The Reluctant Heiress (A Christian Romance Novel)

Part 33 : Rising from the Ashes

Thursday. 

Telly was so dead-tired that she had a good eight hours of sleep. She was still lying down on the couch where she fell asleep last night. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep on, but she was glad she slept well. She was hoping everything was just a nightmare and to wake up with everything back to normal.

But it did not. It was for real. 

She saw a note on the table. "Make sure you get a good rest. See you later beautiful. - A"

It made her smile and her heart skipped a beat. She reached for her cellphone and messaged. "Thank you for being there for me A!" with heart emoji.

Just as quickly, a reply came. "Anything for you. Tell me if you need anything."

She took a deep breath. 'You're the sweetest thing A'

And with that, she tried to stand up and prepare her breakfast. Telly knows she needs a power breakfast as she face the day. But before she stood up, she had the urge to pray. "Lord, I'm sorry for all I said last night. You know I was just mad. But please, if you're real, show me a breakthrough in all of these. Amen."

She sent a message to all her managers on first shift. "Good morning. Emergency meeting at 9am at the Banquet Hall. Thank you."

Telly chose an attire ready for action. It was spring, and still a little bit chilly outside and she knew she'd be doing a lot of walking in and out of the hotel so she chose a faded skinny jeans, her cowboy boots, black long sleeves and a light red coat.

***********

"Good morning, or we'll try to find good in the morning," she started as she met with the a couple of managers present. The atmosphere was very sober. Greg was there and was in his casual attire as well. Don and Diane was there too, including Raul, Mrs. Robinson, Dan and Marie.  

"So based on the report given to me by the technical guys, the scope of the damage was our offices, two adjacent rooms and part of the hallway," she said as she read the report. "I don't have any idea yet on what caused it, but I am positive we'll get that today."

Telly paused, trying to compose herself. Seeing the ashes was so hard for her. But she just kept thinking what Aiden said, it could have been worse. It could have been the whole hotel, or someone could have been hurt. But thankfully, no guest nor staff was hurt.

"Mrs. Robinson, how were the overnight guests?" she asked knowing that she stayed with them to ensure that all the guests have everything they need.

"Even if only two rooms got burned down, and those were actually vacant, the smoke affected the other rooms in the East wing so we relocated two families to the other wing," she replied. "We gave them new supplies and everything else they need, so I think they are all ok."

Telly turned to Raul who also stayed there overnight. "Anything from you Raul?"

"We just had this one guest that hyperventilated in the middle of the night," he answered. "Good thing our nurse was here. But besides that, there was no other issue. And as soon as we get the go signal to enter the site, we'll have people to clean up the debris."

"Yes, we have to immediately install board up around the perimeter," she said, "Diane, how many bookings are gonna be affected?"

Diane looked at her laptop, and heaved a big sigh. "This Saturday, we have a wedding, and the coming week we are fully booked and we have two weddings."

Telly closed her eyes as she shook her head. "Raul, inspect how fast we could have the hallway cleared and the other rooms in the East Wing ready. We would still lack 2 rooms."

"I'll check with the guests," Diane told Telly. "We may strike a reasonable deal with them."

"Ok thank you! Don, what's our insurance coverage?" Telly asked. "Do we also have lost income rider?"

"We got full coverage and lost income coverage as well," he replied confidently. "I already got in touch with our agent and they are just waiting for the police report to process our documents."

And then she turned to Diane. "Diane, we had a good result in our publicity from the project yesterday but all those fizzled out because it's been overtaken by the fire issue. Can you do something about it? We need a good press release." she instructed her.

"I'll work on it," Diane confidently replied. 

"Marie, how are your accounting documents?"

"I have most of them on iCloud," she replied. "And some inside the safe."

"Ok guys, we will have a different normal in the coming days so I need all of you to be flexible and extend a little sacrifice until everything comes back to normal," Telly instructed everyone in the room. "Thank you and we'll all get through this."

***********

By noon, they got the go signal to enter the burnt premises. As Telly walked into her office, her heart weighed so heavily as if a thousand ton tractor was pushing her down. It was all black, muds, and ashes. The only thing that was still distinguishable was her desk table which was made from a good wood, and the safe. 

She immediately opened the safe and gave out a sigh of relief to see that it held on its own as it should do. All the important documents were there intact.

Walking around, she tried to look for their family picture. She saw the glass broken on the floor and nothing of the frame is left. That was devastating. Why did she not make a digital copy of that? Why?? She was beating herself up for it.

And then she moved on to the other office which was as burnt up as hers, and the two other rooms were turned into ashes, non-salvageable. 

'Can someone tell me again how fire purifies gold? That is stupid! Because I see no purification happening here, except banishing!' she thought and she was glad nobody can hear her inner voice because at that time, it was not very nice.

As she was walking along the hallway, Greg handed him a letter from the police, requesting to speak to the other staff that were not there last night when they conducted initial interviews. She gave the go signal. And so police detective Henry Smith and his assistant called on the staff one by one and did an interview at the Banquet Hall.

After almost two hours, detective Smith came back and spoke to Telly personally.

"Ma'am, do you have an idea of what happened?"

"I believe it's just an electrical short circuit," she replied.

"We believe there is a foul play," he said.

"W-H-A-T ?"

"Yes Ma'am, there's a strong evidence against them."

"T-H-E-M ?"

&&&&&&Author's Note&&&&&&&

Oh no! Who could it be???? Do you have a hunch?