Page 1 of Ashes of Us
Danica had effectively taken over managing seventy-two-year-old Alexander West II's life after his wife's death; she had been his executive assistant for six years, and it was an open secret that she was the one running the massive hotel chain behind the scenes.
Alexander categorically refused to retire, something that irritated his oldest son, Alexander West III, who went by Alex, to no end.
While Danica agreed with Alex and thought it would be best if Alexander stepped down, she also understood the hotel was Alexander's reason for waking up in the morning and did what he asked without too much pushback.
Pushing the door open, Danica laid her purse and keys on the table in the small entranceway and looked around cautiously.
Everything was pretty much exactly where it was when she left the night before.
Alexander's shoes were neatly lined up on the plastic mat next to the door, his winter coat was hung on the coat rack, and his keys were in the bowl on the table.
Stepping further into the suite, she could see his dinner tray was sitting on the small dining table in the kitchenette, ready to be put out in the hallway for the maids, and an empty whiskey glass sat on the table next to the novel he was reading beside the couch.
She could faintly hear the TV as she approached the closed bedroom door and frowned.
As part of his evening routine, Alexander liked to watch the weather channel before bed, but he always set the sleep timer so it would shut off after an hour when he was ready to go to sleep.
Feeling the panic she had pushed down on the drive over start to rise again, she raised her fist and knocked lightly on the door.
“Alexander?” She called softly. “Are you awake?” There was no response, and Danica closed her eyes, feeling her stomach drop to her shoes.
“Please, no.” She whispered, immediately fearing the worst, something she was really not ready for.
Alexander was incredibly important to her, having acted as her surrogate father for the last thirteen years.
Danica grew up in foster care. She and her siblings had been removed from her parents’ home when she was five after her oldest sister, tired of looking after her younger brothers and sister while their parents partied, went to the school counsellor and told her about the drug abuse going on in their home.
Her biological parents were arrested for child endangerment, and did not attempt to get them back, refused treatment and didn’t go to the court-ordered parenting classes, which landed them in jail for a while.
Her extended biological family on both sides were all kinds of messed up, and there wasn’t a foster family available who was willing to take on four kids between the ages of five and thirteen, so she and her older brothers and sister ended up in foster homes all over the state.
Danica had been lucky and was placed with a family in Boston who treated her well and kept her until she turned eighteen, when they informed her she had until September to find a place to live because their obligation to her was over the night she graduated high school, but her older sister and two older brothers weren’t as fortunate.
She had minimal contact with her brother, Dustin, who was now thirty-six and living in Southern California, consisting of a phone call and a surface-level catch-up on their birthdays.
Danica had vague memories of Dustin taking her into his bedroom and hiding her from their parents drugged-up friends during their parties, and he was the only one who tried to stay in contact after they were separated.
She had no idea what he went through with his various foster families, but they lost contact for most of their teen years until he got in contact again when she turned eighteen.
He was already living in Southern California and had offered her his place to stay when she graduated from high school, but she was already working at Rose Gold by then and had secured a cheap apartment for September first. He’d sounded relieved when she told him, and it was never brought up again.
Her sister, Michelle, had vanished the second she turned eighteen and never tried to reach out again after, so Danica had no idea if she was dead or alive.
She had attempted to look her up on social media but had no luck and eventually gave up on the idea of finding her, deciding to respect her decision to cut contact and not intrude on her peace, which Danica sincerely hoped she would find.
Her sister had taken the brunt of her parents' abuse and neglect as the oldest, so she couldn’t blame her for leaving and not looking back.
Her other brother, Leo, died in a fire when she was sixteen and he was twenty.
It later came out that it was a suicide, and Danica visited her brother’s grave on his birthday every year and paid the maintenance fees to keep it clean and well-maintained.
Occasionally, when she visited, she would find flowers on the grave and assumed it was Michelle paying her respects, but she had no way of knowing and, keeping with her decision to leave Michelle alone, she never tried to find out if that’s who it was.
When her foster family told her she had to leave, Danica had put her plans to go to college on hold and managed to get a job at the Rose Restaurant in the hotel, where she met Alexander's wife, Cassandra, who ran it.
Cassandra saw how hard Danica was working and took her under her wing, teaching her the ins and outs of the restaurant business and making sure she was trained to do everything.
She encouraged Danica to apply to do hospitality at Bunker Hill Community College and helped her study when things were slow.
She was quickly promoted to assistant manager of the restaurant and when a desk clerk position opened just after she completed her associate's degree, Cassandra recommended her for the job and convinced Alexander to hire her.
At her six-month performance review, during which Alexander praised her work ethic, professionalism, and problem-solving ability to the point that Danica was blushing and stuttering her way through her thanks, he asked her if she was interested in returning to university to earn her bachelor's degree. Danica explained that she would love to, but financially, it wasn’t possible for her.
Between her bills and expenses, she was lucky if she had money to set aside in her savings account at the end of the month.
Alexander had listened closely to her explanation, and after a moment of silence when she finished, he offered to pay for her university courses if she agreed to stay employed at the hotel after she graduated for five years.
“Hard workers with a passion for hospitality are hard to come by, and I'm willing to help you succeed as long as you return my investment in you.” He told her, sliding a contract across the desk.
“Cassandra and I want to help out and accommodate you however we can while you're attending classes.”
Danica wasn't stupid; she knew part of this was because she had told Cassandra about growing up in foster care while they cleaned up the restaurant one night a few months after she started working there.
Cassandra, who had always wanted a daughter, began including her in everything shortly after, first by inviting her to join them for Sunday dinners and then for holidays and vacations.
Alexander had given her until the end of the day to consider his offer, but after reading the contract and seeing the breakdown of the cost of paying for her university and how she would essentially be paying them back by continuing to work part-time at the hotel while she attended her classes and then by staying for five years after she was done, she happily signed it.
Cassandra approached her when her shift ended that day and told her how happy she was that Danica had taken her husband up on his deal, and then, to her shock, suggested she move into the bachelor suite over their garage rent-free.
Danica was touched but couldn’t imagine living there without paying them something and tried to insist on paying fair market value, but Cassandra waved her off cheerfully.
“We let the boys live there rent-free while they did their studies, and it’s just sitting there empty now that Craig has moved to Vegas.
It’s only fair that we make you the same offer.
” Danica had been too grateful that they considered her part of their family and were willing to help her succeed however they could, to do much more than hug her tightly in thanks.
Both Alex and Craig hadn't been too bothered by her sudden appearance, and Danica later learned that it was normal for the Wests to take in “strays,” often including their favourite workers or their son's friends who didn't have good family lives during their holidays and meals.
They were both older than her; Alex was already in London running the European hotels when she started working as a waitress, and Craig had just moved to Vegas when she moved into the apartment, so she didn't have much interaction with them besides when they came home for the holidays.