The two receptionists stared at him. That last name was carved into the gold-leaf signage in the corporate boardroom upstairs.
Karla completely lost her breath. Patricia looked down at her screen, as if the confirmed corporate reservation was suddenly screaming an impossible, terrifying truth back at her.
“Vance?” she whispered.
Ethan didn’t give her an answer. Neither did Lupita.
Within three minutes, the elevator doors slid open, and Robert Sterling, the general manager, emerged, frantically adjusting his black suit jacket as he hurried across the lobby. He looked irritated by the interruption, but the moment his eyes landed on Ethan, his posture completely collapsed.
“Mr. Vance… sir, I had no idea you were arriving tonight.”
“That was the entire point, Robert.”
The general manager swallowed hard, looking between Ethan and his terrified front-desk staff. “I am incredibly sorry for any administrative confusion—”
“It wasn’t confusion, Robert,” Ethan cut him off cleanly. “It was profiling.”
Lily stirred against his shoulder, blinking her groggy, sleep-swollen eyes as she looked around the brightly lit lobby. “Daddy… are we at the hotel room yet?”
Ethan kissed her forehead gently. “Yeah, sweetie. We’re heading up right now.”
Lupita took a step forward, gesturing to the elevator. “If you’d like, sir, I can escort you and the little girl up to the suite myself. I’ll bring the vase up and get her a warm glass of milk.”
Lily looked at Lupita with the innate, uncorrupted intuition of a child who recognizes safety without needing an introduction. “Can you carry my bunny too?”
Lupita smiled warmly. “Your bunny is getting the V.I.P. treatment tonight, sweetheart.”
