Chapter 8\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 8\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three months after winning the case, I opened a small shop in the village selling daily necessities and snacks. Business was pretty decent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My baby was three months old now, smiling and babbling. Watching him grow a little more each day made all the hardship worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That afternoon, I was organizing shelves in the store when little Tommy from the village rushed in. \u201cElena, someone\u2019s looking for you outside. They\u2019re driving a really nice car.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My heart skipped, thinking it might be Gabriel again, but when I went outside, I saw a middle-aged stranger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you Ms. Elena Foster?\u201d the man asked politely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I am. And you are?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the legal department director at Cross Corporation.\u201d The man handed me a business card. \u201cI\u2019d like to discuss some matters regarding Mr. Gabriel Hayes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked at the card. Cross Corporation was a big company \u2013 what did they have to do with Gabriel?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Gabriel Hayes is a project manager at our company, but we recently discovered he\u2019s suspected of embezzling project funds.\u201d The man looked serious. \u201cOur investigation shows most of this money was spent on personal expenses, luxury items, and such.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
My heart jolted, remembering Vera\u2019s gold bracelet and expensive clothes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does this have to do with me?\u201d I asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring our investigation, we found that Mr. Hayes repeatedly claimed these expenses were for family needs, including your medical bills and such.\u201d The man paused. \u201cWe need your cooperation to verify whether these claims are true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I immediately understood \u2013 Gabriel had blamed all the money he\u2019d spent on Vera on me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can cooperate with the investigation.\u201d My voice was calm \u201cBut I need to see the specific records.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man pulled out a file from his bag. \u201cThese are his expense records. You can look through them and tell us what was actually spent on you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I flipped through those records, my heart grew colder and colder,\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the baby\u2019s birth until I left, I hadn\u2019t seen a penny of any expenses Gabriel had claimed externally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All those supposed nutritional supplements, baby supplies, and medical costs were lies he\u2019d made up to cover where the money really went.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can provide written testimony.\u201d I closed the file. \u201cThis money definitely wasn\u2019t spent on me and my child.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A week later, Gabriel was fired from the company and faced criminal charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the news reached the village, Aunt Martha shook her head. \u201cThat kind of person was bound to get what\u2019s coming to him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t feel any satisfaction from his misfortune just exhaustion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man I\u2019d once loved desperately had been a fraud from beginning to end.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That night, I got a call from Vera.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all your fault, bitch!\u201d she screamed hysterically. \u201cIf you hadn\u2019t ratted him out, none of this would\u2019ve happened!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
09:59\u00a0<\/p>\n
You Thought Cilantro Was Just a Flavor? It\u2019s Actually My EU Cheater!\u00a0<\/p>\n
12.8%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 8\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t rat out anyone.\u201d My voice was calm. \u201cHe did what he did, now he\u2019s dealing with the consequences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think you\u2019re so high and mighty?\u201d Vera\u2019s voice was sharp as a knife \u201cHe\u2019s unemployed now \u2013 what are me and my kid supposed to do?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not my problem.\u201d I hung up directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holding my baby by the window, looking at the distant mountains and peaceful night, I felt for the first time how quiet and beautiful the world\u00a0<\/p>\n
could be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All that messy drama from the past could finally be turned to a closed chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(0)\u00a0<\/p>\n
(0)\u00a0<\/p>\n
13.29%\u00a0<\/p>\n
You Thought Cilantro Was Just a Flavor? It\u2019s Actually My FU, Cheater! by Mark Twain 17 Chapter 8\u00a0 Chapter 8\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cilantro-taste-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}