Chapter 7
The officer could not hold back an eye roll and muttered under his breath,
“Idiot.”
Before Gerard could even respond, another officer burst through the door,
panting.
“We got him! Gustavo Aguirre was caught at the intercity bus station!”
Gustavo was pushed inside, struggling as they brought him in. Elise instinctively tried to shrink behind Gerard.
However, the moment Gustavo spotted her, he locked eyes with her and, without hesitation, dropped to his knees in panic. “Ms. Moreau! You’ve got to save me! I did everything you told me to! You promised to pay my mom’s hospital bills and give me a big reward!”
Elise’s face turned white, then red, and white back again.
“What nonsense are you spouting about, you lowly cook. Don’t slander me! I don’t even know what you’re talking about! Why would I care about your sick mother?”
Gustavo was stunned by how quickly she turned her back on him and snapped.
“You’re the one who came to me first! You said my mother’s treatment would cost a fortune, and promised you’d take care of everything if I just did a few things for you!
“And now you’re pretending like it never happened? Everything I did, I did for my mom! You told me that once Adrienne was trapped in the cold storage, I just needed to jam the window, burn her recipe notes, and trick
Mr. Toussaint into thinking she’d already left!
“You said if I helped ruin her completely and forced her out of the cafe, no one would ever trace it back to me!”
All eyes shifted to Elise.
She panicked and waved her hands frantically. She stammered, “N–No! He’s lying! He’s completely crazy, don’t listen to him! He’s mentally unstable and must be hallucinating!”
As she backed away in fright, she kept waving her hands.
Suddenly, she bumped into someone, and when she turned around, she saw Gerard staring back at her.
His face was dark.
“Tell me the truth. Did you tell him to do this?”
“Of course not,” she blurted out immediately.
Even with all the evidence piling up, Elise clung to her usual tricks.
She teared up, leaning into Gerard and murmuring sweetly,
“Gerard, how could you think that of me? You know me–I’m gentle and kind. I would never hurt anyone!
“Oh! I remember now! Gustavo tried to spy on me while I was changing a while back. I caught him red–handed. He must be holding a grudge!
“Gerard, please, don’t doubt me…”
As always, Gerard’s heart softened at her tears.
So, he turned to the officers and declared, “You see? Elise would never
do something like that. She was shaken when she heard about the accident. How could someone so pure and sweet possibly be the mastermind of all this?”
Since the day Elise came into his life, he had always been like this.
288 Vouchers
Even when Elise purposely knocked over my key ingredients in the kitchen and nearly ruined a big order, Gerard brushed it off, swayed by
her sweet little act.
“You’ve been doing this longer than she has, so what’s the harm in giving her a break? She just knocked something over by accident. You didn’t get hurt, so why are you being so petty and picking on her?”
Gerard had no idea.
I had already pulled several all–nighters just to prepare for that order at that point.
Elise chose the worst possible moment to sabotage me, and I almost could not recover from the setback.
Even the police could not bear to watch Gerard’s blind favoritism
anymore.
At this moment, they were all staring at him like he had completely lost it.
