When confronted with this information, Cid and Betty held her responsible for their financial fall and pointed the finger at her for embezzling five million dollars. After all, she was the manager, and the buck stopped at her doorstep.
She finally got it. Dough had set her up right from the start. He was never in love with her.
Now, in the same mess as she believed he was once in, her bosses were accusing her of a crime she had no knowledge of or committed.
When the scandal broke about Gourmet Treats, the media had a field day, and people in Carson City and New York were gossiping like guests at a hen party.
A few individuals believed Passion and Dough were in on the fraud.
Others thought Cid and his wife Betty moved the money to an offshore account to avoid paying taxes.
Some reflected, It was strange that the owners would sell their business to complete strangers and not first have their lawyer investigate these so-called financiers.
The circumstances under which the deception took place were mind-boggling.
Nevertheless, Passion had an ultimatum: Either she would have to repay all of the money, or Cid and Betty would press charges against her. Since she did not have that kind of cash, she was prepared to go to prison.
After six months of probing and legal finagling, all the evidence pointed to Passion; she decided to plea no contest to fraud and received ten years' probation, and as restitution, she had to relinquish all of her personal assets and real property to Cid and Betty. They would also garnish any future income until all five million dollars was paid in full.
Because Passion had no criminal record, she got off easy. Many of her loyal customers, friends, and relatives came to her defense and spoke very highly of her.
After learning that Dough had once served time for misappropriation of funds, everyone guessed that he and he alone was behind the offense.
Countless people thought the owners of Gourmet Treats treated her unjustly; they knew deep down in their hearts that she would have never committed such a diabolical act; it was not in her nature. The fact that she worked for these people for over twenty years and made bundles of money for both shops meant nothing to them. They went after her as a cat would go after a mouse, without mercy.
At the end, Passion did share some of the blame for her own stupidity. By not doing a comprehensive background check on Dough, she had premeditated her own downfall.
A year had gone by, and Passion was now living in a boarding house with five other people. The environment was a complete contrast to where she had once lived. She occupied a room, had to share the bathroom and kitchen with the other tenants and worked as a pastry chef at a neighborhood restaurant in Reno.