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.