I wanted to teach my brother a lesson, but Karma did it better. He kept making fun of my husband for being “just an electrician.”
I don’t think my brother and I have the same traits or personalities, except maybe that we are both persistent. Our family had white-collar jobs, and we all went on to have successful careers. My brother still thinks he is an electrician, even though I married an electrician who runs a very successful business. I finally lost it one day when my brother said mean things about me. Before I was, karma hit him.
The most hardworking parents I’ve ever known raised me in a nice home. We had more than we needed as kids, but my parents made sure to teach us how to work hard and think like businesspeople.
Tina, my mom, is a brain surgeon, and Tom, my dad, runs his own business. My older brother, Jack, is a lawyer who likes to brag about how rich he is. Although he wanted to start his own law firm, he was too lazy to do the hard work.
He liked living a luxurious life and buying expensive belts, shoes, and clothes. Aside from that, he always talks about his Porsche. He is also engaged to his third girlfriend.
Personally, I’m a lot more quiet and happy to fit in, on the other hand. I own and run a business that does well. But the truth is that Mark, my husband, makes more money than I do.
He is a great mechanic and his business makes him more than four times what I do. We choose to hide our wealth and live a simple life even though we have a lot of it. Mark is an engineer, but Jack doesn’t know that he also went to business school, which helped him use his skills to build a successful company.
Mark is very humble, which is one of his best traits. He doesn’t waste his money on unnecessary joys; instead, he puts a lot of it into businesses and gives it to good causes.
My parents know about this kind act because we shocked them with a free cruise for their 30th wedding anniversary. Knowing how expensive the ticket was and how often he traveled, the act surprised my dad.
Jack and I got our mom gifts for Mother’s Day. While I got her gift cards for several spa days near her hospital, Jack gave her a fancy watch. As usual, my mom thanked us both from the bottom of her heart at our party.
All of a sudden, Jack couldn’t hold back his bragging about how much the watch cost. He looked Mark off to the side and then joked that an electrician could never afford something so fancy.
In fact, Mom, this watch is one of a kind. The seller made the offer right away because she knew I would take it since I was a well-known lawyer. Jack laughed and said that things might have gone differently if an electrician had come in. “Sorry about that,” he said, turning to face Mark.
Mark laughed it off, but I could tell he was worried because of the look in his eyes. Jack kept making negative comments about Mark’s work. “By fixing the wires and outlets, I mean?” “How hard could it really be?” Jack made fun of it.
I finally got tired of hearing him talk badly about my partner, who had worked harder than my brother to get where he was. Jack probably didn’t know that my husband could buy his law firm and make five times as much as him. Hubby and I didn’t say anything.
I’ve been annoyed by Jack’s pride for a long time, but his most recent action made it worse. I thought right away that he needed to learn how to be humble, but little did I know that karma had already set the stage.
After a few weeks, my parents had a cookout for our family at their house. Like always, Jack was late, but his Porsche entrance was spectacular. He put it in the front, where everyone could see it.
When he walked into the room, he was holding Emily, his fiancée, and he was very proud of her. He made his rounds, bragging about his most recent win in court and the fancy holiday he was planning for his third marriage.
I took deep breaths as the afternoon went on, getting ready to follow through with my plan to punish Jack. I found out that the bag he bought Emily wasn’t real. I actually had the same bag because Mark gave it to me.
To show this, I was going to compare the two in front of everyone. We heard a noise from the front of the house right before I called everyone together for the reveal.
When we ran outside, we saw that Jack’s beloved Porsche was being towed by a tow truck. Jack was clearly upset because he was fighting with the tow truck driver.
“I made a mistake,” he told himself. “I’ll get this settled.”
The driver shook his or her head. “It has a new owner.” You’re behind on several payments.
Jack lost a lot of color. As his confidence dropped, he turned to face his family. Emily sneaked into the house, feeling bad about herself. Jack was standing by himself, which was different from the proud man who had come in earlier.
He finally told her, “I lost my job.” I couldn’t pay the loan on the car that belonged to my company because I wasn’t working.
No one could hold their breath. Do you mean? My dad was shocked and asked, “How come none of us knew?”
He sighed and looked like he was giving up. “I’ve been trying to hide it.” I handled a case that got a lot of attention and went horribly wrong. Because I did something wrong, the client lost a lot of money and sued the company. “I’m not hiring anyone right now.”
As I looked at him, I felt a mix of sympathy and pleasure. Truth was supposed to be nicer, but he needed to be made to feel small. Now it made sense about the fake bag too. He failed in the end when he tried to keep up that picture. In silence, I went up to him.
I said in a low voice, “Hey.” “This might be a sign that I should think again.”
The way he looked at me when he turned around was something I had never seen him do before. It looks like I knew this was going to happen, huh?
What I said was, “Maybe a little.” No matter what, you are still my brother. We are strong enough to get through this.
Mark then moved closer and touched Jack on the shoulder. „Adding more hands would be good for my business. The job is honest and pays well, but it’s not exciting.
Jack looks surprised. Do you really want to hire me? doing everything I told you?”
Mark agreed, saying, “Everyone deserves a second chance.” “I fully intend to teach you all that you require.”
As the sun was going down that special day, Jack said yes to Mark’s offer. He had to start over, which was hard, but he worked hard and learned the skill from the very beginning. In the end, he realized how important honest, hard work really was. He went from being proud to appreciative and humble.
Life can teach us things better than we could on our own. While Jack had been knocked down a notch, our family was always there for him, even when things got tough. His character may have improved after going through this.
This work is based on real people and events, even though it has been made up for artistic reasons. To protect privacy and make the story better, names, characters, and other details have been changed. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, or real events is completely unintentional and not the author’s goal.
The distributor and author are not responsible for any misunderstandings and don’t say that the events or characters are true. Note that the characters’ thoughts in this story are their own and may not reflect the author’s or publisher’s views. This story is given “as is.”
