i lied to my gf about her missing meatball and feel so guilty

so a few weeks ago my (31F) gf (28F) had a plate of these meatballs she was snacking on while playing a game on her pc. She didnt eat them all & forgot to send the rest to the fridge when she got up and left to sit in the living room. she has a terrible habit of leaving food out for hrs before heating it up again (I know, I hate it too) & hours after abandoning them had asked me to put her leftover meatballs in the microwave for her. OK.

I found them & then near her desk on the floor was the remnants of a meatball. I knew right away that one of our cats stole a meatball & ate most of it. I cleaned it up but my gf is super picky about her food & would question it, because she likes to eat things like this in even numbers.

So I heated her now odd-numbered of meatballs up & gave it to her, and when she asked about the missing meatball I said I ate it, because I know as a fact if she knew a cat took a meatball she wouldn't eat any of the remaining ones. She doesn't hate my cats she just is autistic and has a lot of rules about her food.

I feel so guilty & bad for lying but she was so excited about these meatballs & would have trashed the rest if she knew that one of the cats took one 😣