Sweet Subterfuge

Chapter 19

Her assistant’s tone was urgent as she spoke. “There’s an emergency at the hotel. You need to come over and handle it in person.” Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

Reluctantly, Larissa climbed out of her bed and changed. She hadn’t even gotten the time to put on her makeup before she hastily drove to the Regal Dynasty Hotel.

Her assistant was waiting for her in the parking lot. As soon as she saw Larissa’s car, she immediately stepped forward and opened the car door for her.

“What’s going on?” Larissa asked before she had even stepped out of her car.

“One hour ago, the guest who checked into room 2510 last night, called and said that she had lost one of her gold necklaces and that she suspected that it was stolen by one of our cleaning staff. I asked the two cleaning staff who were responsible for cleaning up the room and they said that they never saw any gold necklace when they were in the room. The guest called the police and they’re now upstairs, trying to make sense of the situation,” the assistant explained as she matched Larissa’s footsteps, her heels clicking noisily on the floor as they walked quickly to the hotel.

“Room 2510?” Larissa raised an eyebrow.

If she wasn’t mistaken, that was the room Andrew and his girlfriend were in.

When they’d both arrived, Larissa spotted Andrew and his girlfriend immediately.

There were also three uniformed police officers with them in the room and the two cleaning staff from the hotel.

Larissa knocked on the door twice out of habit. All heads turned in her direction upon hearing her knocking.

She introduced herself. “Apologies for the intrusion, my name is Larissa Seymour. I’m the manager of the housekeeping department here at the Regal Dynasty.”

Kara had met her the day before and remembered her clearly. She just hadn’t known who she was then.

“The manager of the housekeeping department? Are you Andrew’s sister-in-law, then?” Kara was a little surprised, but she quickly regained her composure. “In that case, that’s perfect.” She pointed at the cleaning staff standing helplessly on one side. “I want their persons searched at once and their work area scouted.”

“Of course,” Larissa agreed. “But under one condition.” Her words turned sharp.

“What condition?” Kara asked.

“If we don’t find your necklace after the search, I want you to apologize to our two cleaning staff.” Larissa stood primly, her attitude unrelenting.

Kara did not expect that. She was taken aback by Larissa’s request, slight displeasure coating her features.

Andrew, on the other hand, questioned Larissa directly. “What if they hid the

necklace somewhere else? What if they’d thrown the necklace away before coming here because they’re afraid of being sent to jail?”

“We can check the surveillance cameras too.” Larissa remained calm, having dealt with many similar incidents in the past. “Our hotel has surveillance cameras in all corners, providing excellent coverage.

You don’t have to worry.”

Kara personally searched the two cleaning staff, but she couldn’t find anything on them. Their work area had been turned upside down too, but the necklace was nowhere to be found. Eventually, they went to the security room to check on the

surveillance cameras.

They spent the entire afternoon watching the security footage but found nothing.

The two cleaning staff were either cleaning up rooms, organizing their equipment in the work area, or having lunch in the staff cafeteria.

Every place they went, including the work area, corridors, lifts, and the cafeteria was covered with 360- degree surveillance cameras that recorded their every action, and there was nothing suspicious in their behavior.

Larissa had even sent someone to check all the rooms they’d cleaned earlier, as per Andrew and Kara’s request, but the necklace was nowhere to be found.

Even the police had concluded at the end of the day that the necklace had not been taken away by the hotel’s cleaning staff.

In the evening, all of them returned to room 2510.

Larissa addressed Kara, “Now that we’ve kept our end of the promise, can you apologize to our cleaning staff?”

Kara pressed her lips together, seemingly unwilling to apologize.

Andrew spoke up for her. “What promise? You were the one who made that one- sided request. We never even agreed to it!”