Branded a Scam Builder by My Own Mom

On the day of the topping-out ceremony for the resettlement housing, my mother, Diana Knowles, insists on reporting me to the authorities for shoddy workmanship. It's all because my cousin, Marco Sanford, went to play at the construction site, stepped into the freshly set cement, and scraped his knee. "You think you're so great just because you built a couple of buildings?" Mom screams at me. "I can't just stand by and watch you put the whole town in danger just to make millions of dollars by pocketing the difference!" Marco clutches his bandage and explains quietly, "It's all my fault for climbing over the fence to play there, Aunt Diana. The construction workers even tried to stop me. It really has nothing to do with Kevin." The project supervisor, Pete Warner, and the town mayor, Hugo Larkin, also hurriedly produce the inspection report. "Mrs. Sanford, the cement, steel bars, and load-bearing cement are all up to standard. This project is a public housing project that the state government is monitoring very closely, and it's going to be a huge deal if we even stop work for a day." Mom, however, holds her head high and yells in a voice louder than a megaphone, saying, "If Kevin dares to let his relatives get hurt at the construction site, then who knows what else he'll dare to do to the rest of the people by giving them shoddy construction? "Stop flattering him! The fact that he became the project manager for this proves that I understand better than you what it means to be a reliable person!" Chapter 1 I suppressed my anger. "Mom! Are you out of your mind? How can you say that my construction work is shoddy just because Marco climbed over the fence, stepped in the still-wet cement, and scraped his knee?" Marco Knowles, my younger cousin, shrank behind Mom, revealing a knee with a cartoon Band-Aid on it. "It really had nothing to do with Kevin, Aunt Diana," he said, looking at Mom. "I was just being a little too playful. I saw the soft cement and wanted to step on it. The construction workers couldn't stop me." Mom immediately pulled Marco into her arms, pointing her finger at me while screaming with her eyes wide open. "And you still have the nerve to argue with me? What kind of decent construction site would have a cement floor where someone could step on it and fall into a hole?" The project supervisor, Pete Warner, rushed forward with a thick stack of documents, sweating profusely as he exclaimed, "Mrs. Sanford! That's a new type of slow-setting permeable concrete. It hadn't reached its initial setting time yet. Of course it would still be soft!" The town mayor, Hugo Larkin, also walked over, his face dark and his tone stern. "Mrs. Sanford, today is the topping-out ceremony for this state-level public housing project, and all the quality inspection reports are here. The steel reinforcement grades and cement strength have all exceeded the standards required. "If you keep messing around and creating trouble for us, are you going to bear the losses if the project is halted, even for a day?" Mom still held her head high and sneered before slapping the report out of Pete's hand. Dozens of construction workers and site supervisors glanced at each other in dismay. I clenched my fists until the knuckles turned white. "Mom, this is a state-level award project that I secured after pulling three months' worth of all-nighters and countless revisions of the blueprints! Do you know that just that one phone call of yours will ruin everything?" Mom just stepped forward and slapped me hard across the face. The crisp sound of the slap echoed across the empty construction site. "So what? You deserve to have it ruined! I'm not just saving your ass. I'm saving everyone else in town as well! "I don't care if you're my own son. I will never protect a heartless and unscrupulous businessman like you!" She then straightened her back, looked around her, and raised her voice even higher. "To hell with familial ties! I will show the whole world that even my own son must be punished for all his mistakes no matter what he did!" Dan Knowles, Mom's younger brother, then slowly stepped out from behind her. He feigned concern and grabbed Mom's arm, saying, "You're being too impulsive, Diana. Kevin has finally just made a name for himself, and you're just destroying his future like this?" His wife, Peggy Hall, also chimed in and said, "He's right, Diana. Although Kevin did use inferior building materials and caused Marco to get hurt, we're all still family. We should have just settled this privately with compensation. Why are you making a fuss all the way to the state office?" These were my so-called relatives. Firstly, Marco was a good-for-nothing lazy ass. Meanwhile, Uncle Dan owned a construction company without any of the proper qualifications, and he'd been trying to steal the housing resettlement project from me from the very start. It