Chapter 605: Speak In One Voice
Blake stood still for a moment, unsure of what to say. The scene in front of him wasn’t what he expected. Doubts started to creep in. Maybe he had gotten it all wrong. Maybe Reese really had been caught off guard… and Dave had just been lucky enough to get out.
“Obsessive fan?” Blake repeated, confused.
“Yesterday, Reese was kidnapped by an obsessive fan,” Bianca said, standing with her arms crossed, a look of clear displeasure on her face. “You know, in a lot of hotels, if you’re not a guest, you can’t even get to the rooms.”
Blake stayed quiet at first, then a hint of realization showed in his expression. The tension in his chest began to disappear. Maybe Reese hadn’t betrayed him. Maybe his doubts had only grown because they hadn’t talked, and he’d let his own thoughts get the better of him.
He straightened, quickly sizing up the situation. This wasn’t over. He could still turn things around.
“Okay, it’s my fault,” he said, his voice sincere as he stepped closer to Reese.
He went down on one knee, meeting her eyes. His voice was low but certain. “I’m sorry, Reese. I’ll make sure this never happens again. I’ll tighten the hotel’s security.”
Reese, still shaken, tightened her grip on her hands. But when she looked at Blake, her eyes softened with a trace of apology. “I’m alright now,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
Bianca watched them for a moment before turning to Dave. “Share the Evans Group hotel’s security system with Blake.”
Dave nodded. “In our hotels, anyone without a room card can’t use the elevators or enter guest areas.”
Blake nodded, his expression thoughtful. “That’s a solid system. I’ll have my team put the same measures in place right away.”
Bianca’s face stayed serious. “This should never have been overlooked. Just last year in Blosa, the same mistake let a group of thugs into a hotel. They robbed and attacked guests. The criminals were caught, but the hotel’s reputation never recovered.”
She let out a sharp sigh. “You should’ve acted sooner, Blake. Reese was lucky this time. Next time, you might not be.”
Blake pressed his lips into a thin line. “You’re right. I didn’t realize there were such serious gaps in Lawson Group’s management. I’ve only just taken over, but this has been a wake-up call.”
As things began to calm down, the panic he’d felt earlier slowly faded. Still, he couldn’t ignore the truth, he had been ready to kill. If Reese had betrayed him, he wouldn’t have let her walk away, even if it cost him his own life.
But a new worry started to creep in. The whole thing felt too perfectly arranged. Was this really the work of an obsessed fan? Or had Bianca, Dave, and Reese planned it together? Could it be a trap to expose him?
His jaw tightened, and his eyes grew darker as his suspicions deepened.
Dave’s phone buzzed, breaking the tension. He answered, talked briefly, then turned to the group. “The obsessed fan has been found,” he said.
Blake’s head snapped toward him. “They found him?” His surprise was clear in his voice.
“Yes,” Dave replied. “I’ll have him brought here right away.” His tone was calm, but his eyes stayed fixed on Blake, a hint of curiosity in them. “How you deal with this obsessed fan will be your call.”
He paused for a moment before continuing. “For now, our focus needs to be on damage control. We need a press conference to keep this from spiraling.”
“If we tell the public that Reese left the hotel on her own, this whole thing can be smoothed over,” he added.
Bianca had been watching Blake carefully from the moment he walked in. To anyone else, he would seem calm, collected, even ordinary.
But she knew him too well. Blake had a habit she could always noticed, when he lied, his eyes would drift to the left. And when he was nervous, he’d touch the tip of his nose.
Since the conversation began, she had seen his eyes shift more than once and his fingers brush his nose four times. Each movement tightened the knot in her chest, her hands curling into fists as her suspicions grew.
Reese’s words echoed in her mind; Blake was the one behind it all. The man she once believed to be sincere had been the one pulling the strings. He had trapped Dave and nearly destroyed Reese in the process.
The thought was unbearable. Bianca knew that if she lingered on it any longer, she might lose her composure and confront him in anger.
“You’re right, Dave,” she said at last, her voice controlled, her eyes deliberately avoiding Blake. The boy she once remembered was gone, replaced by someone she barely recognized. “If the news gets out that a famous actress was kidnapped at the Lawson Hotel, the story will explode online. We have to make people believe Reese left on her own after helping you to a room last night.”
Dave gave a slight nod, but his eyes were fixed on Blake. “We need to speak with one voice,” he said. “That means the obsessed fan’s part in this has to match the version we give the public.”
“If you call the police, they’ll only keep that person for a few days since no real harm was done,” Dave said. “But the hit to the Lawson Group’s reputation would be much worse.”
Bianca unlocked her phone and checked the latest updates on Twitter. “Blake, you should look at this, too.”
Blake couldn’t deny that what Bianca and Dave said made sense. They were both trying to protect him and the Lawson Group.
Yet, even after he had framed Dave, Dave was still willing to help him. The irony was almost laughable.
Blake didn’t feel grateful. He didn’t feel guilty either. To him, their actions were nothing more than foolish and misguided.
Blake unlocked his phone, and a flood of messages filled the screen. Most were questioning whether Reese had been forced into cooperating with the Lawson Group.
“Fans are asking if Reese’s statements about being safe were made under pressure.”
“Is this really the level of PR at Lawson Group’s hotel? Why hasn’t anyone in charge come forward with a public apology instead of hiding?”
“Did Reese post those safety updates on Twitter because she was told to? If she’s really fine, why hasn’t she shown herself and only posted a couple of short updates?”