by Suzanne Hart
I grabbed her hand and gently tugged her out of the elevator.
“We should go find your daddy, he’s probably really worried right now,” I said and the girl followed my lead.
“No, he’s not worried. He’s never worried about me,” I heard the girl say. When I turned to look at her, I noticed a hint of sadness in her eyes. That was a strange thing for a little girl to say, but now wasn’t the time to stop and think about it.
I rushed to the reception desk with the girl in tow, hoping that we could find her father soon. Jackson had given me a task to do and not only was I late for it, now I was responsible for a child who I had separated from her parent.
This was not the exciting start to my first day that I’d been hoping for.
Chapter 4
Felix
I’d lost Cici, but I wasn’t worried. When she slipped into the elevator and the doors closed on her, I’d already noticed that there was a member of staff inside. I knew she’d be taken care of, probably dropped off to reception and eventually brought back to me. Right now, what I needed to do was get to the meeting.
I’d waited for the elevator next to the one Cici had gotten into and I took it up to the top floor of the hotel where the conference rooms were located. My secretary had been waiting there for me and she rattled off my schedule for the day and other bits of information as I walked straight to the conference room.
The three people inside, my core team, all stood up when I entered and the meeting commenced.
I thought very little of Cici in that hour while I was in the conference room. I was secretly glad that she’d found her way to a member of staff at that opportune moment, because I wouldn’t have had the time or the patience to keep her occupied during the meeting.
I took the time to fill the team in on the news of my meetings in Istanbul and, all in all, it was a successful meeting. I was all set for my trip to New York that night.
When the meeting ended, I called for Joan, my secretary, who came running into the room.
“Where is Cici?” I asked her matter-of-factly.
“Excuse me, Mr. Stone?” Joan looked confused.
“Cecilia, my daughter. Where is she?” I clarified, and Joan looked around the room in further confusion like she had no idea what I was talking about.
“Is she supposed to be here?” Joan asked and I stared at her with my brows crossed.
“Hasn’t reception called yet about my daughter? I thought they would by now. I left her downstairs — well, in the elevator — before I came up to the meeting,” I explained to Joan and I could see the color draining from her cheeks. I could see that she was beginning to panic.
“Sir, you left your daughter in the elevator?” she asked, in a quivering voice.
“Yeah, well, not alone. There was a member of staff in there with her. A young-looking girl, blond hair, blue eyes.” I tried to remember what the girl looked like. Joan had already reached for the phone that was on my side.
“What did you tell the girl? You told her to take Cecilia to the reception?” Joan asked as she dialed the number. I shrugged my shoulders.
“No, I figured she would do that on her own. I was late for the meeting already,” I said. Joan was already speaking into the phone.
“Uh-huh, okay, how long ago was that? And who is this girl? Okay, I’ll let Mr. Stone know and then I’m coming down.” Joan banged down the phone and she breathed hard before she spoke to me.
“Seems like the girl you are talking about — who is new, by the way — brought a little girl to reception. The girl said her name was Cici and nobody… Sir, nobody in the staff knows her because you don’t bring your daughter to the hotel much.” Joan spoke quickly, panicking.
I stood up from my chair, buttoning up my suit.
“Where is she now?” I growled, angry at the incompetence of the staff.
“Well, sir, nobody knew who she was and the little girl didn’t seem to know where her father was either, so the girl…the new girl…her name is Nora or Nancy or something, took her to go look for her father,” Joan explained.
I had already started running out of the conference room and she was fast on my heels.
“Sir, everyone just thought she was the daughter of one of the guests and that her parents might be in the hotel somewhere,” Joan was saying. I jumped into the elevator that was waiting for me.
“Where is this new girl?” I asked and Joan shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
“The girls at the reception don’t seem to know, they’re all very busy, sir,” Joan replied, but she didn’t follow me into the elevator.
“Remind me to fire each one of them after I’ve found my daughter. How the fuck don’t they know how to deal with a lost child?” I growled as the elevator doors closed.
I cursed under my breath as I rode back down to the lobby. How had I lost Cici? How had the staff not been able to take care of my daughter? I cursed the nanny and our housekeeper, Anne, and Joan and everyone I could think of. This was all their bloody fault!
I ran out into the lobby and saw that the receptionists had already been alerted by Joan. They came rushing towards me and heads turned around us to see what the commotion was.
“Sir, should we call the police?” one of the girls asked, in a weak voice.
“Where did this girl take her?” I barked, rushing past them.
“We don’t know. She said she was going to go look for the girl’s parents and keep her entertained till then,” another girl said.
“And you people just let her, some new employee on her first day, walk away with a lost child in tow?” I was still barking at them and they cowered under my loud voice.
