Chapter 3

I'd barely settled into the car.

Ella shook her head. "Marina really can't tell gold from gravel, letting a catch like you walk."

"And treating a con man like a treasure instead."

"It's honestly hilarious."

So my read had been right. Otis was no Michelin head chef.

No culinary god either.

All of it was just packaging cooked up to fool the James family.

"Miss Harding."

"How do you know so much about what goes on with the James family?"

I asked, curious.

"I've got someone on the inside."

"This time I finally caught my chance."

Ella's mouth curved, and she passed me a contract. "Anything you don't like, just say the word. We'll put it all in writing."

"I promise you won't come out short."

I opened the contract.

The terms Ella was offering this time were even better.

Not only would I be head chef, at a salary of thirty thousand.

She was giving me twenty percent equity too.

Plus a house and a car on top of that.

Worlds better than the James family!

I didn't think it over long. I picked up the pen and signed.

Three years wasted.

My savings had run dry.

It was time I started planning for my own future.

"Here's to working together!"

"I'll take you to buy some new clothes, then throw you a welcome dinner."

Ella was so thrilled she nearly danced on the spot.

Come to think of it, Marina and I were together five years, three of them at her family's restaurant.

She never once bought me a decent set of clothes.

Even the shoes she'd just made me take off.

Thirty bucks off some street vendor's stall.

Meanwhile, whatever dress or outfit she wanted, she'd basically always have me foot the bill.

I changed into the new clothes and went with Ella to her restaurant.

Every one of the staff came out and applauded.

They'd even hung a banner up high: 【Welcome, Chef God Fox!】

Everyone called me Head Chef Fox.

It was treatment I'd never once gotten at the James place.

There it had only ever been "kid" this, "kid" that.

Partway through the meal, I glanced at my phone and saw Nathan had posted on social media.

【Our previous cook was let go for stealing. We've now brought on Michelin Chef God Gilbert!】

【Better flavor! More attentive service!】

【For the next three days, the restaurant is running a fifteen-percent-off promotion. We welcome all our old and new customers!】

In the photo, the James family and their relatives were raising their glasses together in a toast to Otis.

I was stunned.

Never once thought I'd be smeared the moment I left.

And Marina still didn't say a word to set the record straight for me.

She liked the post instead.

Which set off a whole crowd of longtime customers talking about me in the comments.

"God, Chef Fox looked so honest. Turns out he's this kind of person behind the scenes?"

"Stealing from his own future in-laws? That's just no morals at all!"

"No wonder I heard Marina broke up with him."

Reading through every line of it.

I replied once: "I did nothing wrong."

And a second later it was deleted.

I shook my head, and all I could do was lift my glass and down it in one.

Marina!

Your family has really left nothing decent undone...

The welcome dinner ended.

Ella dropped me off at my new place.

I was just about to go shower when Marina suddenly called.

"Vincent."