All Hallows Eve

The house staff was alerted to the strange sounds from the Master bedrooms. They rushed in and found Markus Masters out of his wheelchair across the room, standing at the fireplace mantle, openly crying, holding the child in his arms. The child hugged his neck and said, 'That's why..."

"Friends like us need hugs. I asked him to take me 'trick or treating' the week after...and he did," I smiled, "but my Dad said he was just an old friend of the family's."

Alice replied, "You showed him there was still life in the world and love to be had, no matter how old you were. Everyone wanted something from him all the time. He'd always laugh and say you were only worried about the caramels. You gave him part of your innocence; he would never forget that! So he left something just for you. Your Father always thought he was too soft on you, so your Father thought up this way to 'toughen you up,' He never trusted your Father. That is why this is separate, and your Father does not know of this at all, just those present."

When Carl returned with his notary seal, Alice continued, Markus wanted to give you the means to live your life as you saw fit, but he knew your Father would contest anything that came to you without his approval. She pulled out of her briefcase a stack of papers, probably five inches tall. "When we get through with everything here, you will be in a position to do a lot of good or a lot of damage to many people's lives. Markus left that decision up to you."

It took three hours to get through it all. Still, in the end, I was the owner of a software company, an investment firm, a company that makes electrical components from rockets to cell phones, my own trust fund with a total of $20 million in it, and a candy factory in France that specializes in, (you guessed it), caramels.

I looked at Carl and asked him if he had any of that single malt whiskey left because I felt the need for a double shot! My sister and Candy's jaws were dragging on the floor by the time it was over. Then Ms. Fernheight sprung the final surprise from dear old Markus, "In closing, Markus wanted to let you have a little payback for how you were brought up, and pulled out a manila envelope and slid it across the table to me. "In that envelope is the ownership paperwork for the company your Father works for. Your Father has no idea that Markus bought it. The choice is yours to accept it or not."

I was already signing the paperwork before she finished talking. I was going to have fun with this one. "There is one last thing Markus wanted you to have. Outside the front door is the commander of your security team. He will follow you wherever you go. He and his team used to protect the President but quit when Markus asked them to take care of you. They didn't want to work for someone who committed treason anymore."

"I will remain your legal counsel until you decide to keep things as they are or find someone else. Here's my card. It has my office number as well as my private number. Call me even if you think you might need representation. She knew her firm wanted Karl to remain with their firm, and it wouldn't like it very much if she messed things up and Karl went to another firm.

"So I own it all now? I can walk out of here and go to any of these companies and fire everyone, or go buy 50 cars right now?" Karl asked her.

"That is correct, but you might want to keep the 'shopping sprees' to a normal amount until tomorrow morning after all the paperwork is filed with the courts..I'll be doing that when I leave here. It would be best if the transfer of power in your companies be handled quietly until everything is settled," She said.

"Do I have enough access to my money to, say, buy three new cars?" I asked.

"I foresaw this happening and told my firm to issue you a credit card that will cover your spending until you have full access to your money." She smiled, "I'll be leaving now. I want to get everything filed as quickly as I can for you." she tried to fit everything back inside her briefcase, but it didn't quite fit. "How could I forget?" She reached into her case and pulled out a two-pound bag of caramels, "Markus said this should get you started."

After she left, I turned to Carl and asked for a refill as I pulled out my pipe and loaded it up. While Carl went to get another bottle and a glass for himself, I wondered why I had never seen Candy drive. She replied that her Dad wouldn't buy her a car, so she got a full-time job, but it conflicted with her classes at school most of the time, so saving was a nightmare! I started to smile. Carl gave me a shock with the situation with her Mother, so I thought a little payback was in order.

Carl returned with the whiskey, and after a few more drinks, I figured it was time to return the favor. I told him I appreciated his help in this matter, but I had things I wanted to take care of first, "I need a better vehicle, and so does Cindy, so I'm taking them both car shopping." Carl was even more confused when I told him, "I can't buy my sister a new car without buying one for my girlfriend. It just wouldn't be right." I dropped a large handful of caramels on the table

Carl choked on his whiskey, "what did you just say?"

