New Business Birth
"Jaaaaaaaassssson," Julia called out to him and broke down in tears holding her chest.
Jason shut his eyes as they were quickly filled with tears threatening to fall. Her voice did not just enter his ears, but it pieced his heart with a thousand needles.
"Are you alright?" asked the driver with concern as he saw Jason's discomfort in the rear-view mirror.
"Mind your business and drive," Jason said, fuming with anger.
Jason was not entirely sure what was happening to him. He didn't have control of himself, and he did not know what was causing this. He decided he needed to see Henry, but first, he needed to complete the next task he set out to accomplish for the day. He dropped off at a car dealing company and walked in. He was going to set up his own company, and he would need a ride for his rounds. The statement made by Benjamin's father got to him. He wanted to know his true identity and now he does.
"Sir, what kind of car do you wish to buy?" came the voice of one of the attendants.
"Let me see what you have," Jason replied, and he was led to the client engagement space.
Jason was offered a seat and a cup of tea and given a catalogue to go through. Jason went through the brands of cars and their prices and eventually settled for one.
"Good choice sir," came the attendant serving him.
Jason did all the paperwork and drove an SUV out of the compound towards his new apartment. Peter saw the car drive in, and was wondering who that could be, only to see Jason.
"Wow!" Peter exclaimed as he exited the apartment to meet Jason.
"Did you hit a jackpot on your way here?" Peter asked, beaming with a smile.
Jason tossed the keys to Peter and walked towards the house with Peter admiring the parked car. He later doubled his steps and caught up with Jason.
"What is going on?" Peter asked.
"Nothing, I just plan on starting my own business and that is going to be needed for my rounds," Jason said, and they entered the house.
Peter nodded but also noticed something different about Jason. He was his usual workaholic person, very cold, but there was something different about him. Something he had never seen in him before. There was sadness in his eyes.
"I need to rent a space for that purpose," Jason said, and Peter nodded.
"You already have a business in mind?" Peter asked.
"Yes," replied Jason, and he went to the office and turned on the laptop with Peter following him.
They went online and searched for a lot of space for work, and he finally settled for one and made a call to the owner.
"Now we, go take a look," Jason said, and left with Peter for the location of the building.
"Perfect," Jason said and got on with the paperwork and made payment.
"What business do you have in mind?" Peter asked curiously, looking at the size of the building.
"Let's go inside and I will tell you. Tomorrow we are doing branding," Jason said as they walked into the building holding the documents of the building in hand.
"We will have an opening ceremony at the end of the second month," Jason said, and Peter was surprised, wondering when he had done all of that planning.
Inside the building, they used the only functioning elevator to the last floor. The door opened onto a nice floor and Jason surveyed the floor and checked the rooms.
"This floor will be my office," Jason said, and entered one of the empty rooms. "Let's get to work," he added, and he made a call to an innovation company.
Jason had a brief meeting with them and they quickly got to work. They were to fully work on five floors with full furnishing and branding of the entire building. The parking lot was included to be worked on. The last thing that was done was the branding of the entire building, even though only five floors had been fully renovated.
"A Hotel! You are going to run a hotel business?" exclaimed Peter, and Jason smiled.
"We have a lot of recruitment to do right," Peter said, looking at Jason and shifting his gaze to the empty floor.
"Yes, so let's get on with it," Jason said, and Peter quickly posted a job ad online.
A lot of applications came through, and he quickly scheduled them for an interview, starting with the kitchen staff. As part of their interview, they prepared sample dishes for tasting. Peter decided he would find a good time to talk to Jason. He was worried about him. He works very hard, but now he is working thrice harder. At this rate, he will break down. The whole week was very stressful for Peter and Jason. Out of the applications that came through, Jason selected 600 people to start the hotel with.
The uniforms were made available and towards the final week of the second month, all the staff members were busy getting ready for the opening ceremony. Invitations had already been sent all around to invite everyone to the occasion.
Mrs Haward was relaxing in the living room, still wondering if she should keep the fortune under her name or transfer it to someone else.
"Hi mum," came Mirenda's voice.
"Just want to let you know, tomorrow, I will stay with Henry," Mirenda said.
