The New Bride (The Invitation)

Chapter 3

The Carmichel's owned many things. Hotels mainly. They even had restaurants they owned in the hotels. They came from old money and that money was disappearing. They were losing money, even closing two hotels at this point.

Sarah worked at two of the hotels she was closest to. She needed to help to try and help make things better. She had been born with a handicap. She was not only autistic, but she also had a deformed foot. 

While in the womb, the umbilical cord got tangled around her foot and ankle, giving her the deformity and a limp. 

Her family didn't think she would take over, so they just had her work at the hotels. She was the black sheep of the family. Some loved her, but some just treated her like she was a bug in their life.

If you didn't have anything to give to make the place better, then you had no point in the family to them.

So, she cooked, she did waitressing, bartending, maid service, all for the family hotels. 

But lately she felt like things were changing. She knew things were going downhill for the family. She knew about it. They didn't tell her about it, but she heard the whisperings. But then things started changing again for them.

"Sarah. I need to talk to you." It was her uncle. She was wiping the table when he came in. They had recently closed the restaurant for the night, and she was finishing up cleaning the main floor. 

She looked over at the other employee who was sweeping the floor, before putting the rag down and followed her uncle. They went to his office, and she sat down. Was he going to tell her that this hotel was closing as well? Or that they were going to cut her hours again?

She was a bit worried about things. She didn't want to lose the hotels. She begged to start putting an actual restaurant in them. She helped put a menu together. So, this was her baby in a way. 

Her green eyes looked at her uncle, waiting for him to tell her what was going on. 

"Relax Sarah. It's good news." He told her with a smile. She let out a breath and smiled with a nod. "We have a new investor. And I want you to be there to help him. He is going to be here for a bit to inspect our hotels and will be deciding then if he wants to invest in us. This is a big thing, and you doing this for us will help us immensely." Uncle Keith told her.

Sarah perked up a bit at the news. 

"That's great! Amazing news... But you think I'm the one who can do it? I don't want to be an embarrassment to everyone." She told him as she was nervous about screwing up. He went over to her side and took her hands in his.

"You can do this." He told her. She looked at his hands holding hers. She still wasn't big on being touched by people. Very limited people could touch her and she'd be ok with it. But her uncle Keith wasn't one of them. If he touched her shoulder or back, it was something she could deal with, but holding her hand?

Not so much really.

He noticed that she was looking at his hands and quickly let hers go with a mumbled 'sorry'. She looked at him once again. 

"His name is Walter De Ville. He will be at this hotel within the week. You will take him to the other hotel since you know your way around it. You know more about the staff." He told her.

She bit her lip but nodded. "This will make us all so happy. If everything goes right, we could get money to reopen hotels and maybe get you that cafe you want." He told her, moving his hand to her shoulder, knowing she would be ok with it being there.

"You want to make us all proud and happy right?" He questioned. Sarah nodded quickly. That's all she every wanted. To make everyone in their family to be proud of her. To make them think of her in a better light than the cripple who won't amount to anything in her life.

And if showing an investor around two hotels will help her do that, then she will do so happily.

She just didn't know that this meeting would change her life forever.