Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Does the Service Also Include "Taking the Blame"?
Cecilia froze for a moment, then rolled her eyes dramatically!
’Unbelievable.’
With an exasperated look on her face, she turned around holding up the suit jacket and asked Gideon Hale, "Is this it?"
The men all turned their heads at once, and their expressions froze when they saw the brooch pinned to the jacket’s upper left side.
"Ah!" the lean man exclaimed, clapping his hands and letting out a huge sigh of relief. "Why was it pinned to the jacket? It must have been someone from the brand yesterday. They were probably worried you’d forget to put it on after you changed!"
"Thank goodness it wasn’t lost. That’s a relief." The lean man stepped forward, took the jacket from Cecilia’s hand, and then urged Gideon, "Gideon, hurry and get changed. Everyone’s waiting downstairs."
To think that the very thing they’d been searching for all this time had been found so easily by Cecilia. Gideon Hale shot her a slightly embarrassed glance before instinctively looking away.
’Remembering their aggressive, high-and-mighty attitude from just a moment ago, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed.’
The housekeeping manager also breathed a deep sigh of relief. ’It’s a good thing the item was found. Otherwise, this would have been a real mess. The guest is a major star at the height of his fame; if this escalated, it would’ve been terrible for the hotel’s reputation.’
"Sir, since your item has been found, we’ll take our leave. If you need anything else, please call the housekeeping department," the manager said politely.
Gideon Hale nodded. His mouth moved as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
’It was his pride getting in the way,’ he knew.
"Hold on."
Since he wouldn’t speak, someone else spoke for him. Cecilia looked coldly at Gideon Hale and the lean man beside him, her face impassive as she said, "Apologize!"
Gideon Hale looked startled, clearly not expecting Cecilia to demand an apology so directly.
The lean man’s eyes bulged as he blurted out, "What did you just say?"
"I said, apologize. When you falsely accuse someone, don’t you think you owe them an apology?" Cecilia demanded, enunciating every word.
A cold sweat broke out on the housekeeping manager’s brow. He quickly leaned over to Jasmine and whispered, "Jasmine, you should talk to your daughter. It’s best to let this go."
Jasmine knew her daughter was only trying to stand up for her, but now that the manager had spoken up, she hesitated before stepping forward to mediate. "Cecilia, let it go. They’re guests at the hotel, and they were just anxious because they thought they’d lost something valuable. I understand."
"So being anxious gives them the right to accuse anyone they please? What a massive ego!" Cecilia scoffed, her eyes fixed on Gideon Hale. "As hotel staff, it’s our duty to provide service to our guests. But is ’being a scapegoat’ part of that service?"
"Cecilia..."
"I’m sorry," Gideon Hale said suddenly, looking at Jasmine with a sincere gaze. "I’m sorry, Ma... Ma’am. I apologize for my irresponsible words and actions. I hope you can forgive me."
"It’s... it’s all right, sir. It’s nothing..."
Seeing that his attitude was at least sincere, a wry smile touched the corners of Cecilia’s lips as her gaze shifted to the lean man.
The man froze. He was reluctant, but since Gideon had already spoken, what was the point in trying to save his own face?
"Sorry, ma’am. We were wrong."
Jasmine nodded repeatedly, saying it was all right. She had felt aggrieved, but hearing their apologies made her feel much better.
Only then was Cecilia satisfied. She turned, pulled open the door, and left the room.
"Manager, I’m just going to..." Jasmine started, pointing in the direction her daughter had gone, her words trailing off. The manager nodded in understanding and gestured for her to follow.
With that, Jasmine hurried out after her.
"Cecilia!"
In the hallway, Jasmine caught up to her daughter and took her by the hand. "Don’t be angry. I’m fine."
Cecilia’s heart ached for her mother. ’That’s just how the service industry is,’ she thought. ’You get hassled by all sorts of awful customers. A five-star hotel is actually one of the better places, since the cost of staying here screens out most of the low-quality people.’
’If she worked in a lower-end service job, she’d have an ulcer by now from all the stress.’
"I’m fine. You should get back to work. We’ll talk more tonight at home," Cecilia said, affecting a relaxed tone to keep her mother from worrying.
Jasmine nodded, walked her daughter to the elevator, and watched her go.
"Who does she think she is, making us apologize to her."
Back in the room, the lean man still looked indignant, clearly feeling that apologizing to a mere service worker was a huge loss of face.
Gideon Hale, who was in the middle of changing, shot him a look and said coldly, "We falsely accused her. Isn’t apologizing the right thing to do?"
The lean man walked up to Gideon with an exasperated look and straightened his collar and tie. "Gideon," he said earnestly, "I’ve told you so many times. You’re a top-tier celebrity. There are some things you can’t do and some things you can’t say. You need to be aware of your status! If your fans found out you groveled and apologized to a hotel maid, their hearts would break for you!"
"All I know is that when you do something wrong, you take responsibility and apologize. That’s what anyone should do, regardless of who they are."
In fact, he felt a sense of clarity now. At first, he’d genuinely found it difficult to say the words, his pride warring with his conscience. But after he finally apologized, the immense feeling of relief told him that doing the right thing was the only way to be at ease with himself.
Otherwise, today’s incident would have bothered him for a long time.
"Fine, fine, if you think you’re right, then you’re right. But this whole thing today was such a fiasco. It must have been someone from the brand who pinned the brooch on last night when we weren’t looking. I’m going to give them a piece of my mind later."
Gideon Hale didn’t say anything more, but he couldn’t get a certain face out of his mind.
He’d found fame at a young age and had long been a superstar in the entertainment world, adored by the masses. Never before had anyone spoken to him that way.
In her eyes, it was as if he wasn’t anyone special, not some famous celebrity.
He was just a person. An ordinary person, no different from anyone else.
That evening, Jasmine made her daughter the bak kut teh she’d been craving, along with several of her other favorite dishes.
The food was on the table just after nine o’clock. Jasmine called to Cecilia, "Cecilia, go ahead and eat. Ethan’s evening study hall usually ends at nine, so he should be back any minute."
Cecilia glanced at the clock on the wall. "It’s fine, let’s wait for him. Mom, when he gets here, just listen. I’ll be the one to talk to him."
"Okay, I won’t butt in," Jasmine said with a smiling nod.
The minutes ticked by. When ten o’clock arrived and Ethan still hadn’t come home, Cecilia’s anger was about to boil over.
Seeing the worried look on her mother’s face, Cecilia picked up her chopsticks. "Mom, let’s just eat. We’re not waiting for him."
"Maybe his study hall ran late. That used to happen to you sometimes, didn’t it?" Jasmine said, trying to find an excuse to reassure herself.
Cecilia nodded, but she knew in her heart there was an eighty-percent chance her brother had gone off to play video games again.
’She had specifically told him to come straight home after school today. The fact that he still dared to run off and play games... he really had some nerve!’
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