“We were…were very busy, sir. We didn’t think. We thought the girl’s parents might be in one of the dining rooms or in their own bedroom,” one of them said and I stopped in my tracks to turn to glare at them.
“That little girl is Cecilia Stone. She’s my daughter and you imbeciles have lost her!” I growled. One of the girls looked close to tears but I didn’t care. I shouldn’t have brought Cici here to begin with. I wasn’t capable of looking after her.
Chapter 5
Nora
I’d spent over an hour with Cici, and by now, I was sure that I had already lost my job, but I couldn’t just leave her at the reception desk. None of the people there had time to look after a lost child and Cici seemed perfectly happy in my company.
For a while, we had walked around the different dining rooms on the ground floor and Cici said that she didn’t see her father anywhere. I tried to find out if she knew which room they were staying in and she told me that they lived in a house in the city. I was both shocked and upset that her father hadn’t come looking for her yet.
My plan was to wait a little longer because I was still hoping that someone from the reception desk might come looking for her soon. If they didn’t, I would have to take her to Jackson; I was sure that he would know what to do with her.
For now, we were sitting on an ornate swing in the back gardens of the hotel. Cici was trying to swing, while I was staring at my watch—hopeful that someone somewhere would turn up with an answer.
“You all right there?” I asked her from time to time, and Cici seemed like she was having an exciting adventure. For a six-year-old girl, she didn’t seem worried or upset that she was separated from her family.
“What did you say your daddy’s name was?” I asked her again and she looked up at me with her sparkling green eyes.
“I don’t know, I just call him daddy,” she replied and I sighed heavily. What six-year-old didn’t know her own father’s name?
“Cici!” We both heard the voice at the same time and I looked up to find the man in the suit bursting through the back French windows of the hotel and rushing towards us. The girls from the reception and a handful of other staff of the hotel were following him closely. Jackson was a part of the group and I jumped off the swing, my heart sinking to the pit of my stomach.
The look on Jackson’s face told me that I was in deep trouble.
“Daddy!” Cici cried and with a giggle in her voice, she went running to her father. She didn’t suspect the drama she had created.
I watched the man in the suit now, properly for the first time, since the last time I’d seen him was just a glimpse. There was no denying that he was jaw-dropping hot. His biceps bulged under his suit as he pulled Cici into his arms and held her tightly. Over his daughter’s shoulder, he was glaring at me with his narrowed, sparkling green eyes—the same as Cici’s.
He had a clean-shaven, ruggedly sexy face. His lips were taut with anger, his dark hair was stylishly brushed back from his forehead, and I could sense immediately that he was a rich and powerful man.
“Nora! Come over here!” Jackson barked at me. Dragging my eyes away from the man in the suit, I took small, slow steps towards Jackson. I could sense the group of staff standing behind him, whispering things about me to each other.
“What on Earth do you think you’re doing?” Jackson hissed at me when I stopped in front of him.
“I was keeping her company. She got separated from her father and we couldn’t find him,” I replied in a soft voice.
“Do you know who that is?” Jackson asked through gritted teeth, leaning towards me so that the man in the suit wouldn’t overhear him.
“No, I don’t. She didn’t seem to know her father’s name,” I whispered back.
“That is Felix Stone, the owner of this hotel. That is Cecilia Stone, his daughter!” Jackson replied, and it seemed like he was dripping fire from his eyes as he spoke.
I gulped; my throat had suddenly gone very dry. I couldn’t find the appropriate words to respond to him with.
“You should have come to me immediately! You had no right to roam around the place with Cecilia Stone in tow!” Jackson raged some more.
“I’m sorry, I had no idea…” I argued humbly.
“Jackson, bring her over here,” it was the man’s voice now, a commanding growl. Jackson’s eyes dimmed, and he grabbed me by my wrist and tugged me in the direction of the man, who still had Cici in his arms.
I tried not to meet his eyes; I could sense him boring a hole through me as he glared.
“Daddy, is Nora in trouble? Why? She didn’t do anything,” Cici came to my aid, wriggling to get out of her father’s arms.
“Cici!” her father exclaimed as she skipped out of his grip and ran over to me, throwing her small arms around my legs.
“Nora, I’m sorry, it’s my fault. Daddy is very mean to everyone.” Cici was crying now and I looked up at the man. His eyes were bloodshot; he was still glaring at us.
“Cici, stop it now!” he growled, and the little girl’s arms tightened around me.
“Can I stay with you? Just a little longer? Please?” Cici begged. Fat tears were rolling down her cheeks now.
“Cici!” her father barked again, and I looked up at him with a jerk. I knew I’d lost my job already. There was no point fighting this anymore. What I couldn’t bear was him being mean to his daughter for a second longer.
