Page 30 of Room Service
“I know, and you best make this quick otherwise you’ll be working through your lunchbreak to make up for the lost time,” she bites back before she whirls around and marches away, me following behind her, almost dragging my feet as I go. The reception staff give me a pitiful look and a soft smile as I walk past them, and I wonder what on earth is about to go down.
Surely, Hayley doesn’t know about last night with Dorien? She couldn’t know… could she? What if he’s told her and now I’m about to lose my job? What if he’s had second thoughts and realises he can’t be around me because of protocol? What if… but the silent questions stop when Hayley opens the door to the staff room, and there, sat at the table in the middle, is my mother, looking all kinds of pissed off, and also Derrick.
“You have ten minutes, Elise,” Hayley says as she walks around me and shuts the door.
“Elise, we need to talk,” my mother says, and Derrick sits beside her with a smug grin on his face. Oh lord, this isn’t going to end well.
“I’m busy, Mother,” I bite back, because I’m already on the defensive and reacting to her tone.
“This is more important than cleaning rooms,” she states, and I already know that she’s got no thought for me. This is still all going to be about her and what she wants.
“It isn’t, actually,” I retort. “And I only have nine minutes left, so we need to make this quick.”
“Don’t speak to me like that. I’m your mother, and you will treat me with respect,” she barks, and I can’t help but scoff at her words. “This isn’t a joke, Elise. You need to stop whatever the hell this is and get back home where you belong.”
“Where I belong?” I repeat her words, the disgust in my tone apparent. “I don’t need to answer to either of you. I left Derrick, and there is no going back.”
“You stupid girl,” my mother spits as she rises from her seat and bangs her hands down on the table. “You have to go back, you have to secure our future. Without you, he’ll take everything, and then your father and I will be left with nothing. I won’t be with nothing again, Elise, so you will go back to Derrick, and you will be a wife to him.”
“What are you talking about? You don’t need me anymore, you’ve got what you wanted from me, you have your house—”
“No, we don’t,” she says, cutting me off before I can ask anything further. “It’s all in Derrick’s name, every single asset, so if you divorce him, we’ll be left with nothing,” she reveals.
“So, me marrying him in the first place was for nothing,” I say quietly, the tiny bit of respect I may have still had for my parents diminishing within seconds.
“It wasn’t for nothing, Elise. It gave us security, but you need to go back to make sure it stays in place,” she orders, like she isn’t trying to give me a goddamn life sentence with the prick looking at me like he’s going to win.
“No.”
“You listen to me—”
“No, Mother, you listen to me for a change,” I start, my tone firm. “I have been pushed around by all of you my whole life, but I’m done. You don’t love me as a mother should. Hell, you don’t even fucking care about me. I want nothing to do with any of you. And as for you, Derrick,” I sneer, his name leaving a bad taste in my mouth. “You will be hearing from my solicitor soon.” I could say so much more, but what’s the point? It will only fall on deaf ears, they’ll never change, not now, so I won’t waste my breath. I turn on my heels and head back for the door, but as I’m about to reach for the handle, I’m quickly grabbed and pushed to the wall beside it, the breath being knocked out of me from the impact and the shock.
And as I look at Derrick with wide eyes, his hand connects with my face, sending pain shooting through my cheek and bringing tears to my eyes. I cry out in pain as he gets in my face, his hands bunched in the collar of my uniform, dangerously close to cutting off my air supply.
“You listen to me now, you bitch. You will fucking come home, because it is where you belong. And how dare you talk to your mother that way. She’s your fucking mother—”
“GET OFF OF ME,” I shout as loud as I can, which only makes him push his hands towards my throat more. The panic shoots through me at a rapid pace. Derrick has never laid a finger on me, so this is a whole new territory. I have no idea what to do, but I can feel despair mixed with rage swirling inside of me.
“You will leave here with us now, and you will forget all this nonsense about divorcing me. It’s never going to happen, Elise. I fucking own you, and I will do whatever the fuck I want with you,” Derrick says, his face so close to mine and making me want to gag.
“Fuck you,” I say through gritted teeth before I shout at him to let me go. All he does is laugh in my face, but the laugh is soon wiped from his lips when the door flies open and he’s pulled away from me, being thrown across the floor to land in a heap by my mother’s feet at the table where she still stands.
My eyes fly to meet Dorien’s, and he looks livid—fucking feral, even.
I gasp for breath as my body shakes with a mixture of relief, worry, shock, and adrenaline.
I watch as Derrick takes what feels like an age to get to his feet, puffing and panting as he does.
“I don’t know who you are or why you’re here, but get the fuck out of my hotel and never come back,” Dorien barks, his tone leaving no room for negotiation. My mother stands tall, her head held high and her shoulders back as she walks towards the door. She doesn’t say anything until she stops at the side of me and whispers, “This isn’t over, Elise,” before she disappears out of the door, a very dishevelled looking Derrick following behind her. He doesn’t even try to look at me as he skulks away, clearly thinking better of trying to say anything to Dorien, who is stood there like an absolute powerhouse—which I guess he is.
He watches them until they’re out of the door, and then he says, “Make sure they’re never allowed back in here, or any of my hotels, for that matter.” I presume he’s talking to security, or maybe Hayley? I really don’t care as the door closes and Dorien looks at me, his eyes landing on my cheek, which is no doubt red from Derrick hitting me, and then I feel my body give out as I slide down the wall, my legs no longer strong enough to hold me up. But I fail to hit the floor as Dorien’s arms wrap around me, pulling me to him as he holds me against his chest and lets me weep into his shirt.
And even as hurt spreads through me from the very people who were meant to love me no matter what, I take a tiny bit of comfort as Dorien whispers, “I’ve got you, buttercup. Always.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
DORIEN
