“We have some news,” her mother began. Paula knew she was trying to change the subject. “Paula is the new general manager. She just started a few weeks ago.”

Her aunt looked confused. “What about Andrea?”

“She’s heading up concierge services now.”

Her aunt processed that for a moment, then smiled. “Well, that sounds like a good thing. Congratulations, Paula!”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll be in my office there tomorrow. Let me know if I can be of any help,” her aunt said. Paula immediately cringed at the thought.

Aunt Vivian had a small office at The Whitley and, while she didn’t have an official title, she popped in from time to time and acted as though she was visiting royalty and had the answers to everyone’s problems. She liked being recognized by the staff, and she attended the manager meetings. Even though she had no idea what was going on day-to-day at the hotel, she always offered her opinion. Usually, after a few weeks, she grew bored of it and took off again. But Paula dreaded the upcoming weeks—her aunt flitting about and butting in was an added stress that she really didn’t need while she was trying to get used to the new role. She was, however, amused thinking of how David would react to her meddling aunt.

Paula smiled. “I’ll do that,” she lied.

“So, where’s your brother? Is he working?” Aunt Vivian asked.

“No, today is his day off,” Lucy said. “He said he was going to go fishing.”

“Who did he go with today? I saw him when I was on my way home from the store,” her mother said. “He was driving off with a pretty dark-haired girl.”

“Long hair?” Paula asked. She tried to think of all the girls Nick knew. She wasn’t aware that he was dating anyone at the moment.

“No, she had a chin length bob. She looked vaguely familiar, but I may have confused her with someone else.”

“Oh.” As soon as her mother described Bella’s bob, Paula knew who she was talking about. “I think it’s someone staying at the hotel.”

Lucy’s eyes widened and Paula knew she’d connected the same dots. She wondered if Nick knew who Bella really was. She, David and Lucy were the only ones that were aware of Bella’s true identity. Grandfather, too, since she’d filled him in. They generally tried to limit who knew that kind of thing to ensure as much privacy as possible for their celebrity guests. Once word was out to the whole staff, some people couldn’t help but talk to their families and the next thing they knew, they’d have press arriving. So far, that hadn’t happened. And Paula noticed there had been much speculation in the paper on where Bella might have disappeared to.