1.

Ripley’s pov

To be clear, it wasn’t my choice to move here. I mean, of course, it’s a nice city. But that’s not why I moved to this city. A city I know nothing about, a city where I get lost all the damn time because every building looks the same to me.

Maybe it’s because I’m bad at directions; I get out of a store, and I immediately forget if I came from the left side of the street or the right. Or maybe because I’m from a small town and I’m not used to skyscrapers and shopping malls everywhere.

It’s a beautiful city, though, and it’s nice to be somewhere where nobody knows who you are or where you came from.

But no, I didn’t come to this great and wonderful city for a specific dream or reason, other than the fact that it’s the farthest away I can legally move from my former parent’s in-law.

“Ripley?” The kind lady across from me said. Her black hair was in a top knot, and she looked about forty, but I have always been bad at guessing someone’s age. “So, why did you move here?”

Of course, I couldn’t tell her the truth. I couldn’t give her the long answer I just thought of in my head; instead, I gave her a short one. I was sure she didn’t need to know my life story anyway.

“I wanted a fresh start for my kids.” I said with my best smile.

“You have two, right?”

She had heard about my girls when she called to invite me for a job interview yesterday.

I nodded my head, “yes, Ms. Clark. Two girls, twins.”

People loved it when I mentioned I had twins, as if it were the most special thing in the world to them. Even more so when I told people they were identical. My girls were special, adorable, wild, and perfectly imperfect. But raising two girls isn’t easy. Especially not when they were babies and both needed to nurse at the same time. It’s hard. It really is hard to raise twins.

“Call me Allison. Wow, twins. Are they…..?” Asking the question I knew was coming.

I nodded my head to Allison, “yes, they’re identical. But one has a tiny mole above her eyebrow.”

“Of course, for their parents, it must be easy to differentiate the two.”

I smiled again; my jaw was getting painful from all the fake smiling. Just keep going, Ripley; you need this job, I told myself.

It was the perfect job. Well, the job wasn’t perfect. What was perfect was the fact that they had a daycare facility right there in the building, and the employees got a serious discount.

The job itself was kind of boring. Cleaning rooms in a hotel isn’t really what I dreamed I would do when I was little. But once I had River and Rose, I realized my dreams would have to wait. They were more important to me. They were the only family I had left.

“It’s actually just me.” I admitted to Allison, hoping to gain some sympathy points. Yes, it was desperate, but like I said, this job is perfect, and I would do whatever it took to get it. “My husband died a year ago, so it’s just me.”

Allison’s eyes went wide, and then she looked down, “I am so sorry for your loss. Wow, and you’re so young, too. To lose your husband so soon. You are such a strong woman.”

“Thank you," I replied. “We’re all doing okay now, but because I’m raising them on my own, the benefits that come with this job would be a dream come true to us.”

“And you can start right away?” Allison asked, looking at my resume once again.

Since having the girls, I haven’t worked much, but I am a quick learner. It’s actually one of my positive traits mentioned in my resume. Beneath my lesser qualities, which are being a perfectionist and very stubborn. Mom always told me to spin a negative to make it sound like something positive.

“Yes, I can start right away.” I said, keeping my fingers crossed.

If I got this job, I could finally afford a decent lawyer. I could finally buy some decent groceries. Thank God my girls were potty trained, because those diapers would be way too expensive to afford right now. Last week, I had to choose between a bottle of shower gel or snacks for the girls. But it’s fine. I mean, you can wash your body with shampoo too, right? Guys do it all the time, with those three-in-one bottles.

“I would like to start you on a trial basis, starting tomorrow. I’ll go check with the daycare if they have enough space for your girls, but I don’t see why not. Three kids just turned five a few weeks ago and started elementary school. Let’s walk up there together, so you can see the facilities.” Allison stood up and moved towards the door.

It felt like my throat was closed off. I don’t think Allison realized what she had just done. Things had been going rough, and this had been the first good news in a long time. I had tried not to want this job and tried to keep expectations low, but it had been too hard not to hope for the best. And now I had a chance to finally fix things.

