Fired for Saving the Wrong Man

CHAPTER 2 - A STRANGER WITH AUTHORITY

Ethan did not hear those words.

He was in the basement locker room, staring at the empty space on his uniform where his name tag had been. The little silver rectangle lay in his palm. VANESSA had bent the pin when she tore it off. It looked cheap now. Disposable.

Just like him.

He shoved two shirts and a pair of shoes into his duffel bag. This job mattered. It paid for rent on his small apartment and part of his younger sister Lily's nursing classes. Their mother had died three years ago. Their father had left long before that, a ghost with no forwarding address and no courage.

His phone buzzed.

Lily.

"Did you ask your supervisor about extra shifts?" she asked.

Ethan swallowed. "Not yet."

He hated lying to her.

Upstairs, the piano had stopped. Through the service corridor, he heard footsteps. Fast ones. Not Vanessa's heels. Men's dress shoes. More than one pair.

When Ethan stepped back into the lobby to leave through the staff exit, the place had changed. The front desk clerks stood stiff as candles. Two men in dark suits were whispering near the elevators. Vanessa was no longer sneering. She was pale.

The old man sat in the same leather chair, but now he looked fully awake, fully in control. The worn jacket was still there. So were the scuffed shoes. Yet somehow he filled the room more than the chandeliers did.

Vanessa saw Ethan and snapped, "Why are you still here?"

Before Ethan could answer, one of the suited men spoke quietly. "Mr. Vale asked him to stay."

The name hit the lobby like a dropped tray.

Arthur Vale.

Founder of the Vale Grand Hotels.

Ethan looked from the man in the old jacket to the polished brass wall with the hotel's crest. He had walked under that name every day.

Arthur Vale lifted his eyes to Ethan. "Young man, come sit down."

Vanessa made a strangled sound. "Sir, surely this can be handled privately."

Arthur didn't even turn toward her.

Then the elevator doors opened again, and a woman in her sixties stepped out, staring hard at Ethan's face as if she had seen it before.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "He has Daniel's eyes."