"And why is that?" Mrs Haward questioned with a frown.
"Henry was invited to a new hotel opening ceremony, and he wanted me to come with him. It's an evening program and ......." Mirenda said.
"No, you are not spending the night with Henry. Your brother will go with you and bring you home if Henry can't do that," Mrs Haward cut in without lifting her gaze to look at her.
"Sometimes I don't get you. It wouldn't be my first time spending the night at his house. Sometime back, you were the one making me spend nights at his place. I wonder what changed," Mirenda said angrily.
"I was wrong to allow you to spend the night in the house of a man whom you are not married to, and I am now correcting that," Mrs Haward replied, lifting her gaze to look at Mirenda. "It's that wrong?" she asked and Mirenda left for her room without saying anything to her.
"What's up with you?" came James's voice.
"Good, you are here. Henry has an invitation to a hotel opening ceremony tomorrow. You will go with Mirenda and bring her back home," Mrs Haward said.
"Really! Why can't Henry do that? I have plans for tomorrow night," James complained.
"Well, you have to cancel the plan," Mrs Haward said, not looking at him.
"Why can't Henry bring her home or let her spend the night with Henry," James said, and Mrs Haward dropped the magazine on the table.
"Mirenda is a girl. The more nights she spends with him, the next you will see is that she is pregnant and not married," Mrs Haward replied sternly.
"And what's wrong with that? She won't be the first, and again, you will have a grandchild. You will finally have someone call you 'nana' in this apartment," James said, making Mrs Haward boil inside.
"There is everything wrong with it. Do you forget who you are or what? Even jogging down the streets, you make headlines. I can't afford another family scandal. I can't have the family's reputation on the line." Mrs Haward said and left the living room angrily.
James did not like the idea but knew what his mother would do if he didn't go with Mirenda. He rolled his eyes and went to his room.
Back in Julia's apartment, Julia had just returned home from another job hunt without success. Seeing Jason again, she knew how much she missed him, but she didn't know where to find him. She was not sure if she wanted to go back to a life where she was dying inside for attention and living in fear of the man she loved, but she missed him.
"At this rate, I am going to run out of money and end up on the street," Julia complained, trying to get her mind off Jason.
"I heard a new hotel put up a job ad for employees. It's new, so they are recruiting a lot of people. You can give it a try" suggested Mary.
"Ms Bayford, as lovely as that sounds, I am not sure if I know what to do in a hotel" Julia replied.
"It's just going to be a starting point. Something to generate revenue and keep you busy," Mary persuaded. "You will not know until you try, and you do need a good distraction too. Since that man came here and left, you look like a shadow of yourself," she added.
"Okay, I will try again till the end of next week. If I still don't secure a job, I will consider your hotel suggestion," Julia said, and went up to her room.
The next day, Jason and Peter were busy getting ready for the evening program. Everything was perfect, the food. The space for the guest was ready. Jason did the inspection and was very satisfied. He had a lot of male staff than female and the majority of the female staff were put in the kitchen.
The guests started arriving, and the program soon started with Peter giving the opening address. Jason took over with an opening speech and a virtual tour of the hotel and its luxury and the people gathered were very impressed. He had on a good disguise, so a lot of people couldn't recognise him. The invitation had Peter's name. Jason was presented as the CEO but no name was mentioned and the people's concentration was focused on the hotel, which had a good presentation for a perfect distraction, so no one would ask questions about the CEO.
They all gathered at the entrance of the hotel and Jason, together with Peter and a minister who was invited as a guest of honour, cut the ribbon.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Paradise Hotel," welcomed Peter, and the people clapped and walked in.
Henry, Mirenda and James arrived at the program at the exact time. Jason had declared the hotel open for business after Peter welcomed everyone for the physical tour once the ribbon was cut.
"Is that not Jason? He is the owner of Paradise Hotel?" Mirenda asked, surprised.
"Mum is going to have a heart attack for sure," said James.
Henry turned to look at James hearing the statement he had just made and was surprised to see him smiling after making such a statement. James was still looking straight at Jason, who appeared to be busy with his guests. His disguise was perfect but James, Mirenda and Henry had known him for a long time to be fooled by a disguise.