Corporate reservation.

Confirmed two weeks ago.”

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the front desk.

Because the booking had been there the entire time, exactly where Lupita said it would be, in the secondary tab that Patrick had not bothered to check, because checking it would have required treating the tired woman in the faded jacket as though she might be telling the truth, and he had decided, on sight, that she was not worth that basic courtesy.

The reservation had existed all along.