Chapter 2 - The Audit Begins
Suite 904 was everything the Grand Regent brand promised on paper: sprawling walnut-paneled rooms, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the glittering skyline of the city, custom silk rugs, and a fireplace that ignited with the press of a remote. But tonight, luxury felt hollow. After tucking Lily into the king-sized feather bed—where she curled up instantly, exhausted from our grueling flight from Zurich—I sat at the mahogany writing desk, opened my laptop, and bypassed the hotel’s standard guest network, plugging directly into the encrypted corporate backbone.
My fingers flew across the keyboard.
As the primary shareholder and executive chair of Vance Hospitality Group, my access level was absolute. What I found in the local property management logs over the last six months made my blood run cold.
Patrick Sterling and Karl Henderson weren't just incompetent snobs; they were systemic predators within my own house.
For the past eight months, under the guise of "occupancy optimization," the pair had been systematically skimming revenue from the executive holding blocks. Whenever high-paying corporate clients or VIP board members requested unlisted luxury suites, Patrick and Karl would mark the rooms as "maintenance out-of-order" or "sys-error unconfirmed" in the public reservation software. Then, they would rent those exact suites off-the-books to private, cash-paying guests, pocketing the difference while funneling the official resort fees into a dummy shell account registered under a fictitious vendor name: Regent Maintenance Solutions.
They had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the enterprise. Worse, they had weaponized the hotel’s prestige against everyday guests who didn't fit their narrow, elitist aesthetic, turning my life’s work into an exclusive country club for their own enrichment.
At 2:00 AM, I compiled every financial discrepancy, every forced cancellation log, and every fraudulent ledger entry into a master encrypted dossier. I copied it to three separate secure drives, sending the primary package directly to Arthur Pendelton, our Chief Legal Counsel, and Sarah Chen, the head of Internal Corporate Audit.
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Arriving at the main lobby at 9:00 AM sharp, I typed in the subject line to Arthur. Bring the full forensic audit team. We're cleaning house.
I closed the laptop lid with a soft click. The room was silent save for Lily’s soft, even breathing. I walked over to the bed, brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her forehead, and kissed her cheek. Tomorrow, she wouldn't have to worry about whether a hotelier deemed us worthy of shelter. Tomorrow, accountability was coming.
