Chapter 326: What Happened To Him?

Mia’s eyes immediately lit up, and her worried expression faded into excitement.

"Yes, of course. Everything has been running smoothly since this morning. We’ve had a few new customers come into the café, and they’ve been enjoying their lunch upstairs."

"That’s good to hear."

"It seems the news exposure on the internet yesterday and today immediately made this place trending," Mia continued, looking pleased with the situation. "We’ve been getting more attention than usual."

Sienna smiled. "Really? That quickly?"

"Yeah. I think we have your husband to thank for it." Mia gave her an amused look. "He actually did another interview with Business Magazine, and guess which picture they used?"

Sienna already had a feeling where this was going.

"The picture they took right in front of our place," Mia continued with a grin. "So, naturally, everyone reading the article got a nice view of The Secret Garden too."

Sienna could only smile. She knew Zachary had given an interview to The Aethelis Business Magazine. Still, she hadn’t expected the picture taken outside their restaurant to bring so much attention to the place.

"I guess that explains the sudden increase in customers," Sienna said.

"Exactly. People are curious. Some of them probably came because they saw the restaurant in the article."

Sienna nodded, pleased to hear that the attention had benefited the business. She then remembered something else she needed to confirm.

"Oh, by the way, did Riley pay for the booking tonight?" she asked.

"Yes," Mia replied immediately. "He transferred the money to Ava. I’m not sure exactly how much he paid, but it was a lot."

Sienna raised her eyebrows slightly. "A lot?"

Mia nodded. "Yeah, a lot."

Sienna smiled to herself. Riley had always been generous for important events. However, she still wondered how much he had actually transferred for tonight’s dinner. Whatever the amount was, at least that particular problem had already been taken care of.

For the moment, everything at The Secret Garden seemed to be running smoothly. Ava handled the dinner preparations, the café upstairs was getting more customers than usual, and Riley had already paid for the evening booking.

The only strange thing was that Riley couldn’t be reached, but Sienna was still convinced there was a simple explanation. After all, he was probably just busy with the important tender announcement.

’Should I ask Zachary? He might know something about Riley, right?’ Sienna wondered.

Before she could make up her mind, Mia suddenly stood up from her seat, pulling Sienna out of her thoughts. Sienna looked at her curiously as Mia smoothed down her clothes and prepared to leave.

"Leaving already?" Sienna asked.

Mia nodded. "I need to get back to work now." She paused, then seemed to remember something. "Oh, by the way, are you staying for Riley’s dinner event?"

Sienna slowly shook her head. She really wanted to stay and help them, especially since everyone seemed busy with the dinner preparations. Unfortunately, she had already promised to spend the evening with Skylar and Zachary, so she could not stay for the whole event.

"I’m sorry, I can’t," Sienna said apologetically. "I’ll only stay for a few hours and then return home."

"It’s fine." Mia smiled reassuringly. "We’ve already prepared everything."

"Call me if something happens."

"Sure." Mia nodded before finally leaving the room.

Once the door closed behind her, the room became quiet again.

Sienna remained seated for a moment, thinking about Riley and the fact that she still had not heard from him. She took out her cell phone and checked her messages, hoping to see a reply to the text she had sent earlier.

There was nothing.

"Looks like he’s really busy..." she murmured to herself.

She stared at the screen for a few seconds before deciding to call Zachary. If anyone might know what was going on with Riley, he was probably the best person to ask. Besides, she was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with how difficult Riley had suddenly become to reach.

Sienna pressed Zachary’s name and waited. A moment later, his familiar voice came through the speaker.

"Hello, my love."

The warmth in his voice immediately brought a smile to Sienna’s face. No matter how busy he was, Zachary always seemed genuinely happy whenever she called him.

"Honey, you sound happy," Sienna teased. "Did you just win a multi-billion-dollar project?"

Zachary laughed softly on the other end. "I always sound like this whenever you call me, my dear."

Sienna chuckled and shook her head even though he could not see her. He really was like that. Zachary had a way of making even an ordinary phone call feel affectionate, and she had long since stopped pretending she did not enjoy it.

"My love, is there something that made you call me?" Zachary asked after his laughter faded. His tone remained light, but he could tell from her voice that she probably had something on her mind.

"Yes." Sienna nodded instinctively, as if he were sitting right in front of her. "I wanted to ask you about Riley."

"Riley? What happened to him?" Zachary asked, his voice becoming more curious.

Sienna immediately explained everything. She told him about the dinner Riley had booked at the restaurant and how Ava and Mia had been trying to contact him because they needed to discuss the arrangements. She also explained that neither of them had been able to reach him.

"I also tried to call him," she finished. "But his cell phone wasn’t active, and he still hasn’t replied to my text."

There was a brief silence on the other end before Zachary answered.

"I don’t know where he is. But I just got a call from Dad. He asked me and the others to return to his house."

Sienna’s expression changed immediately. She sat up straighter, her earlier concern about Riley now mixed with a new worry.

"Your dad asked you to come back to the house?" she asked.

"Yes."

Sienna knew that Kennedy rarely called Zachary and his other children back to the main house without an utmost important reason.