was obvious that they had staged everything that happened today for things to end up like this. I just never imagined that Mom would be so dumb and willing to become their pawn. Chapter 2 Mom forcefully shook off Uncle Dan's hand and said in a loud, righteous, and resolute voice, "I, Diana Knowles, value my reputation above all else! And I will never allow anyone to speak ill of me behind my back. "Now, Kevin Sanford, admit to everyone here that you indeed cut corners on this project by using inferior materials, or you will go straight to jail when the inspection team arrives!" I held my stinging cheek and stared at the woman who gave birth to me. I then spoke slowly so that she could hear my every word, "I will never admit to anything that I've not done!" The inspection team members were stunned when they arrived. It was obvious that they never witnessed a mother accusing her own son like this before. The head of the inspection team frowned as he looked at me. "Are you Mr. Kevin Sanford? Someone filed a formal complaint against your project for serious quality issues. Kindly come with us to the station for further questioning." I took a deep breath and began to explain. However, Mom immediately grabbed the leader's sleeve tightly and said, "You must investigate him properly, officer! He's been a wicked wrench since he was a kid! He'll stop at nothing for money! "Arrest him at once, seal off the construction site, and don't let him destroy any evidence!" I watched her, looking so eager to throw me into prison, and felt a sense of hopelessness washing over me. "Fine. I'll go with you to the station," I said, refusing to look at Mom again before walking toward the police escort cars. Mom was still shouting behind me. "See this? This is the consequence of being a dishonest and unscrupulous man!" … The bright fluorescent light in the interrogation room was bright and blinding. "Mr. Sanford, I will start by saying that the testimony your mother provided is very detrimental to you." Officer Stanley Burton then pushed a written testimony toward me with a complex expression on his face. "She didn't just accuse you of using substandard cement. She also accused you of embezzling three million dollars from the building materials budget." I looked up sharply at once, staring incredulously at the written testimony with Mom's signature on it. "Three million dollars? I even mortgaged my own house to secure the project's start-up capital! What proof does she have to back up her accusations?" Officer Burton sighed and turned on his iPad, pushing it over to me. "Just take a look at this. Your mom's a huge Internet celebrity now." The screen lit up and displayed a live stream. The number of viewers in the upper right corner showed more than 100 thousand people were watching her live. Mom sat on Uncle Dan's luxurious leather couch in his house, her eyes red-rimmed as tears streamed down her face. "My heart is breaking, everyone. I've been a widow for half my life, raising my son all on my own and sending him to study civil engineering, thinking that he would be able to contribute to the country. But I never thought he would be so obsessed with money!" She then thumped her chest with an utterly devastated expression on her face. "Those are the resettlement houses we're talking about! They're our lifeline! The houses are meant for us poor folks! And look at what he did! "He replaced cement with mud and steel bars with wire! How many people do you think will die when the buildings collapse? "As his mother, I can't possibly sit here and do nothing about the situation! Was I supposed to ignore it and pretend that nothing happened? Was I supposed to help him keep it a secret from everyone?" Comments flooded the comment section, filled with curses and insults directed at me and praises for her. "Yes! You did the right thing! To hell with familial ties! You're doing it for the greater good!" "You're such an icon!" "Unscrupulous business men like your son should be shot in the head! Look at how even his own mother can't stand him anymore!" "Don't cry, ma'am. We're all on your side. We swear that we will make sure your son stays in prison and never comes out!" I stared intently at the comments, shaking all over. Mom read the comments and continued dabbing away the tears in her eyes, a hint of smugness and satisfaction in them as she continued exaggerating things. "My poor, poor nephew. He just went to the site for a look and accidentally cut his leg on those shoddy building materials! He nearly lost his life!" The camera then panned to Marco, who was sitting next to her. His leg was thickly wrapped in bandages. He was even using crutches in an exaggerated manner. Marco squeezed out a few tears for the camera and spoke with a pitiful expression on his face, "Please don't blame my cousin, everyone. I'm sure that he was just blinded by greed for a moment. Even though he never