6. The First Clue

Alfonso and Gloria stepped into a white Audi car. Alfonso drove the car quickly, leaving La Paradise Hotel. After silence reigned for a moment, Gloria turned her face to Alfonso who suddenly became voiceless.

“So that was Siena Mori? She looked so different tonight. Huh! She must have spent old Adalfo’s money to afford for expensive cosmetics and glamorous dress. But still, she looked so old-fashioned, not worthy to be a billionaire,” Gloria taunted.

Alfonso remained silent. He rubbed his stubbly chin with his right hand, trying to take Siena’s image out of his mind.

“Honey Bear…,” Gloria started whining again. Alfonso reluctantly turned his face to his woman.

“I saw the way you looked at Siena. You’re not drunk, are you? Don’t tell me that you find her beautiful….”

Alfonso chuckled with a cold expression. “Don’t be ridiculous, Cutie Pie…. How can a girl like her look beautiful? You said it correctly, she looked old-fashioned.”

“Then why did you keep looking at her? You suddenly become so quiet, there must be something bothering you,” she countered again.

Gloria knew that Alfonso had dated many beautiful women before her. That was the risk of dating one of the most handsome and successful men in New York. But seeing the way Alfonso stared at Siena tonight, she suddenly felt jealous.

She reminded herself, Siena was nothing comparable to the type of women Alfonso favored. There was no way Alfonso would be fascinated by a girl with dull and unattractive appearance like Siena.

‘My woman sometimes can be troublesome,’ Alfonso complained in his thoughts. He wondered if Gloria would find out that he was imagining other woman.

“When you are face to face with your opponent, you must keep your eye contact all the time, Cutie Pie…. So your opponent won’t think that you’re weak or afraid,” Alfonso made a reason.

Gloria was staring at Alfonso in disbelief. “I just feel…. I don’t know. I had this strange feeling when I saw her. I’m afraid she’s going to be a trouble for us,” she complained.

Alfonso grabbed Gloria’s chin with his right hand. “Hey, don’t let her disturb our night. I’ve promised to take you out for shopping, remember?”

Gloria’s gloomy face suddenly started to glow. She quickly wrapped her arms around his shoulder. “Oh, thanks, Honey Bear… I adore you so much!”

They shared their laughter. The white Audi car sped up to the center of Los Angeles city that never fell asleep.

*****

Half an hour after Alfonso and Gloria left the party, Damien and Siena were leaving the hotel through the back door. The managers and staff of the hotel kept on nodding respectfully to Siena and Damien, and even accompanied them to their car, making Siena feel more uncomfortable.

“Where do you want to go, Siena? Shopping, watching a movie, or just taking a walk? I’ll accompany you,” Damien offered, when they had sat on the back seat of the limousine.

“That’s very kind of you, Damien, but no, thanks…. We’d better go home,” Siena answered. She knew Damien was just trying to comfort her, after Alfonso’s coming bothered her mind.

Siena’s hazel eyes were observing the majestic exterior architecture of La Paradise Hotel. Now, only when there were no more journalists disturbing with their cameras, she could admire Adalfo’s high taste of art.

The hotel looked more like an art museum from the outside. The white stone walls of the hotel were decorated by artistic carvings. Were those kinds of symbol sculptures? Ah, no. Those were two letters of L and P intertwined. L and P should be referring to the initial of the hotel, La Paradise.

Siena almost jumped on her seat. Initial! The first letter of each word!

“Fidel, drive faster! We must go home soon!” she shouted all of a sudden to her private driver, asking him to speed up.

“What’s wrong, Siena?” Damien stared at her with his eyes wide-opened.

“It’s… the message on the testament…!”

*****

As soon as they arrived at home, Siena rushed to her bedroom, opened the drawer of her bedside table, and grabbed out the attachment from Adalfo’s testament, the riddle which she had been trying to solve but to no avail. She took a pencil and a sheet of paper.

Drumbrazil, amaryllis, dahlia, anthurium, lavender, fuschia, orchid, honeysuckle, oleander, tulip, echinacea, lily.

Siena was mumbling to herself, “If I take out the first letter of each word, the result will be… DADALFOHOTEL…!”

So Adalfo was playing code with her! But what was D Adalfo Hotel, another hotel owned by Adalfo?

“Wait a minute…. Something’s wrong. All the other words use the name of flower except Drumbrazil…! Then it must be different. What if I take out every other letter of the word? The first letter is D, the third is U, then B, A, I… Dubai…!” she cried out. “So it means Adalfo Hotel in Dubai…!”

She immediately grabbed her cellphone and searched the name of the hotel on the internet. Was there Adalfo Hotel in Dubai?

“Yes, bingo…!”

Siena shouted cheerfully in her own bedroom. She even span her body on one leg imitating a ballerina, until she suddenly stopped and staggered, just realizing that Damien was already standing in front of her bedroom door!

Damien tried to hide his laugh, as if he had just caught a little girl acting ridiculously. He strode in to Siena’s room. “So, you have solved the first riddle.”

“Have you known the answer this whole time?” Siena accused Damien, staring at him suspiciously.

“No, I haven’t.” Damien shook his head. “Trust me, Siena. I have nothing to do with that. Mister Adalfo made the riddle himself.”

“Then what should I do with this, Adalfo Hotel in Dubai?” she demanded.

Damien thought for a while. “Then you should go there and claim what belongs to you, Siena…”

Dubai? That was so far away. Siena had never been to the Middle East.

Well, she indeed loved travelling. That was once part of her job as a columnist, but she had only travelled around USA and surrounding countries.

Besides, this was nothing like her office job, well-arranged with certain destination. She did not even know what she would have to deal with.

“Don’t worry, Siena, I’ll go with you,” Damien stated with reassuring smile on his face. “We’ll travel together.”