The new security guard watching over the neighborhood is a university student named Jake Gould, who happens to be sponsored by my wife, Jenna Hudgens.

My mother-in-law's illness suddenly gets triggered for no reason. But Jake has the audacity to have my car clamped over the excuse that I've illegally parked it.

I'm worried that my mother-in-law's condition will take a turn for the worse, so I quickly call an ambulance.

But as soon as I leave the apartment block, I see the ambulance's tires getting clamped down as well.

Furious, I yell, "How dare you clamp an ambulance! If anything happens to Mom, I will never let you off the hook! Now unclamp the ambulance right now!"

Jake looks at me with an aggrieved expression. "Mitch, I was just doing my job according to the policy. Can you please not make it difficult for me to do my job?"

Jenna begins shifting the blame to me coldly.

"Jake is a newbie, which means he must be listening to his boss' instructions. Why are you acting like a madman for no reason?

"Besides, your mom seems to be in good health. Why does she even need an ambulance, to begin with? From the way I see it, she's just kicking up a fuss!"

At that moment, the doctor suddenly yells, "The patient's heart has just stopped! She won't make it if we don't go to the hospital right now!"

Jake's expression goes stark white immediately. He then rushes off to remove the clamps.

I had just helped the doctor carry my mother-in-law, Kelly Hawkins, downstairs when I saw four heavy wheel locks blatantly clamped around all four tires of the ambulance.

I'd only just gotten home from work when Kelly came over. She'd barely made it upstairs when she suddenly collapsed. If I hadn't gone back down and discovered that my own car had been clamped, I wouldn't have panicked and called for an ambulance.

It couldn't have been more than five minutes from the moment Dr. Goldberg went upstairs to when we carried Kelly downstairs together. And in that period of time, the ambulance had been clamped.

My expression darkened as I turned toward the security guard standing nearby—Jake Gould.

"Jake, that's an ambulance! Don't you know that even police cars have to yield to an ambulance on the road? And you have the nerve to clamp it? Are you out of your mind? Remove them right now!"

Jake glanced at me and said, "I know all that, Mitch. But this is a residential complex. And here, we follow the community's rules and regulations."

He tilted his chin toward the ambulance's windshield. "See that? There's a phone number there. Just give them a call, and they'll unlock it for you."

I took a deep breath, looked at Kelly's pale face, and pulled out my phone to make the call, forcing down my anger.

As soon as I made the call, I heard the phone in the security booth in front of me ringing.

Jake walked in with a smile, hung up the phone, and came back out holding a set of keys. "Unlocking it costs 200 dollars. Would you like to proceed, Mitch?"

Even though I'd suspected something like this, I was still furious. So much for "rules and regulations"—this was clearly all just his doing.

But I didn't have time to argue with him right now. I nodded, my expression stony. "Yes. Quickly!"

Jake didn't move.

"Hurry up!" I snapped, anxious. "I still need to get Mom to the hospital!"

Only then did he speak again, slowly. "You haven't paid me yet, Mitch. What if I unlock them for you and you refuse to pay later?"

He waved his phone at me. Without another word, I transferred 200 dollars to him.

Watching him start to unlock the clamps, I finally felt some of the tension leave me. I quickly got into the ambulance and comforted Kelly, "Mom, just wait a little longer. I'll get you to the hospital right away."

But to my surprise, the ambulance didn't move.

The driver, Trevor Plume, turned around toward me awkwardly. "He only took off one lock. Maybe you should ask what's going on? To be honest, I've been driving ambulances for over ten years, and this is the first time I've seen anything like this."

My gaze had just landed on Jake when he grinned at me. "I forgot to mention earlier, Mitch. It's 200 dollars per clamp. There are four clamps here, so you didn't pay enough."

My anger instantly flared up. I jumped out of the ambulance and stormed over to him. "Have you lost your mind? 200 dollars per lock? Why don't you just go rob people instead? If something happens to Mom, I won't let you off the hook! Hurry up and unlock them now!"

Jake looked at me with a wronged expression. "I'm just following the rules and regulations, Mitch. Can you please not make things difficult for me?

"The unlocking fees may be a little expensive, but it'll get your mom to the hospital faster. You wouldn't be so cheap that you won't even pay that, right?"

I jabbed a finger at his face and roared, "You dare to take money like this? Have you no shame?"

The smile on Jake's face froze, and he said indifferently, "Fine, Mitch. If you don't want to pay, then forget it. You can think of some other way yourself."

But my car had already been clamped in the garage. If the ambulance also stayed clamped, how was I supposed to get Kelly to the hospital?

Nothing like this had ever happened before. But the moment Jake showed up, cars started getting clamped.

At the end of the day, this was all just a setup targeting me. I just didn't know what I'd done to offend him.

Was I supposed to pay him to unclamp my car every single time from now on? I refused to encourage this lawless behavior of his.

"Jake Gould, this is a matter of life and death," I said, my face hardening. "Unlock them right now! My wife sponsored you and even helped you find a part-time job so you could earn some money. She didn't do any of that just so you could make things difficult for me."

Jake looked at me with disdain. "What does Jen sponsoring me have to do with you? You're the one who's unwilling to pay the fees. How is it my fault?"

