly I couldn't move at all.

The middle-aged woman kicked the back of my mother's knee hard, and my mother went down, her face twisted with pain.

She pressed down on my mother's head and said furiously, I see you'd rather do this the hard way. Apologize to the old woman, now!

I fought against them with everything I had, screaming at the top of my lungs, You monster, let go of my mother right now. She never hurt anyone!

Just as my mother's head was about to be forced to the ground, a man came running up the stairs.

He saw me and said, out of breath, Carol, I brought you the thing you asked for.

I took it from him and shouted at the middle-aged woman, Let go of my mother now. This is a brain-computer interface. Put it on Nellie's mother's head, and the computer screen will automatically show who hit her.

In a moment everyone will know exactly who the real culprit is.

Nellie's expression turned unnatural, and she stared at the device in my hand in terror.