10 months later
Weeks turned into months, and the Hotel was nearly unrecognizable. It was just four rogue women and three babies doing what I thought was impossible when we started. At times we saw no end in sight, and all of us wanted to give up. Fix one thing, find another issue, yet we managed it. We had four days before the health and safety inspector came out to check our progress, the first time he came out. He gave us a list of issues and snorted his laugh at us when we told him it was only us fixing it up. He shook his head and said it was impossible and that the place should be bulldozed.
Nearly a year had passed, in that time , we had fixed all the hotel rooms into immaculate rooms that simply matched or surpassed the other Hotels in the City. Macey and I went hotel shopping, as we called it, and sussed out the other Hotels in the City. We hired a room for a night to see the services and check out the rooms and decoration to develop our own ideas. The function room was one thing most of the Hotels didn’t have, whereas ours was big enough to hold weddings and formal functions.
Walking into the function room, it looked like something out of a fairytale wedding. Twinkling fairy lights hung from the ceiling joining in the center to a crystal chandelier which was one the most expensive thing Valarie paid for but the centerpiece of the room. We had done it up as a winter wonderland inside, elegant yet also sophisticated if needed, depending on the function.
All the hotel rooms were transformed, the pool area was restored, and the property’s gardens were trimmed and well maintained. In the rear gardens, we found four water fountains that still worked. After a good tidy up, it had a tropical oasis feel.
The restaurant in the main building was fully functional, and all appliances have been removed and replaced with better stainless steel and energy- efficient ones. It had a children’s play area that was fully enclosed and would eventually offer child minding services for employees and those staying in the Hotel. We still had so much to do, but our most challenging task was passing the health and safety inspection and finding people to help run the place.
We had made do with just fixing it up with little help from Zoe’s child’s father and Macey’s brother. We still needed more workers to run this place. Four women couldn’t be everywhere at once. Solar panels had been placed on every building to save money on the power for running the place when it eventually opened.
All that was left was the front gardens and painting the exterior, which was nearly done, but we had just run out of paint. Macey’s brother was currently trimming the front hedges, and Macey was mowing the lawn with the ride-on mower she borrowed from her neighbor. Then on top of all the renovations.
Three nights a week, I went to the community college on the street behind us, and Valarie paid for my business courses, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I attended campus.
I only had one month left, and I will have finished my studies in accounting, business management, and admin, I just hoped I lived up to Valerie’s expectations. Since meeting Valarie and her taking us in, for the first time I was hopeful for the future and excited for what it would bring.
”You ready, Everly? I want to get back quickly. Hopefully, we will have enough daylight to finish that last side, ” Zoe calls out to me.
”Yeah, I am ready when you are, ” I call back to her while climbing in Valarie’s truck. Zoe climbs in the passenger side, and I start the old beast up. Valerie waves from the top balcony with Valerian and Caasey in her arms, smiling and babbling happily as we turn onto the road head for the hardware store.
”I am beginning to worry about Valerie, ” Zoe says, and I hum in agreement. She had become so illlately.
”Yeah, me too, I tried to convince her to go see the doctor last week, but she refused as always, ” I tell her. Zoe shakes her head and sighs. Last week I walked in on Valerie during one of her coughing fits, only this time it was much different as she wiped her mouth with her tissue covered in blood. When I confronted her about it and urged her to seek medical help, she said it had been happening for over a year now and not to worry.
I worried, and it was all made worse each time her mate stopped in to see her. I had been there nearly a year, and he was like a ghost. I saw his car come and go, but I was yet to see the man’s face even after a year. Zoe and I called him the faceless Alpha. That was the only thing we figured out about him, and that was only by the apparent Alpha vibes he gave off.
”Do you worry that he is slowly killing her, that all this time coining and going is killing her? ” Zoe asks. I say nothing because I know her mate was the reason she was so sick; I had already noticed it with myself. So going decades without your mate must be pure agony because I felt it with Valen already, and it had been months, not years.
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