𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐑 || 𝐋.𝐌 ✓

➢Chapter 5- Marry me?

Ok so this one is a really long chapter cause I needed to fit all of these in one chapter only so I hope you enjoy.💖💖

*************************************************

Thanks, Diana," Y/n said to the L/n's new bartender-slash-waitress as she headed out the door. Flame, the restaurant in the L/n, hadn't been terribly busy tonight, but Diana had handled the bar by herself, and given that she'd only been working for the L/n for two weeks, Y/n was suitably impressed.

Nearly a week had passed since she'd barged into Lucius Malfoy's office, and neither she nor her parents, as far as she knew, had heard from him again.

After she'd left the hotel's doorknob on Lucius's desk, Y/n had stomped back into the L/n, snatched a few towels off a passing cart, and gone into her office. After snagging a sweater off a hook on the wall and putting it on, she went to her mother's office, only to find her father in there, too, leaning over some files.

Y/n hadn't given them a chance to acknowledge her before she started in on them.

"How could you keep something like this from me?" she'd asked while wringing her hair in the towel.

Her father had straightened and held up a hand. "Honey, take a breath."

"I can't take a breath. I can't even think! You sold the hotel without telling me? How much financial strain were you under? Did you consider asking me for help? How could you go outside the family with this?"

When her emotions got the best of her and tears welled in her eyes, her father eased her down on the sofa in her mother's office and they flanked her on either side.

Then they told her how things had snowballed into an avalanche.

Her father, David, had insisted on doing the financials himself and had overlooked many opportunities for write-offs over the years. The new accounting firm discovered back taxes they owed. Then there were the repairs needed. An inspection that didn't go well. A recent turnover in employees because a guy had stolen money from the restaurant cash register. Add in her father's recent hospital expenses and it was a recipe for desperation.

"Abraxas Malfoy was willing to buy it," David had told her, one arm solidly around her back. "As it stood, we would have had to put thousands into it just to sell. And your mother and I would likely be out of jobs."

"But you'll be out of jobs soon!" Y/n huffed her frustration. "And so will I."

Her parents hadn't known that part, which made her feel moderately better—at least they hadn't kept that from her too.

"I spoke with him," Y/n had confessed. "He won't fire me immediately." She didn't know if that was true, but she intended to speak with him further about it. Next time with a dry shirt.

That day she'd wanted so badly for her parents to share in her outrage. Instead her mother had encouraged her in her typical glass-half-full way by saying, "You're young, you're brilliant, and we have faith that you'll find where you belong, even if it isn't here."

Which made her suspect they were resigned to their plight.

Y/n paced through the barren restaurant now, her mind latched onto the past. Lucius had made it clear to her he wasn't keeping any of them. Not her parents, not Y/n, and she guessed the rest of the building's loyal staff would be in danger of losing their jobs too.

She wasn't foolish enough to believe he'd forgotten about their discussion, but there were no further owls or appointments, and the locksmith had replaced the doorknobs on the hotel room door, only now there was a mismatched doorknob instead of the one she'd gifted to Malfoy.