Chapter 70

“She always watched; you just didn’t know. She watched you your entire life. Don’t let her down by having to watch you destroy yourself,” I tell him before thrusting the letter at him. He takes it, reading his name on the front. “What’s this?”

“From Valarie, it arrived in the mail a couple of weeks after her funeral along with a few others,” I told him, and he turned it over between his fingers. After shaking my head, I grabbed my bag from the counter and headed for the door. “She’s dead, Everly. He kept her from me, and now she’s dead,” he said, and I stopped. Tears burned my eyes as I stopped and turned to face him.

“She is only dead if you believe she is. That hotel is her legacy, hers. All those women and the rogues? She helped build that. I hated your father for so long and what he did to her; I may never forgive him for that, but if he hadn’t, none of that would exist. All those people, she gave them their lives back, that hotel gave them their lives back. She isn’t dead, Valen. Everything I am, Zoe is, Macey, your son, is her. Gone, yes, but she is not d**d because no one will forget what she has given to us.” I told him. Valen shook his head before falling back onto the stool. He clutched his head in his hands, and his shoulders shook as he broke down.

“He lied; all those years he lied to me,” Valen cried, and I chewed my lip to stop it quivering before walking over to him. I ran my fingers through his hair before taking the letter from him. He looked at me, and I placed it in my handbag. “What are you doing?”

“Come with me?” I told him, and he shook his head.

“I want to show you something, “I tell him, pulling on his hand.

“But first, you need to get dressed; you stink,” I tell him, groaning as I pull him to his feet, and he chuckles. He sniffles and tries to kiss me, but I pull away.