As Nia walks down the hallway, she overhears Mr. Chav’s voice followed by two other unknown voices. Some of the words she hears are “dinner” and “kitchen.”

Those must be the other guests Mr. Cash invited to the castle with Chav in the dining area. I think I can return the key and then come back before I can disturb them.

Nia hurries to the other hallway, where she soon notices a door with a diamond symbol on its handle. With a deep breath, she knocks on the door and hears the taps of shoes walking on the floor. She holds her blouse and wrinkles it to control anxiety.

It’s not your fault, it’s not her fault either. We didn’t know the closet works like that. Don’t show weakness now, you can’t let it get to you.

“Um, hello?”

Nia’s heart skips a beat when she hears the familiar voice and sees a young woman in front of her.

“I-I-I’m sorry for the interruption, this playing card was on the floor in my room, I wondered if it belongs to you?”

After Nia pulls out the diamond card, the woman looks surprised.

“Oh, thank you so much! I didn’t even miss it yet. I’m very grateful.”

“It’s no trouble,” Nia says handing her the card, “With that incident in the closet I can imagine some things can be missed.”

“Right, I’m sorry about that.”

“No, it’s okay; it wasn’t your fault. Mr. Cash or Chav should have told us about any double room closets. We’ll have dinner with the other guests, so we’d meet anyway.”

The woman chuckled. “I guess so; let me reintroduce myself; I’m Hikari Saito from Osaka, Japan.”

After a moment, Nia responds “I’m Nia Winters, Southern United States of America. To travel from Japan to Monaco seems longer than from the United States; that must’ve been exhausting.”

“It is, but jet lag isn’t a problem for me, I have plenty of energy to spare. Another advantage is that my mother’s an ambassador, so when I was little, she’d sometimes take me on journeys through Europe, mostly England, France, and the French Riviera.”

“You’re lucky to do that. I would love to have that chance of travel.”

“It did get lonely sometimes. My mother had to work, so I stayed at either a local school or with a babysitter. In fact, one of these times was how I met Mr. Cash in England. Would you like to know?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Miss Hikari seems to be eager to share her story. I might as well hear it.

With that, Nia forgets the urgency she put on herself for a quick return to her room.