installed any safety nets, just to save money, I believe he'll change his ways in the future." Uncle Dan also leaned into the camera, sighing and shaking his head. "It's fine if Marco gets hurt, as long as it serves as a warning to the rest of the society. It would still be worth it. "We also have our own construction company, and we've always been honest and hardworking, building houses responsibly. "I really don't understand how Kevin could have turned out like this." I watched the three of them performing in front of the camera and covered my face with my hands. "This is ridiculous… This is utterly ridiculous…" Officer Burton turned off the iPad and handed me a glass of water. "Mr. Sanford, we've already sent a third-party testing agency to the site to take samples. However, there's too much public pressure on this case right now, and the state government is taking it very seriously. You must stay here until the results are in." I looked up, my eyes bloodshot. "Officer, that's a new type of slow-setting permeable concrete. Sampling must be done under specific conditions, and there's a thunderstorm warning for the next couple of days. "There's also a batch of premium anti-seepage materials on the construction site that haven't been stored away properly yet. If they get soaked by the rain, the entire project's foundation will have to be torn down and rebuilt!" I stood up anxiously, my cuffs clinking loudly against the table. "Let me make a call and arrange for the workers to cover the site with waterproof tarpaulins, please!" Officer Burton shook his head and pressed down on my shoulder. "Sorry, but according to regulations, you're not allowed any contact with the outside world right now. "As for the construction site, your mother has taken it over with your uncle's men. They said that they were going to atone for your sins on your behalf and watch over it for you for free." My heart plunged into an ice cave when I heard that. Mom took Uncle Dan's men to take over my construction site? Uncle Dan's shell company didn't even know what a blueprint was! What could they even possibly do at the construction site? Chapter 3 I angrily slammed my fist against the wall. "They don't know anything about construction!" I exclaimed at Officer Burton. "That housing project is the hope of over a thousand families in town! You can't let them mess around with the things there!" However, no matter how much I pleaded with the officers, the iron door remained shut. And for the next 48 hours, I was locked up in the cramped interrogation room. Every second was torture. My mind was filled with the millions of dollars' worth of waterproofing materials and the impending thunderstorm. The iron door was finally unlocked early on the third day. Officer Burton walked in, his face grim, as he held a stamped and notarized document in his hands. "The test results are in, Mr. Sanford. All of your building materials meet the standards and even exceed the national standard for excellence. You're now released without any charges." I shot to my feet at once, nearly falling down as my legs gave way. "What about the construction site? What about the construction materials?" Officer Burton's eyes darted around, refusing to meet my gaze as he said in a heavy tone, "There was a massive downpour last night, and your mother and uncle tore down all the waterproofing tarpaulins in the warehouse to showcase the so-called inferior materials on their live stream. "That batch of top-grade waterproofing material… They're all destroyed." I immediately rushed out of the police station like a madman, hailed a cab, and headed straight for the construction site. It was still raining quite heavily, with gray overcast clouds in the sky. I could see that the construction site was crowded with people, even from afar. Several excavators were brutally shovelling away the waterproofing materials that were already soaked to a pulp by the heavy rain. I pushed through the crowd and rushed in. The scene before me made my eyes widen in horror. The top-grade materials I had mortgaged my house for, the ones that I'd worked myself to the bone to obtain, were now all lying in the mud like trash. Mom was holding a red umbrella over her head as she live-streamed on her phone. "Look, everyone! This is the shoddy construction material that Kevin bought! All it took was just a bout of rain to turn it into this mush! If a house were built on this, it would crumble at the slightest breath! "I will be taking matters into my own hands today and cleaning up all of this harmful, disgusting trash!" Marco, who'd miraculously lost his crutches, was now directing the excavator operator. "Throw them over there. Yes, tear off those tarpaulins as well. We need to expose all the low-grade materials Kevin bought!" I rushed up to Mom with red eyes and threw her phone to the mud on the ground. The screen smashed at once, and the live stream