Vincent

Chapter Thirteen

The following Saturday morning, Vincent and Chelsea were lounging on the couch relaying the exciting news to Chelsea's parents. Her parents were surprised but pleased with the news and they were planning on visiting Chelsea and Vincent soon. After they got off the phone with Chelsea's parents, they called Vincent's parents and told them the news. Vincent's mom was overwhelmed with emotion and started crying tears of joy. Meanwhile, his dad was speechless but happy. While Chelsea and Vincent were snuggling on the living room couch, Vincent's work phone rang. He saw the caller ID and went to the kitchen to take the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Vincent."

"Hey, Malachi, what's up?"

"I have bad news."

Vincent sighed, "ok, what is it?"

"It's Katelyn," he paused and then continued, "she's the one that's been smuggling money from the company for a couple of months now. The way that she's been able to do this without being caught tells me that this is not the first time she's done this before. When the PI further investigated her, he came across the fact that Katelyn was fired from a previous job and was arrested for fraud. Surprisingly, the fraudulent charges were dropped against her. What's even crazier is that the PI discovered that Katelyn's been in a relationship with Aaron for a few months now too."  

Vincent was speechless, his mind was racing with everything Malachi just told him. 

"Vincent, you still there?" 

"Yeah, sorry. I'm shocked. I don't know what to say honestly."

"I know, you're not the only one who's surprised."

"So let me get this straight, she was arrested before for fraudulent charges right?"

"Yes."

"And the charges were dismissed against her?"

"Yes."

"And now she's been dating Aaron for a couple months?"

"Yeah."

"How did this happen? She fooled me so easily," Vincent asked.

"Well, did you do a background check when you hired her?"

"No, I didn't. I just took Aaron's word since he's one of my closest friends."

"There's your mistake. I know you and Aaron are close but you can't afford to make this mistake again. Especially because you ran a background check on the rest of your employees except her. You see what I'm saying?" 

"Yeah you're right. Lesson learned for sure." Vincent exhaled, he felt a headache coming on all of a sudden. "So what should we do now?" he asked. 

"Well, we need to act immediately. Upon terminating her employment, she will be arrested. I've already started the paperwork to start her trial in court."

"Damn," Vincent said, "I know she deserves this, but a small part of me hates the fact that I'll be taking her to court."

"Look, I know deep down you're a compassionate man but, you have to look at this from a different angle. Katelyn has already been charged with fraud before but she got away with it for whatever reason we don't know. I know you thought of her as a friend since she helped you start the mill, but in all honesty, she was just using you. She's made her bed and now she has to lie in it."

"You're right," he paused, "I'll email her first thing tomorrow regarding her termination. Thank you for your help Malachi, I really appreciate it."

"No problem man. That's what I'm here for. I have to take care of few things, so I'll talk to you later."

"Alright, take care."

Vincent hung up the phone and then turned and saw Chelsea leaning against the kitchen countertop.

"Hey babe, how long have you've been standing there?"

"I just came. Is everything okay? You seem a bit tense."

Vincent grabbed her hand, "let's go sit on the couch." They sat on the couch and faced each other, "so I just got off the phone with Malachi and he figured out who has been stealing the money."

Chelsea had a look of apprehension, "who was it?" she asked softly.

"Katelyn."

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