A kitchen runner named Tanya stepped forward with a folded paper.
Then a valet.
Then two housekeepers.
Then a night auditor.
One by one, people placed their stories on the marble counter.
By noon, the pile had grown so thick Naomi had to request banker boxes.
By three, corporate legal had arrived.
By five, Robert Sterling’s office was sealed.
By six, Ethan received the first audit note.
He read it twice.
Then a third time.
Lupita found him near the service elevator.
“Bad?” she asked.
Ethan looked through the glass wall toward the lobby.
“Worse than bad.”
“What happened?”
He lowered the paper.
“Robert didn’t just bury complaints.”
Lupita’s face tightened.
Ethan said, “He was building a record to make this property look unstable.”
She did not understand.
Not yet.
Ethan did.
The Grand Regent Chicago was the crown jewel of Vance Hospitality Group.
If its internal culture collapsed, if lawsuits hit at once, if press got ugly enough, shareholders would panic.