came to an abrupt halt. "Diana Knowles! Do you know what the hell you've done?" I pointed at the mess in the background and screamed hysterically at her, "That's premium waterproofing material! It was meant for waterproofing the basement! But you tore off the tarpaulin and ruined everything! The entire foundation will leak!" Mom was stunned for just a second. Then, she flew into a horrible rage. She slapped me hard on the cheek, and the muddy water splashed all over my face. "You bastard! How dare you throw my phone to the ground! So what if you got out of detention? I bet you just got one of your connections to get you off the hook! "Let me tell you that as long as I, Diana Knowles, am alive, you will never get to continue swindling and scamming other people with this shoddy construction project of yours!" I ignored her and rushed toward the scaffolding. There were still a few bags of care hardener that hadn't been affected by the rain. If I could cover them with a tarpaulin, I could perhaps still salvage some of the damage. I climbed up the slippery scaffolding, using both hands and feet. "Kevin Sanford, get down from there!" Mom screamed from below, shaking the base of the scaffolding violently. "How dare you still try to tamper with the things up there? I swear I will break both your legs today!" The scaffolding shook violently. I clung tightly to the metal bars and gritted my teeth. "Stop shaking! You're going to kill me!" When Marco saw this, he didn't stop Mom but instead stepped forward and kicked a load-bearing metal bar holding the scaffolding up. "Aunt Diana, he's going up there to destroy the evidence! Get him down and let's hand him back to the police!" A muffled thud was heard. And then, the scaffolding, which was already somewhat unstable in the wet mud loosened by the rain, completely collapsed. I felt my feet slip out under me. Then, the world spun. "Kevin Sanford!" There were screams in the audience as I fell from the three-story-high scaffolding onto the ground. The moment I landed on the ground, a vertically protruding rebar pierced into my left calf with pinpoint accuracy. A searing pain immediately shot throughout my body. I didn't even manage to scream before my vision turned dark, and I nearly fainted from the excruciating pain. Blood mixed with the mud on the ground and dyed the surrounding area a deep crimson color. The workers around me got a massive shock. They rushed up to me, wanting to help me up, but Mom stared at my convulsing form in the pool of blood and yelled, "Nobody move! This is his karma for cutting corners with shoddy materials! He deserved it! "Let him stay out in the rain as his punishment until he finally repents for his mistakes!" Marco also got a huge fright. However, he quickly recovered and took out his phone to record me on camera instead. "See this? This is what happens to unscrupulous businessmen like him! Even God can't tolerate him anymore and decided to punish him!" I lay in the mud, feeling the excruciating pain in my calf with every slight movement of the rebar. However, the pain in my heart far surpassed the physical pain I was experiencing right now. "Mom…" Blood frothed in my mouth as I spoke in the loudest whisper I could muster. "I am your son…" Mom stared down at me from above and said sternly, "I, Diana Knowles, do not have a wicked and unscrupulous son like you. My son can only be an honest and upright person. "But since you're none of that, then just pretend that I never gave birth to you at all." … The ambulance siren finally broke through the white noise of the rain. The paramedics forcibly pushed Mom aside and lifted me onto a stretcher. Just as the ambulance doors were about to close, I looked through my blurry vision and saw Mom turning to Uncle Dan. She said, "Hurry up and get out your contract. This project cannot stall. We need a reliable person to take over." … When I opened my eyes again, I saw a doctor standing at the foot of the hospital bed, holding my medical records with a grave expression on his face. "The steel bar pierced through your shin and damaged a major nerve. We did save your leg, but…" He hesitated for a while, his tone tinged with regret. "You will most likely be permanently disabled from now on. You can't do any heavy work anymore, and you'll always be walking with a limp." Chapter 4 I stared blankly at the ceiling in silence. For a civil engineer who needed to be at construction sites every day, this disability was tantamount to a death sentence for my career. The hospital room door was thrown open violently, and Mom strode in with Uncle Dan and Marco behind her. She didn't even look at my leg, which was cast in a sling midair. She also didn't ask me if anything hurt. Instead, she flung an agreement in my face. "Sign this now that you're awake," she demanded in a condescending manner. There wasn't a trace of remorse in her voice at all. "Now that you're