Patricia was still staring at the reservation screen when the elevator doors opened behind Ethan.
A man in a dark suit stepped into the lobby, speaking into a headset as he reviewed something on his phone.
He took three steps, looked toward the front desk, and stopped so abruptly that the guest behind him nearly walked into his back.
His name was Daniel Mercer, the general manager of the Grand Regent Hotel.
He knew Ethan immediately.
“Mr.
Vance?”
The words crossed the lobby with enough force to make Patricia’s fingers freeze over the keyboard.
Karla’s smile vanished.
Ethan turned slowly, careful not to wake Lily.
Daniel hurried toward him.
“Mr.
Vance, I didn’t know you had arrived.
Corporate told me your flight was delayed.
I was expecting—”
He stopped when he saw Ethan’s face.
Then the sleeping child.
Then the roses.
Then Patricia and Karla.
Daniel understood that something had happened before anyone explained it.
Ethan lowered his voice.
“My daughter needs to sleep.”
“Of course.” Daniel looked at Patricia.
“His key.”
Patricia moved instantly now.
“Yes.
Yes, absolutely.”
Her hands shook as she reached for a key packet.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“Why wasn’t it already prepared?”
Patricia opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Lupita remained beside the luggage cart, saying nothing.
Ethan noticed that.
He also noticed Karla step half a pace backward, as though distance might separate her from the conversation she had been part of only moments earlier.
Patricia finally managed, “There was a problem with the reservation display.”
Ethan looked at her.
“No,” he said quietly.
“There was a problem before you looked at the display.”
Silence.
Daniel’s gaze moved from Patricia to Karla.
“What happened?”
Ethan could have answered.
He did not.
Instead, he looked at Lupita.
“Would you tell him?”
Lupita hesitated.
Her eyes moved to Patricia, then Karla, then Daniel.
She had worked at the Grand Regent for almost nine years.
She understood hotel hierarchies.
She knew how quickly one sentence from a housekeeper could be dismissed as misunderstanding or attitude.
But Ethan waited.
So she spoke.
“Mr.
Vance asked for his reservation.
Patricia said she couldn’t find it.
