Page 1 of Ashes of Us
Chapter One: Bad News
Thirty-three-year-old Danica Preston unlocked the door to her employer's penthouse suite in his hotel in downtown Boston, where he had been living since the death of his wife four years previously, and let herself in. He asked for a wake-up call for 6 a.m., and the hotel staff called her at seven to let her know he wasn't answering. They didn't have a key to the penthouse, so she had gotten up, kissed Jasper, her visibly annoyed husband, goodbye, and made the twenty-minute trip to the Rose Gold Hotel and Suites.
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 aroundcautiously. 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.
Alexander had a very set evening routine, and everything she could see so far told her he had stuck to it the night before: he had ordered his usual Friday night steak and veggies from the restaurant for seven, followed by reading for an hour or so while sipping his favourite whiskey and listening to 50s music. “Alexander? Is everything okay?” She called loudly, walking toward the bedroom. “Nigel called me and said you weren’t answering your phone.” She was a little afraid he had fallen in the shower. It wasn’t unusual for him to miss the first wake-up call because he was usually already up and showering by six, but hearing he hadn’t answered the second or third one had made Danica’s chest tighten and caused her to drive over without waiting for her car to warm up in the February cold in her panic, especially when he hadn’t answered her call before she left.
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 sheturned 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 CommunityCollege 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 towork 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.
They jokingly called her “Mom's Answer to Empty Nest Syndrome” and were friendly and polite when they were around, including her in the conversations and asking about her life. Craig was much more personable and fun, teasing her about her love life and offering to set her up with his friends, while Alex was drier and more reserved, usually keeping his questionssurface-level and limited to her university courses and how things were at the hotel. It stayed that way for six years, until Alexander made her his executive assistant, and she began to notice that Alex was much shorter and colder with her when they interacted with one another. It later came out that Alex thought she was having an affair with his father. While Alexander dealt with it, and made Alex apologized to her and his parents, she kept him at arm's length, maintaining a polite and professional relationship with her guard up around him.
Danica swallowed and knocked on the door again. When there wasn’t a response, she put her hand on the knob to open it, hoping he was in the shower and couldn't hear her despite not hearing any water running. “Alexander? I'm coming in,” She warned loudly, not wanting to walk in on him in any state of undress, which would be very embarrassing for both of them. She slowly pushed the door open and immediately saw Alexander in his bed, slumped against the headboard with the blankets drawn up like he had fallen asleep, his chin resting on his chest. Feeling like her heart was beating out of her chest, Danica approached him cautiously.
“Alexander?” She whispered as she reached out and lightly touched his shoulder. He didn’t respond, and she gave it a good shake. “Alexan -” her voice cut off into a sob when she noticed how stiff and cold he was. “Fuck.” She stepped back and ran her hand through her shoulder-length golden-brown hair as she stared at him for a moment, wishing she had told Nigel to get maintenance to open the door instead of leaving her husband’s warm embrace and racing down here. Wiping the tears off her face, she took a deep breath and steeled herself before reaching out and placing her fingers against his neck. When she didn't feel a pulse, she felt her knees get weak, and she stumbled back, swearing again as she bumped against the dresser.
Pulling out her phone, she called Nigel and told him to come to the penthouse; then she called 9-1-1. “Hi, I need an ambulance and the police at the Rose Gold Hotel, please.” Her voice and hands shaking, Danica left the bedroom and sat on a chair in the living area as she explained the situation to the dispatcher, assuring her that he was already stiff and no amount of CPR would bring him back. She instructed both the police and the ambulance to come to the service entrance at the rear of the hotel and said the day manager would meet them and bring them up to the penthouse. There was a knock on the door, and she hung up with the dispatcher and got up to let the day manager, Nigel, into the penthouse.
Deciding there was no point in beating around the bush or sugarcoating things, she sat on the couch and gestured for him to take a seat in the chair across from her. “Alexander is dead.” She told him quietly, watching as his face turned ashen, and he gripped the arms of his chair so tightly his knuckles turned white. Much like Danica, Nigel came from a less-than-pleasant background and benefited from Alexander and Cassandra's generosity. He started at the Rose Gold as a bellhop and had also received help with his college tuition from them. He had recently been promoted to Day Manager and was doing an exceptional job in Danica’s opinion, proving Alexander’s ability to see and nurture the potential in his workers once again.
“No,” he whispered, glancing toward the bedroom door. “Are you sure?” Danica nodded, knowing the two of them would have to hold it together for the staff until she got Alex back here and they could make an announcement.
“Yeah, he's already... stiff.” She murmured, blinking back tears with him. Clearing her throat, she shook her head. “I want to sit and cry as much as you do, but we need to keep it together.”She wiped her eyes a little impatiently. “This needs to be kept quiet until we notify Alex and Craig.”
Nigel took a deep breath, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes as he reluctantly nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“Go down to the service entrance, meet the paramedics and police and bring them back here. Tell the staff a guest died, and do not mention anything about Alexander. He's fine; he was in the bathroom when they called or whatever you have to say.” She took a deep breath and put her head in her hands as she thought. She didn’t want to inform Alex or Craig over the phone; it felt too cold and impersonal considering her relationship with the family. “Call in Marcy to finish your shift; I want you on the next flight to Vegas.”
“You want me to tell Craig about his father?” Nigel shifted, looking extremely uncomfortable. “I don't know if that's a good idea.”
“Would you rather go to London and tell Alex?” Danica knew he wouldn’t. Alex was intimidating and cold at the best of times, and Craig was much more easygoing. She knew that Craig and Nigel used to be close before Craig went to Vegas - it was Craig who had recommended Nigel apply for a job at the hotel and vouched for him with his parents. She also knew about the rumours that they had a romantic relationship that ended when Nigel found out Craig was constantly surrounded by and dating beautiful women in Vegas behind his back. They had never confirmed the relationship, though, and when asked why he was no longer friends with Craig, Nigel would shrug and say they had grown apart. Whatever was actually true, she could see why he would be uncomfortable with telling Craig about his father, and while she sympathized with him, she needed him to put hispersonal feelings aside for the next few days and help her with this.
Nigel's eyes widened and he shook his head quickly, clearly more nervous about talking to Alex than he was uncomfortable with talking to Craig. “No, no. I'll take Craig.”
“I figured.” Danica gave him a brief, sad smile, and then it faded as he turned to leave the room, still looking pale and shaken. “Thank you, and I'll book your tickets,” She called as he shut the door. Walking over to her purse, she pulled out her tablet and booked his flight to Vegas for noon. Then, she called the hangar and told them to get the Rose Gold jet ready to fly to London at eleven. If she had timed everything right, they would arrive at their destinations at the same time. As long as Craig wasn't too drunk or high to comprehend what Nigel was telling him, both Alex and Craig would receive the news simultaneously.
As firstborn, forty-year-old Alex expected to take over his father's position and had spent his entire life working toward that goal. He was eager to step into the CEO role and had been pushing hard for his father to retire so he could come back to the States over the last six months. He was currently in the process of divorcing his wife, and Danica knew he desperately wanted to put the Atlantic Ocean between them. She also knew he resented her for both her closeness with his father and the fact that she was the reason the senior Alexander was able to continue in his role as CEO at seventy-two.