I was just about to respond when a familiar voice came from behind.

"What's going on?"

It was my wife, Jenna Hudgens. I immediately turned around, wanting to explain the situation to her, but Jake moved faster.

He rushed up to her, looking aggrieved, and complained, "Jen, does being sponsored by you mean I'm somehow inferior to others? I may be a security guard, but I still have my dignity. Mitch keeps humiliating me just because he's a homeowner here. Have I done something wrong?"

Hearing Jake downplay the situation, I hurriedly explained, "Jen, Mom suddenly collapsed. We need to rush her to the hospital right now. Jake clamped the ambulance, and he's charging 200 dollars per lock to remove them. Isn't that just ridiculous?

"Hurry and tell him to unlock them. Mom's already in bad shape. We can't afford any more delays."

I thought Jenna would be on my side. After all, the person lying in the ambulance was her own mother, and it was a life-or-death situation.

What I didn't expect, however, was that when she opened her mouth, it was to scold me.

"Mitch McLaren, what is wrong with you? This is Jake's first day as a security guard, so he's surely following orders from his superiors. Can you stop making things difficult for him?

"And besides, your mom looks to be in very good health. Why would she even need an ambulance? If you ask me, she's just bored."

For a second, I almost couldn't catch my breath. No wonder Jenna didn't seem worried at all. She thought the person who'd collapsed was my mother.

With someone backing him up, Jake immediately put on an aggrieved expression again. "Jen, tell Mitch that I'm just following the rules and regulations. If he wants the locks removed, he'll need to pay. Please don't make things difficult for someone who's just trying to do their job, okay?"

Jenna frowned and ordered me, "Did you hear that? If you want to take your mom to the hospital, then hurry up and pay him to have the locks removed. Stop causing trouble for no reason!"

My heart sank, and suddenly, I didn't feel like arguing with Jenna anymore.

It wasn't about the money—I had plenty of it. What angered me was Jenna and Jake's attitude.

Even though Kelly wasn't my mother, she had always treated me well. I gritted my teeth and stepped forward to transfer another 600 dollars to Jake.

"Can you unlock the clamps now?"

Jake gave me a small smirk, then quietly leaned in close to my ear and mocked, "See? You should've done this from the start, but you just had to go against me. Did you really think Jen would take your side?"

I felt something bubble inside me, but Kelly's condition mattered more. I didn't want to waste another second arguing with him, so I hurried back to the ambulance.

Kelly was Jenna's mother, after all, so I urged her, "What are you standing there for, Jen? Hurry up and get in!"

She shot me an impatient look. "You can just go by yourself. She's making such a big fuss over a little illness. She only knows how to trouble people."

"We really need to leave now. The patient's condition doesn't look good," Dr. Goldberg called out. "Let's go."

Trevor quickly started the ambulance and drove toward the exit. Just as we reached the main gate, the ambulance came to a sudden stop.

"Why did we stop? We need to leave," I said, panicking.

Trevor's exasperated voice came from the front. "We can't leave. The gate's been locked."

What?

I felt like I was about to fall apart. I'd just unlocked the clamps on the ambulance, and now the main gate was locked, too?

Trevor shouted toward the security booth, "What's going on with this complex? Open the gate right now! There's a patient in the ambulance who needs to be taken to the hospital right away!"

Jake sauntered over from a distance. "Stop shouting. I'm the only one on duty today. I'm the one who locked the gate."

I glared at him. "I already paid you. Why did you go and lock the gate now? This is an ambulance! An ambulance—do you even understand that? It's here to save a patient! Open the gate right now!"

But Jake only looked even angrier than I felt and shot me a glare. "So what if it's an ambulance? This is a residential complex. No one gets any special privileges. Everyone must follow the community's rules and regulations."

"Didn't we already follow your rules? So, why aren't you letting us out now?" I demanded, extremely anxious.

"Mitch, it's not that I don't want to let you out," he said with a sigh. "But when the ambulance arrived earlier, it didn't park in the designated spot. That's a violation of community regulations and requires a fine."

"You just need to pay the fine, and I'll open the gate for you."

I was beyond shocked. "Fine? I called for an ambulance inside my own residential complex, and now I need to pay a fine? I'm a homeowner here!"

"Who gave you the authority to issue fines?" I snapped again, anger surging through me. "I'm telling you right now—I'm not paying that fine! You'd better open that gate right now!"

The next second, his expression suddenly changed. His lips trembled, and he looked so wronged that he was about to cry.

"Jen, my supervisor, the head of security, said anyone who doesn't park according to regulations must pay a fine, or else he'll dock my wages.

"Even though you sponsor me, I don't want to keep spending your money. I'm really not deliberately targeting Mitch, but no matter what I say, he refuses to pay the fine. If I let him through, my supervisor will definitely punish me."

I turned around and realized that Jenna had followed us out at some point.

She shot me a look of disgust after hearing his words. "I followed you out here precisely because I was worried you'd bully Jake if I wasn't around. And sure enough, here you are bullying him. How can you be so vile?

"Jake's still so young. Why must you make things so hard for him?"