“Mr. Stone, you should probably listen to what your daughter is saying. You lost her. She was your responsibility as a parent and now you’re taking it out on her.” I spoke firmly, keeping my head raised up.
“Nora, walk away, now. Pack up your things,” I heard Jackson say behind me and Felix Stone raised a hand to silence him.
“What did you just say to me?” he asked, squinting his eyes at me and he took one slow threatening step in my direction.
Chapter 6
Felix
Now that I was seeing her standing so close to me, I could see what I hadn’t seen before—that she was a beautiful young woman. The usual staff uniform looked different on her: the black pencil skirt fit her perfectly, making her hips appear shapely; the gray blouse, tucked in, stretched over her ample breasts. She had a long, delicate neck, and her shiny golden hair was tied up in a loose bun at the back of her head.
Unlike the usual faces I saw around me every day, this girl wasn’t caked with makeup. She had light, glossy pink lips and fresh-looking blue eyes, which were wide and they sparkled with pride as she stared back at me. I’d noticed a midwestern twang in her speech right away.
“I was just…I think that maybe Cici deserves some attention,” she replied, in a weaker, faltering voice. She seemed to be quickly losing the courage with which she’d spoken to me before.
“Are you trying to teach me how to parent my child?” I growled and she met my eyes, forcing herself to not look away.
“Sir, Mr. Stone, I apologize on behalf of her, she’s not trained yet; in fact, this is her first day and she’s still on trial. I’ve made my decision on whether this trial has been successful.” Jackson was speaking now, but I wasn’t looking at him. My eyes were stuck on this girl, who Cici had called Nora.
“Sir, I think maybe we should…” Jackson began to speak again, and I snapped my face around to look at him.
“Get back to work. All of you!” I barked.
“Of course, sir,” Jackson murmured and I tracked them with my eyes as he scurried away, with the rest of the staff in tow.
“I should go. I’m sorry for the confusion I’ve caused,” Nora said and I turned to look at her again. She was trying to peel Cici off her, where Cici was still stuck to her legs.
“I need you to repeat what you just said to me in front of all those people,” I said in a deep growl. I was trying to control my rage and the strange feeling of being disoriented because of how beautiful she was.
“Mr. Stone, I apologize. I spoke out of turn. I wasn’t trying to teach you how to parent, I was just…I’m just sorry. You won’t have to see my face in here ever again,” Nora replied, and this time, she had successfully managed to peel Cici away.
“No! You’re staying with me! I want to stay with you!” Cici was throwing a fuss now, with her arms up in the air and pouting to get her way.
“Honey, I’m sorry, I need to go. You take care of yourself,” Nora was speaking to Cici in a cooing voice and I could see that the two of them had formed a genuine connection in the past hour that they’d spent together.
“Sorry again, Mr. Stone. I hope you have a good day,” she said and turned from us.
“Wait!” I exclaimed and she stopped in her tracks.
“Sir?” Her voice was meek and quiet as she looked at me again.
“You don’t have to go,” I found myself saying.
“Yay! Thank you, Daddy! Thank you. You don’t have to go!” Cici squealed with excitement again and threw herself at Nora.
Nora looked surprised as she stroked Cici’s hair, who had attached herself to Nora’s legs again. She met my eyes, confused about what I really wanted from her.
“Take my daughter home. She needs someone to keep her company till the evening, till the housekeeper comes back,” I said and I slipped my hand in my pocket and took out the spare key.
Nora didn’t say a word, just reached for the key. Her eyes were wide with surprise, while Cici cheered and jumped around with excitement.
“My car will be up front, waiting to take you both back to the house,” I said and she nodded her head. If she was confused, which she obviously had to be, she wasn’t showing it.
“And when will you be back?” she asked and I crossed my brows. Nobody had asked me that question in four years and it was strange hearing it again. “For Cici, I mean,” she added.
I cleared my throat. I wasn’t prepared for a question like that. My plan was to get on the first flight to New York after lunch. I wasn’t planning on returning home for at least a week. Cici and Nora were both looking at me now, and I felt like I was put on the spot.
“In a few hours…shortly,” I replied. I didn’t even know where those words appeared from.
“You’re going to be home tonight, Daddy?” Cici asked as Nora took her hand.
“I’ll see you later, baby girl,” I told Cici a
nd I watched as they turned and started walking back into the hotel.
I stood in the garden for a few minutes longer, with my hands in the pockets of my pants, just staring up at the tall building in front of me. I had built this, I had built a luxury hotel empire through sheer hard work and good business sense; and yet, somehow, a simple question like the one Nora had just asked me had struck me with confusion. I had felt tongue-tied. When was I going home?
How long had it been since I’d spent an evening with my daughter? Today, when I thought I’d lost her, that I’d seriously fucked up…I was dying to see her again. I had just hoped that she was safe.