crippled and your reputation is destroyed, the town will never let you be in charge of the resettlement housing project anymore. But your Uncle Dan magnanimously offered to take on this mess and clean up after you. "Hurry up and sign the documents and hand over the official seal." I took the document she threw in my face and glanced at it. It was a transfer agreement, and the amount was written as 0 dollars. Moreover, the agreement also stated that I would personally bear the cost of all material losses and delay penalties in the early stages. This was blatant robbery. They were literally trying to drive me to my death. "What if I don't sign it?" I asked. "You won't? What right do you have to refuse? Do you even know what the people outside are saying about you? You've already been blacklisted by the entire construction industry! "If it were not for your uncle's kindness offering to cover for you, you would have already been killed by those workers demanding payment by now!" Marco stepped forward and sighed in a fake way. "Just accept your fate, Kevin. Aunt Diana is only doing this for your own good. If you sign this, then our family will cover your medical expenses. "If you don't sign, you won't even have any way to treat your crippled leg. Who'd be paying for all your medical costs, then?" Uncle Dan lit up a cigarette and puffed out a cloud of smoke. "You know, you should learn to be grateful, you brat. If you'll hand over the project to me now, I promise that I'll use premium building materials to build the strongest houses in town. That way, we'd be able to atone for your sins." I knew they wanted this project simply because they saw a huge potential for making a profit off of it. However, there was a hidden underground river beneath the resettlement housing site with a very complex geological structure. I had to revise the blueprints over and over, using special load-bearing designs to ensure that everything was foolproof. But Uncle Dan's makeshift team of construction workers wasn't even licensed. Handing the project over to them would be akin to throwing the innocent townsfolk's lives away. "Do you really believe that Uncle Dan can build these houses well?" I asked Mom one last time, trying to find even just the slightest bit of reason in her eyes. Yet, she raised her voice at me and yelled, "Of course! Your uncle might not be as educated as you, but at the very least, he's an honest and trustworthy person with a conscience! "Now, that's enough yapping. Sign it now, or else!" She then tore off the IV drip from the back of my hand. Blood spurted out everywhere. She forced a pen into my hand and pulled it toward the signature line on the document. "You're going to sign it today whether you like it or not! And if you dare to refuse, I will expose you and completely destroy you online so you'll never be able to hold your head up in society again!" I looked at her face full of greed and vanity. The last shred of affection I held for her finally dissipated. I took a deep breath and gripped the pen tightly. Then, I signed forcefully on the paper, making each stroke clear and precise. Mom then snatched the agreement from me, checked it thoroughly, and finally smiled at me in satisfaction. "You're finally being sensible now. "From today onward, you will behave yourself and stay in the basement for the rest of your life. Don't you dare come out and embarrass anybody else again." Then, she led Uncle Dan and Marco out of my room without even a backward glance. … One month later, I slowly limped my way out of the hospital after being discharged. My house had been forcibly auctioned off to pay for the damage cost for the ruined building materials, so I had nowhere else to go. Meanwhile, Mom was going through the most glorious moment of her life. She became a renowned moral exemplar in town. She wore a red hard hat in a video she posted online, pointing to the building slowly rising from the ground behind her, beaming proudly. "See this? My brother only used the best materials after taking over this project. See how thick these pillars are? See how hard this cement is? "This is a truly honest and trustworthy project. These are the houses built for the people by the people!" The comments section was filled with unanimous praise for her. "You sacrificed your own son for the safety of the entire town. Thank you so much!" "You've made a huge contribution to society!" "Boycott her heartless son! Let's support trustworthy businessmen instead!" I stared at the so-called thick pillars in the video, and a cold smirk curled at the corner of my mouth. It was a whole third thinner than the load-bearing pillars in my original blueprints. Uncle Dan hadn't just used lower-grade cement to cut costs. He'd even drastically modified my design to suit his own budget. If the underground river level rose, the building would immediately collapse as though it were built on sand.