Chapter 9
In the hotel lobby, many people had noticed what was happening.
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Michael steadied Ciara but kept some distance. “I can pretend I didn’t see what just happened, but I don’t want a second
time.”
Ciara heard the distance in his tone and lowered her head in panic.
She clenched her fists tight, replaying Lydia’s smug look in her mind. She blamed Lydia for her humiliation.
“Wait here. I’ll check us in,” Michael said, leaving her and heading to the front desk alone.
Ciara’s eyes, full of schemes, wandered around. Suddenly, she spotted a bellboy pushing luggage and limped slowly toward him.
In a dim hallway, Ciara handed him a thick stack of cash.
After counting the bills, the bellboy slipped her a room card. “I’m quitting tomorrow. Whatever happens after this has nothing to do with me.”
Ciara looked around and saw no cameras. She was sure no one could trace this back to them.
“Did you find the guy I asked for?” she asked.
“Yeah,” the bellboy said, hiding the cash in his shoe. “That drunk’s wasted every night. I’ve already put him in the room next to 3601. What happens next is on you.”
Ciara nodded with satisfaction and lowered her voice. “Don’t say
a
ord about this. Or we both go down.”
The bellboy nodded quickly, then walked out, acting like nothing had happened, pushing the luggage cart to the second floor.
In the dark stairwell, a cold glint flashed in Ciara’s eyes. She believed that once the room card reached that drunk, everything would fall into place.
She planned to watch Lydia lose everything with her own eyes.
Michael had just finished a business meeting in a small hotel conference room. When he pushed the door open, he saw Ciara waiting outside.
He frowned slightly. “Why did you come down?”
“I was bored alone in the room, so I came for a walk.” Ciara smiled and hooked her arm through his. “I even saw Lydia earlier. She’s in 3601.”
Michael froze for a moment, then lowered his head and called the front desk. “Please open another room for me.”
Ciara bit her lip hard. So in Michael’s heart, she was still someone who couldn’t be seen in public.
She couldn’t help but look forward to seeing Michael’s face when he found Lydia in bed with another man.
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Chapter 9
Swallowing her hate, she clung to Michael, her steps getting lighter.
When they reached 3601, they could faintly hear a man’s heavy breathing inside.
Ciara acted shocked. “Why is there a man’s voice in Lydia’s room?”
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Michael froze, feeling like he’d just been cheated on. He clenched his fists and pushed open the half–closed door. “Lydia, what have you been doing behind my back?”
Inside, all the lights were on. A fat man with no shirt sat tied to a chair, covered in bruises.
The sound Michael heard outside was because the man’s mouth was sealed with tape.
Lydia was holding her phone, ready to call the police, when she heard Michael’s voice.
She caught the disappointment in Ciara’s eyes and instantly understood what was going on. “What perfect timing,” she said.
Michael stared at the man for a while, guessing what had happened. There was no way Lydia would ever fall for someone like this.
Lydia ripped the tape off the man’s mouth and threatened, “You’d better explain why you’re in my room. Were you used by someone or trying to commit a crime? That matters a lot.”
“What do you mean?” Ciara asked, pretending not to understand. “Do you think someone’s setting you up?”
Lydia looked at her wide, innocent eyes and scoffed. “What do you think? You just happen to be walking by my room in the middle of the night? That’s really something.”
Michael looked at Lydia with a complicated expression. “I just finished a meeting. Passing by here was really an accident.”
“Oh?” Lydia turned to the fat man. “Then you tell us, how did you get in my room?”
The man thought for a moment, then finally gave Ciara up. “She gave me the room card.”
Ciara jumped like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. “You’re lying! I don’t eve
know you.”
Seeing the tension rise, Michael stepped in to calm things down. “He’s just panicking and making things up. Ciara’s never been to Jettridge before. There’s no way she could get your room card.
“I’ll help you report this to the hotel and the police. Let them investigate.”
Lydia looked at the man she had loved for so many years. There was no emotion left in her eyes. “How long will you keep trusting the wrong people?”
Just then, there was a knock on the door. The police and the hotel manager Lydia had called arrived. After a brief questioning, the fat man was taken away by the police.
Lydia’s eyes swept over Michael and Ciara, who were still standing there. “Get out. Don’t dirty my room.”
As Michael stepped out, he suddenly remembered Lydia was still his girlfriend.
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Chapter 9
When he turned back and put one foot into 3601, a long wooden stick swung out from inside and hit him square on the
forehead.
Ciara quickly pulled him back to check the injury. Seeing the swelling rise fast on his head, she gasped.
“Lydia, Michael didn’t even do anything wrong. Isn’t this too much?” Ciara snapped.
Michael looked up toward the room. Lydia was walking toward him fast.
His head hurt, but for a second, he felt a hint of hope. He thought maybe she still cared.
But the door slammed shut with a loud bang.
Ciara stared at Michael with pity. “Lydia went too far. You’re hurt, and she doesn’t even care.”
Michael stopped her before she could go on. His voice was flat. “Go back to your room.”
Ciara wanted to argue, but when she sensed the coldness coming from him, she quietly obeyed.
Michael stood outside 3601 for a long time before finally walking away.
The next morning, Lydia was woken up by a knock from the police.
“We’ve finished the investigation. Yesterday’s incident happened because of hotel management negligence,” one officer told her.
Michael covering for Ciara wasn’t a surprise. Lydia had already expected this outcome.
After sending the police away, she stood in the hallway, staring at the tightly closed door across from her.
