Chapter 76



“I don’t think so.” Hayden gaped at the look on the internet celebrity’s face and said, “Ms. Harriet, what do you think we’ve forgotten about?”

“Do you really think you’ve forgotten?”. The internet celebrity immediately spun around as she pointed to Hayden’s face, “You are too shameless. Do you intend to leave last night’s incident as it is?”.

Soon a crowd gathered around him in the lobby.

Hayden didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “Miss Harriet, you told us there were cockroaches in your room last night, and we had solved that problem for you as soon as we heard about it. We changed your room and promised you that if your complaint was true, the hotel would compensate you. However, we are of the opinion that those cockroaches have nothing to do with the hotel.”

Hearing that, the internet celebrity was so enraged that her face turned completely red: “I have seen many people who have no shame, but the ST Hotel is really unique. Are you trying to bully me just with your prestige and reputation? Wait and see, now I’m going to call the Bureau of Trade and Industry and the Health Department.”

“Go ahead.” Hayden replied with an unwavering expression on his face, “The cockroaches that have appeared in your room I took them to the medical university for examination. According to the result, those cockroaches have been dead for five days. Their bodies were completely dry, but you told us that you had killed them by crushing them against the carpet half an hour after you arrived. I think there’s something wrong.”

As Hayden finished the sentence, gasps could be heard all around her.

What she had described was the same as throwing a fly on a plate after finishing a meal at a restaurant, all for the purpose of defaming them.

This Internet celebrity was here to extort money from the hotel.

When all the onlookers criticized the Internet celebrity for her deception, she could not find words to respond. She could only run away from the scene with her head down.

When the matter calmed down, everyone in the hotel praised Hayden. Especially Jeff, who admired Hayden because of those two cockroaches.

“Miss Downey, I never imagined you would grab those terrifying creatures and have them analyzed. It took half my life force just to get them into a plastic bag.”

“That means you need to accumulate more experience. Now, we need to settle the matter of the bad comments directed at the hotel.”

Hayden patted Jeff’s shoulders nonchalantly before entering his office. After closing the door behind him, he leaned against it as he let out a sigh of relief.

In fact, because of those damn cockroaches, he had been so disgusted that he couldn’t even swallow a sip of water. She fared even worse than Jeff in this regard, just trying to keep her cool in front of her employees.

In the following week, the incident of bad comments around the hotel remained unresolved.

Hayden had personally inspected all the hotel rooms and made sure that nothing was defective. As he walked back to his office with his head besieged by confusion, he took a look at the turnover he had achieved so far, which was still a far cry from the bet he had made some time ago. Seeing that things were getting worse, he couldn’t help but sigh profusely.

Something must have been wrong at the hotel. Had the ST Hotel offended someone? Was someone setting this up to tarnish the hotel’s name?

A few minutes before leaving work, Hayden received a call from his father.

They had arranged to meet at a coffee shop near the company.

When he arrived, Bentley was already there, and he seemed a little anxious.

“I ordered hot milk for you. It’s not good to consume too much coffee at night, as your sleep quality will be affected. If you don’t like it, you can order something else.”

Hayden shook his head, “Okay, anything is fine.”

Bentley revealed a relieved smile. “Hayden, I’m really surprised but glad you called me.”

Hayden stared at his cup of hot milk as he stirred the contents for a while. He couldn’t bring himself to look his father in the eye and after some deliberation, he began, “Dad, the reason I asked you to meet me is to ask you for a favor.”

“What can I help you with? Just say the word.” Hayden rarely asked him for anything, so when he found out he was asking for a favor, he was really pleased.

“Six years ago, when I turned eighteen, you promised to give me a house, remember that? Is that promise still valid?”

Lately, even though she was overwhelmed with work at the company, she still wanted to move out of Joseph’s house because she still thought it was not appropriate for her and Stella to continue to stay in his house. After mulling it over for some time, she found no solution other than the promise her father had made to her six years ago.

“Of course the promise still stands.” Bentley raised his eyebrows slightly and made a face of apparent joy, “The ownership document has your name on it, so that house is yours anyway.”

“Then thank you very much, Dad.” Hayden was a little nervous. Despite his efforts to sound more familiar, his tone still exuded a sense of distance between them, a tone people didn’t use when talking to their parents.

“I didn’t take the key with me when I left last time, when are you home, can I come and get it?”

“Do you still have to ask me if I’m home while you go back to yours? You can come whenever you want, but let me know ahead of time so your favorite meal can be prepared for you. We can eat together as a family.”

“You don’t need to do that, Dad.”

“It’s no trouble at all.” Bentley sounded strangely persistent and, after a brief pause, added, “You can bring your daughter home, too, since she’s my granddaughter anyway. I want to see her, and I’m sure the others do too.”

At the mention of Stella, Hayden pursed his lips and rejected her suggestion, “I don’t think I will. That girl is still too little, she won’t be able to handle all the gossip going around. I’ll take her to see you when she’s a little older.”

Bentley furrowed his eyebrows and seemed to want to insist more, but in the end decided to leave it at that with a sigh.

After leaving the café, Bentley got into his car and was suddenly attacked by a fit of coughing. He covered his mouth with a handkerchief and coughed for a while. When he removed it from his mouth, he saw traces of blood on the handkerchief.

“Sir, are you all right?” The chauffeur looked at him in the rearview mirror and asked in concern.

Bentley waved his hand as he tightly gripped the handkerchief, “I’m fine, it’s the usual. Let’s go”.

—

In S-town, Joseph was only able to return to his room when he finished negotiating until almost midnight. He leaned against a couch and stared at the dinner the hotel had delivered, but suddenly thought of those dishes Hayden had prepared.

“Mr. Beckham, the man we sent to GX Town just called me.”

Magnus was carrying a fruit tray and placed it on the tea table before continuing with a difficult expression, “He said Caesar is dead.”

Joseph furrowed his eyebrows, “What’s happened?”

“It’s been a fire. The night before our man arrived on the scene, everything had burned down with nothing left standing. Caesar had been turned into a set of bones.”

Remembering this incident, Magnus let out a sigh, “Manfred has sent me some pictures taken from the scene, and I can see that not only Caesar’s house had been burned, his neighbors’ houses were all burned as well. His neighbors were away, so the burning houses were only discovered when it was almost dawn. By the time the fire trucks arrived to put out the fire, everything had been reduced to ashes.”

The wrinkles in Joseph’s forehead deepened: “Such a coincidence?”.

At that moment, when he had just sent someone to investigate the surrogate incident, Caesar had met his death. Was there such a coincidence in this world?

“Do you think this is someone’s doing?”. Magnus’ face grew tense, “It can’t be. This is murder.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of murder cases before this one?” Joseph shot him a look as he added, “The truth behind this matter must still be in the dark. When we are done with our business in S-City, go there personally and investigate everything about that fire.”

On the one hand, that surrogacy incident was something only Caesar knew about, so he had to go and question him. On the other hand, Cesar had been a butler for the Beckham Family for a long time. He had been at Joseph’s grandfather’s side for many years. If there was a hidden truth here, Joseph had a duty to shed light on it.

“Understood.”

“And one more thing, don’t let Grandpa find out about Caesar’s death.”

“Understood.”

Joseph nodded as a thought suddenly assailed him, “How’d the Freddie thing turn out?”

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