My Fiancé Cheated in Our Hotel, and My Father Booked the Room novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Suite 1408
An anonymous text sends Ingrid to the security footage of Suite 1408, where her fiancé and her maid of honor go in together, and the room is booked under her father's name. A second text tells her when they will be back.
The text came at 11:42, while I was taking Preston's ring off at my vanity.
The diamond was three carats, and it had felt heavy on my hand since dinner.
My phone lit up on the glass beside my hairbrush.
The number was unknown.
The message was one line: Suite 1408, Lindholm Grand, Fifth Avenue.
That was my family's flagship hotel, and I lived in the penthouse on top of it.
There was no name, no reason and no question mark.
I put the phone down very carefully.
In the mirror my face did nothing at all.
It was the face I wore to boardrooms and charity dinners, and it was calm.
My pulse was not calm.
"Interesting," I told the empty bedroom.
Then I slid the ring back on, because the night staff notice a bare hand, and I called the head of security.
"Miss Lindholm," he said on the second ring.
"I need today's recordings for Suite 1408. The video, not the log. And I need to watch alone."
"Ten minutes, ma'am. The monitoring room."
He had guarded this building since I was fourteen, and he never asked me why.
The monitoring room was dim and cold, with a wall of screens showing the lobby, the loading dock and every corridor.
He pulled a chair up to the main console and sent the technician out.
"From the start of the afternoon," I said.
He typed, and the fourteenth floor filled the screen.
It was a long carpeted hall with gold numbers on the doors and one camera above the elevators.
The timestamp said 3:09 PM, almost nine hours before the text.
The elevator opened and Preston stepped out.
He was wearing the gray suit I had watched him put on that morning.
I took out my phone and found his message from 2:41.
Singapore calls all afternoon. Eat something. See you at dinner, love you.
On the screen he walked straight to 1408 and knocked twice.
He did not use a key card.
The door opened from inside.
Marisol Duarte stood there in bare feet and a white hotel robe, with her dark hair down.
Marisol has been my best friend since our first week of college.
She was going to stand beside me at the altar in five weeks.
I scrolled to her message from 3:02.
Fitting still at five? I'm buried in the events office all day, send help and iced coffee!
On the screen Preston kissed her in the open doorway, and she pulled him in by his tie.
The door closed.
The timestamp read 3:17.
"Run it forward," I said.
The head of security did.
At 5:31 Preston came out alone, fixing his cuffs.
At 5:44 Marisol came out in her work blazer, with her hair pinned up, and walked to the elevator without looking back.
At five o'clock I had been standing on a pedestal in the bridal salon with pins in my hem.
The seamstress had asked twice if Marisol was coming.
At 5:20 Marisol had texted me: Rain check on the fitting, a vendor is melting down. I'm so sorry, I love you.
I had written back: No problem, take care of it.
Now I looked at the empty hallway on the screen for a long moment.
"Whose booking is 1408?" I asked.
He pulled it up and read it carefully.
"A standing hold, ma'am. VIP, no guest name, under W. Lindholm. It's been held through the end of the month."
My father's name.
"Mr. Lindholm keeps a few rooms back for clients," he said. "Mr. Rowe's office has used that one for calls."
"Of course," I said. "Dad lends it out."
It was a reasonable answer, and I put it in the back of my mind.
Then I took Preston's ring off and put it in my blazer pocket.
I did it slowly, so my hand would not shake, and the head of security looked at the wall of screens.
"I want everything from today on a drive," I said. "Every camera on that floor. Don't log it, and don't tell anyone, including my father."
"Understood, Miss Lindholm."
He did not ask a single question.
While he copied the files I sat very straight and watched the door of 1408 stay shut on the screen.
My phone buzzed on my knee.
It was the unknown number again.
He's back tomorrow at three. Use the stairwell on 14.
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