Always Been Yours (Tessa and Nicholas) novel Chapter 427

Chapter 427 Elevator Trouble
Yet, Tessa remained unaware of what her mentor was thinking. She was in shock and had a difficult time accepting what her mentor had told her. “Miss Hathaway, can I meet with that staff?” She wanted to know what she did to offend that staff for them to treat her this way.
Hathaway had somewhat guessed correctly in regard to what Tessa was thinking. However, the staff in question was not real as it was only an excuse she fabricated.
“That may not be possible. After finding out about the staff, I fired them on the spot in a fit of anger.”
After listening to her mentor’s explanation, Tessa felt surprised, but also felt that something was weird with what she was told.
Miss Hathaway settled this a little too quickly, no? I haven’t even been granted the chance to meet the culprit, yet the culprit was fired?
With such thoughts in her head, she asked, “Then can you tell me who that person was?”
“It’s one of the cleaning staff named Leanne.”
Hathaway knew that Tessa would be suspicious should she choose to not give a name to the “culprit,” which was why she had made up a name to give to Tessa.
Remaining unaware of Hathaway’s thoughts, Tessa noted the name down as she planned to reflect on herself and think back to whether she had done something to offend this person before.
Seconds later, her mentor spoke up.
“The orchestra will cover the compensation for your violin as Leanne was a staff of the orchestra. What do you think of this decision?”
Tessa nodded slowly in response to indicate her approval. But in truth, she still had doubts in her mind.
Logically speaking, the violin strings were made with special materials; it would be hard for them to snap after being damaged in just a minor accident. Only those harboring the intention to do so would be able to make the strings snap.
Regardless, since her mentor had already explained the result of the investigation to her, Tessa felt that she would be questioning her mentor should she voice her doubts. She was worried that doing so would upset her teacher, thus decided to investigate this matter privately.
Beside her, Hathaway was unaware that Tessa was harboring such thoughts.
Though she sighed in relief when Tessa did not pose any more questions, she still felt slightly apologetic toward Tessa about her decision.
Later that evening when the party ended, the guests were bidding their goodbyes to Hathaway.
Unsure whether it was as a form of apology, Hathaway had Tessa by her side the whole time.
All of the major players in the music industry had a very good impression of Tessa, which was why all of them remembered to shower her with words of encouragement when bidding their farewells.
“Learn well from your mentor now.”
“Good luck. I hope I’ll be able to see you one day when your orchestra performs.”
Due to the encouragements, Tessa’s mood—which was initially down—became much better.
Soon after, only the people of Hathaway Philharmonic and Scott were left in the banquet hall.
Tessa had changed out of her dress backstage and was about to leave until she saw Scott walking over toward her.
“Miss Reinhart, let me send you home.”
“Thank you, but my boyfriend is already waiting downstairs for me.”
Tessa rejected him with a smile while slinging her violin case over her shoulder. “I’ll be taking my leave here.”
As Scott watched the back of that girl who seemed to be in a hurry to leave, his eyes—that was like a star in a night sky—turned bleak as he stopped in his tracks.
He didn’t know what was wrong with him, as his mood abruptly went down.
Not far away from where Scott stood, Hathaway and Kathleen had witnessed the scene.
Kathleen’s expression immediately turned sour.
Hathaway frowned at the situation before stepping forward with her daughter in tow. “Scott, since it’s already so late, could you be a dear and send us home?”
Naturally, Scott would not reject their request.
On the other side of the hall, Tessa had gone into the elevator directly after leaving the banquet hall.
Just as she was about to press the floor number, two attendants, who were dressed in hotel uniforms, came in.
She didn’t take further notice of them and merely took a step back before using her phone to type a text.
‘I’m already coming down. Be there soon.’
As Tessa lowered her head to send the text to Nicholas, she suddenly caught a whiff of something pungent.
Before she could react, someone covered both her mouth and nose with a handkerchief—one doused with ethanol LSD—after locking their arm around her neck.
“Hmmph…”
She widened her eyes in panic as she continued to struggle free with both legs kicking, but to no avail.
Gradually, she started to lose focus and finally lost consciousness.