FULL STORY TB055 The Hotel for the Rich

Barely two minutes passed when the doors of the main elevator flew open. Out ran Fernando Robles, the General Manager of the hotel. He was a forty-year-old man dressed in an Italian silk suit, but at that moment, he was sweating profusely, and his face was paler than the marble floor.

Robles ran, nearly tripping over his own feet, until he reached Don Alejandro. He stopped dead, hyperventilating.

"Don Alejandro! Mr. President!" Robles exclaimed, his voice cracking with anguish. "What an honor! We had no idea you would move your inspection visit forward! If you had let me know, I would have prepared the presidential suite and..."

Alejandro lifted his crutch a few inches off the floor, and Robles snapped his mouth shut instantly, as if he had been slapped.

"Inspection?" Alejandro repeated, flashing a humorless smile. "No, Fernando. I didn't come to inspect anything. I just came from burying an old friend at the ranch. I came looking for a glass of water before heading up to my room. But I found something much more interesting."

Robles turned his head and saw Valeria, who was weeping silently, trembling like a leaf. Then he saw the Mayor's furious face. The manager grasped the situation in a fraction of a second. His corporate survival instinct kicked in immediately.

"Valeria!" Robles yelled at her, his face flushed red, trying to deflect his supreme boss's fury onto the employee. "What the hell did you do? You're fired! Get out of my hotel right now! Security, remove this woman!"

Two hotel security guards, who had been watching from a distance, took a step forward, but Alejandro raised his hand.

"Hold it right there," the old man ordered. His voice echoed through the vast lobby, making the glass vibrate. "Nobody moves."