I swallowed and took a few breaths, doing my best not to cry. I would cry tonight, once my girls were asleep. A good cry always makes me feel better. But for once, they were happy tears. Tears of relief

“So, where are the girls now?” Allison asked while walking out the door of her office and into the hallway.

“I hired a babysitter for a few hours.”

Allison turned her head to face me, “do you have any family nearby?”

I shook my head, “sadly, no.”

And even if I did, it would have been of no use. My mother doesn’t want anything to do with me, and my former parents-in-law are trying to sue me for custody of my daughters.

But I wasn’t going to tell Allison any of that. One thing I did learn from those fake bastards was that I should stop oversharing. I don’t trust easily, not after what they did. And I don’t tell any more than I need to share.

I followed behind Allison, looking at the hallway. This hotel was very luxurious. I had been too nervous to take a good look before the interview, but the more I looked around, the more I realized I was really out of place here.

There was no way in hell I could ever afford a night here. My eyes roamed around the hallway. If the hallways in this hotel were this pretty, what would the rooms look like?

We rounded another corner when I walked into a wall. Or what I thought was a wall, until I felt too strong hands around my hips, steading me.

Allison immediately started to apologize, even before I could.

I looked up into the darkest eyes I had ever seen. People always talk about how pretty blue or green eyes are, but dark chocolate brown eyes are actually my favorite. Maybe because they remind me of my dad's eyes.

And these were some very pretty brown eyes. Once I noticed the man was staring back, I quickly removed my gaze.

“I apologize,” I quickly said. “I was distracted by the beauty of this hotel. I should have looked where I was walking.”

“You should have,” the man said with a voice much deeper than I expected. His response made me want to roll my eyes. It wasn’t like I hurt him; he looked fine. There was not a wrinkle in his very expensive looking suit.

If anyone would have gotten hurt, it was me. That man felt like he was made of stone. It was just an accident. People have accidently bumped into me plenty of times.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hemming. I was just taking Ripley here to see the,-“

But the man had walked away before Allison could even finish her sentence. What a rude asshole.

Allison kept walking, “that was one of our most important clients, Mr. Hemming. He owns half of the city. He has a villa somewhere near the sea, but he stays here when he’s in town for business.”

“I see. And is he always so pleasant?” I asked.

Allison chuckled softly, “yes. He does not waste words or time. But I guess when you have that much money and responsibilities, you can’t afford to waste time.”

After Allison showed me around and told me where to meet her tomorrow morning, I went home to relieve the babysitter. Both girls were playing with putty.

Rose and River were never allowed to play with putty or clay at their grandparents’ house. They had carpet on the floor, and it would be too hard to get it out. In reality, there wasn’t really anything the girls were allowed to play with when we were there.

Some toys were too loud; others made a mess. No arts and crafts, no singing songs. No role-playing with their dolls because they talked too loudly. They are three for crying out loud! Of course, they make noise when they play.

River and Rose ran over when they saw me, both giving me a hug. I didn’t care that their hands were still sticky and that I would probably have to wait for the putty to dry before I could remove my only black skirt. I was too happy to see them enjoy themselves.

This place wasn’t much. It only had one bedroom that we shared. The living room was small, and the kitchen was even smaller. But we had each other, and for the first time in a long time, my daughters were allowed to play as much as they wanted.

“I got the job,” I told them.

They clapped for me without realizing what that really meant. They could hear from the sound of my voice that I was excited.

“So this means mommy will be working in the morning, and you get to play at mommy’s work with a lot of other kids. And then I will come get you after a while, and we can go to the park. Or go grocery shopping or just play at home, like right now.”

“No gwandma?” Rose asked.

“No, Rosie. Remember? It’s just the three of us now, and I am going to make our lives really fun. I promise.”

Rose didn’t seem sad when I told her no. I had no idea how much my girls were affected by the move here. They seemed happier, though.

“Can we get ice cream?" River asked.

I nodded my head, “not right now. Because we need to eat dinner. But tomorrow after work, we can get ice cream together. Does that sound like a plan?”

Both my girls nodded their heads and started playing again. A new job and ice cream—maybe things were starting to look up.