𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐑 || 𝐋.𝐌 ✓

➢Chapter 2- Meeting the 'Monster'

"Why didn't you tell me?" I stood up again. I couldn't sit. I could not remain still while this was happening. Correction: This had happened. "What was the offer you couldn't refuse?"

"We were drowning in debt, and Abraxas was our only option. There was nothing else we could've done" Lena clucked her tongue

"You could've have told me!" I feel a hot wash of anger on the back of my neck, and it took everything in me to not Crucio everyone in sight

"You know we never include you in financial difficulties, Y/n, and bankruptcy was not an option" Lena said "Plus selling the hotel gave us the best of both. No financial responsibility and we keep our jobs"

"With Lucius Malfoy as your boss!" My mind spun after I said that out loud. Sweet Merlin. They would be answering to that arrogant, idiotic...."No" I shook my head as I strode past my mother. "This is a mistake." And there had to be a way to undo it.

"Y/n!" my mother called as I picked up the discarded antique door knob up off the floor and walked out of the lobby doors, dumping the remainder of coffee in the wastebasket by the front desk, and then stomped outside.

"Shit, I forgot my wand!"  And as luck would have it, the light drizzle turned into steady rain the second I marched through the crosswalk. I couldn't even apparate judging by my wandless condition right now. Angry as I was, I'd bet that steam rose off my body where the raindrops pelted me.

"That stupid, smarmy jackass!" I said as I pushed through a small crowd of people hustling through the crosswalk. Because seriously, who in their right mind would reconstruct the L/n? Blood-purity detectors? What's next? Kill muggle-born doormats!?

It was my biggest dream to run the hotel my way after my parents retired. To pass it on to my own kids someday. And now that's all out of the window. The timeless history of L/n doesn't matter one damn bit to men like Lucius Malfoy. I have to save the hotel. I'm going to do everything in my power to change this! 

Lucius Malfoy may be famous, but I'm Y/n L/n, dammit. This guy has no idea who he's messing with!

Right. Abraxas Malfoy may have done my parents a 'favor' buying the L/n, but now he was about to "peace out", it sounded like Lucius had decided to flex his corporate muscle.

"Darn it!" I didn't just do that. I did not just drown my pumps in a deep puddle by the curb. I didn't on splurge much, but my shoes were an indulgence. I shook the rainwater from one pump as best as I could. Letting out an angry huff I continue walking down the street.

My sights set squarely on the Malfoy company. Seventy floors of mirrored glass and as invasive  as a visit to ob-gyn. Given the choice between this monstrosity and the L/n, with its warm cookies and cozy design, she couldn't believe anyone would set foot in the clinical, white-washed Malfoy company.

At the top of the ivory tower, Lucius Malfoy perched like an evil overlord. Abraxas's one and only son, the Malfoy heir wasn't royalty, but according to the newspaper and media attention he sure as hell thought he was.

"The L/n was a place of class, beauty, passion.....This place is a boutique for the rich to tower over others. Perfect for the likes of Lucius Malfoy. What did the magazine call him again? Aha! 'The Billionaire Bachelor' Tch." 

"He might clean up nice, but deep down, he's a snake like the rest of his family." I clenched my fists and barreled forward.

I wouldn't be delayed another second...or so I thought. I stopped short when a woman in a very tight red dress, the neckline plunging into plentiful cleavage, her heels even higher and potentially expensive, swept out of the office and gave a slow, mascaraed blink. Then she sashayed around me, past the bulldog, and left behind a plume of perfume.