Seducing The Chef (18+) (Billionaire Series #2)

25. Ravioli

"What happened?" I asked fervently.

"Five thousand dollars is missing from the accounts."

"What?" I asked astonished by the news. "But I made sure to submit all the money and receipts to Vincent at the end of each day." Vincent keeps all the money away and then every week on a particular day he goes to the bank to deposit it.

"Vincent didn't receive any money the whole week."

"But I've been depositing it to him," then I remembered nowadays Vincent and I are both in a hurry to go home to have sex. I kept all the money in the drawer so that I could deposit to him later. "Oh I am sorry but I didn't make any deposit for the last few days. Also the cash register was not working so I kept the money in the drawer." I kneeled down to opened the drawer with the key that I keep in my purse.

I open it to see it empty. Now I was starting to panic a little. I frantically searched for the money in the other places but it wasn't there. It was supposed to be here. I clearly remember keeping it locked inside. I even searched inside the new cash register but I couldn't find anything.

"It isn't here. I swear John I kept it here."

"Its because you took it," said one of the uniformed people coming towards us.

I looked at him with a confused expression on my face. "I am sorry- I forgot to introduce myself. I am Detective Bentley. John called me to investigate this case," he said to the crowd of staff surrounding us.

"I didn't steal it. I was a bit careless with my deposits but I didn't take it."

"You're the only one who is behind that cash register all the time. You're the only one who has the keys to the cash register. In fact you just admitted to being careless with the money so maybe you have taken more money in the past."

"Excuse me. You can't behave with my staff like that," Vincent said barging into the conversation. What the hell was he doing here? I thought he was at his parents' house.

"You came to work instead of going to your parents' place?"

"I- Eleanora."

"Your parents weren't robbed right? You lied to me. But why?"

His silence comfirmed my suspicion. That realization made me very sad. No wonder he wanted me to stay home so that I couldn't escape with all the money. Even he suspected me. I was angry and disappointed at him at the same time. This was all too overwhelming to me.

"Can you leave Eleanora out of this?" Vincent asked with desperation in his eyes. "This matter can be resolved calmly. Also it isn't that big of a deal. You guys are breathing down her neck. "
"No we can't let this go that easily. First your ex girlfriend escaped with a lot of money and now this happened. We're already going through a major crisis. If this restaurant fails you can easily walk away and join your rich dad's huge business empire. But what about all these people? But they'll be unemployed."

"This place means more to me than anything. You think I'll walk away and join my dad's business? Never. I walked away from that ages ago and I never plan on getting back."

"Then fire Eleanora right now."

"We don't even have enough proof against her. You can't fire her!" He looked enraged by the accusation made on me. Maybe he didn't suspect me but hiding this from me wasn't the best idea either. He looked at me," Eleanora come to my room. We need to talk in private."

"Why can't you talk to her here? You are gonna take her to the room to - fuck her as always? That's how she will convince you to drop the matter," there was a collective gasp around the room but most of them weren't too shocked. Its like they knew about what we were doing behind closed doors. I wished the ground would open up and swallow me in.

"John!" He raised his hand and was about to hit John but he stopped himself.

"You think you guys do a good job of hiding this from others so well? Well you're wrong. Its very obvious. Also you guys even live together. Elijah told us."

My head was spinning with all the things that were being dropped on me. I needed to get out of here. "I've to go," with that I dashed out of the restaurant. Lisa followed me but I was out of the restaurant in no time and so she couldn't follow me. I ran till I was out of breath.

Unfortunately it started raining. I didn't want to go to Vincent's place but I didn't have any choice.

I hated myself for being so dependent on Vincent. I went back to the house and locked myself inside my room. I cried my eyes out. Marmalade was quite confused about the situation so he just purred and hid under the bed.

After some time I heard Vincent knocking on my door. "Eleanora open the door."

"Go away."

"Please open the door. We need to talk."

"Leave me alone please. I need some time to myself," immediately he stopped knocking.

I don't know how many hours passed but I cried the whole day. Everything dawned upon me. I realized after my mom died I had become everyone's burden. First I was my grandpa's burden and now I'm Vincent's. I didn't even have anyone close to me left in this world. I couldn't believe how easily John accused me. John and I weren't too close but I thought he trusted me. I worked hard at the restaurant which even John noticed. How can he just blame me like that?

...

The next day I decided not to go to work. I needed to figure out who was the main culprit and I was hell bent on catching it by myself.

Lisa has been calling me from last night but I didn't pick up so she finally texted in the morning.

Can we PLEASE meetup? We need to talk.

I replied.

Okay but where?

I was at the cafe, which Lisa suggest, within an hour. I ordered myself a big breakfast while Lisa got herself a coffee. "You didn't have your breakfast, yet?" Lisa asked sipping on her cappuccino.

"Or lunch. Or dinner. Yesterday," I replied as I ate the toast.

"I am sorry for what happened at the restaurant yesterday. I honestly didn't know you and Vincent had something going on between you guys."

"Yeah. Remember the friends with benefits thing I mentioned that I was having with someone. It was Vincent."

"Ooohh really? Girl he hot. You got yourself a good one!" I laughed. I was glad that I got out with Lisa instead of sulking inside my room.

"Why aren't you at work?" I asked. Lisa ended up ordering a breakfast platter for herself as it looked quite good, even though she had breakfast already.

"I am protesting. They behaved rudely with you. Especially John. I can't believe I used to find him cute."

"Hey don't miss work. I don't want you to get in trouble because of me."

"No I am not. Trust me. Besides I wasn't in the mood to go to work either. Let's have a fun day!"

"But.."

"I don't want to hear any excuses. We are going to the mall," after we finished breakfast she dragged me to the nearest shopping mall. Its been ages since I have gone on a shopping spree.

I don't usually buy anything for myself as I try to save money as much as possible to pay back Vincent. But today I didn't care. I needed some retail therapy. We tried on outfits and most of the time we were window shopping but we did get ourselves some clothes and shoes.

"Hey Liz do you remember my cash register breaking down and I had to keep the money in the drawer?"

"Yeah. What about that?" Lisa was trying on a pair of earrings in front of the mirror.

"Who else knew about that?"

She looked at me," Oh I'm not too sure. You and I of course. Vincent And... Elijah! Remember he tried fixing the cash register?"

...