6
“Fine, no bet then-”
Before I could finish, Amanda cut me off, panicking.
“Who said I’m not betting?!” she barked, her voice shrill. “Mom, Dad, you’re all witnesses! She can’t back out now!”
I bent down to pick up my phone. The screen was shattered, but it still worked.
Amanda smirked, regaining her composure. If she’d been nervous before, she certainly wasn’t anymore. “Oh, please. My iPad’s box is long gone–I threw it out on the way home. What are you going to do, wave around some stupid serial number and expect that to prove anything?”
Ignoring her, I opened my photos and enlarged the picture of my iPad box that I’d posted on my private social media the day I got it.
“Everyone, take a good look at this serial number,” I said, holding up my phone.
Amanda rolled her eyes. “And I already told you–I threw my box away. What part of that don’t you understand?”
I gave her a cold smile. “Amanda, did you really think that throwing away the box means there’s no proof?”
Without waiting for an answer, I grabbed the iPad from the bed. Amanda and my nephew had been watching a TV show on it just moments ago, so the screen was still on.
“Don’t touch my stuff!” Amanda shrieked, lunging toward me.
I raised the iPad high above my head, well out of her reach.
“Dad, do you see this?” she yelled, turning to my father for backup.
But my father, still sour from Amanda’s earlier insults, just waved her off. “Shut up already.”
白蚁65%售
I navigated to the iPad’s settings, pulling up the device information. The serial number was right there, plain as day.
Holding the iPad next to my phone, I smiled at Amanda, whose face had gone pale. “Look at this. The serial numbers are identical. Still have something to say?”
Amanda stumbled over her words, flailing for an excuse. “Well… well, maybe you snuck in when we weren’t paying attention and snapped a picture of the box! Or maybe you edited your post–it’s not hard to fake timestamps these days!”
She was grasping at straws now, but I didn’t let her off the hook.
“Amanda,” I said, opening the Apple website on my phone, “you’re still sticking with your story, right? You claim you bought this iPad today?”
“That’s exactly what I said!” she huffed, though her voice wavered.
“Perfect.” I typed the serial number into Apple’s device lookup tool and turned the iPad screen around so everyone could see.
“Now, let’s check the purchase date, shall we? Every iPad has its activation and purchase information logged on the Apple servers.”
I hit enter, and the results popped up.
“Take a good look, Amanda,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “You said you bought this iPad this morning, right? Then why does it say it was purchased three days ago? Care to explain that?”
The color drained from her face entirely.
Under my relentless questioning, Amanda froze, her mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.
“Well? Are you going to kneel and apologize first, or pay me for the iPad and my phone?” Lasked, my tone cool and sharp.
Right then, my brother walked in, smelling like cheap beer. He stopped in his tracks,
23.05 Fri, Jan 10
frowning at the scene in front of him.
“What the hell is going on in here?” he demanded, looking between Amanda, my dad, and
- me.
Amanda shot him a quick glance but immediately looked away, clearly too ashamed to
meet his eyes.
“Ask your wife,” my dad said with a derisive snort, walking out of the room without
another word.
My brother turned to my mom, who hesitated before mumbling an awkward summary of what had happened.
He glared at Amanda, his jaw tightening. “You stole her iPad? Seriously?”
Amanda shrank back, avoiding his gaze.
He sighed and pulled out his phone. “Fine, I’ll pay for the iPad and the phone. How much do you need?”
“Right now,” I replied flatly, cutting him off before he could finish.
He flinched, clearly not expecting me to demand payment on the spot, but he didn’t argue. After a tense pause, he opened his banking app and transferred $1,500 to my
account.
“Happy now?” he muttered bitterly. “Can you leave us alone already?”
“Not quite,” I said, glancing at Amanda, who was staring at the ground like a scolded child. Her earlier arrogance was nowhere to be seen.
I didn’t care about the apology anymore–it wasn’t worth my time. As I turned to leave, I gave her a pointed look and said with a smirk, “If this ever happens again, Amanda, I won’t hesitate to call the police. Next time, you won’t get off so easy.”