I stood up, "Come on ladies, the car lots won't stay open forever," as I started for the door. I opened the door and met the head of my security team.

"Afternoon, Sir, ladies. My name is Ishmael. What's the first stop on this new adventure?

"We would like to go car shopping and then head over to Firehouse Subs for lunch, so tell the rest of your team that I'm buying lunch, so they better have their orders ready." I smiled.

We spent the rest of the day looking at cars and met a lot of salespeople passing us over because we looked like we could only afford the floormats. Candy chose a new 2023 Audi purple and fully loaded, while my sister chose a 2023 black Ferrari. I walked past the ones who wouldn't even look our way and stopped at the desk of a nervous salesman. I could tell this was his first week there, and I told him to prepare the cars. We'll be back in two hours to pick them up.

Then, when the manager saw what was happening, he tried to steal the sale. I looked him in the eye, "Your attention now isn't worth my time. Besides, he was the only one to say hello to us. He earned this sale, not you." The manager made his fish-face impression as we walked past him on our way to another lot. I picked up a gunmetal Mazeratti and drove it off the showroom floor.

We made quite the entrance at Firehouse Subs. I bought fifteen subs and three drinks. The girl at the register did a double-take when I ordered. When we left, a crowd was around the cars checking them out. They couldn't believe that three kids would be driving cars like these. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't believe it either.

We drove back to Candy's house. She pulled into the driveway while my sister and I parked by the curb. I told my sister this wouldn't take long and walked to the door with her. Just as we arrived, I spun Candy around and kissed her passionately. As she melted, I reached over and rang the doorbell. Both her Mother and Father answered the door to see our kiss. Her Mother gave a slight cough. It startled her, and then I pulled away and told her I hoped she enjoyed going out for lunch.

I shook Carl's and his wife's hand, telling them I hoped they enjoyed their evening. Then I turned back to my waiting sister, and we drove home. I could hear them grilling Candy about the details of our lunch before the door even began to close.

As we got home, I had Cindy park her old car on the street while we pulled our cars into the garage and then had her pull her old car back into place in front of the garage door. We walked into the house, and Dad was already telling us that he needed Cindy's car for another week and that she would have to suck it up and ride with me wherever she needed to go. I asked him if great-grandfather Markus didn't leave him anything. He muttered something about it being tied up with the money going back into the company to increase production and stabilize company stocks.

Cindy just smiled, kissed his cheek, and told him he could use her car for as long as he needed it. Then she ran to her room to tell all her friends about her new car.

The following day, I was gone before Dad got up. I had breakfast at a mom-and-pop restaurant a few blocks from Dad's company. I wanted to be in my new office when he arrived. It was probably going to be his worst nightmare. I just smiled and waited. He was late even though he left the house in plenty of time to make it. I thought it was strange because he always told the family that he was the first in the office and the last to leave.

He told his secretary that he was going out to work with our clients and wouldn't be in for the rest of the day. Except when he went out to get into Cindy's car, it was nowhere to be found. I had it towed to a shop where they were wrapping it with an advertisement about the company and its logo on both doors. He stormed back into his office bitching about the car being gone.

A couple of hours before closing, the shop brought the car back. Dad got so pissed off that he drove the car home yet showed up the next day in a rental car,

a 2019 Camaro! I began to have a bad feeling about it and called Ishmael to ask one of the team to follow him if he left the building. Right before lunch, he pulled the same shit about needing to work with clients and would be gone the rest of the day.

An hour before closing, I got a call. Dad's rental was parked in front of an apartment complex while he made out with a cute little blonde before dropping her off and walking her to the door. I got sharp and clear pictures, so I hired a P.I. to continue following him. He always came home tired, especially on Mondays and Thursdays, and now I knew why.

My secretary informed me two weeks later that Mr. Turner from Orbital Electronics was waiting to see me. He came into the office and pulled up short, "Listen, kid, I came here to discuss business, not play board games with some teenager." He looked around the office, "Is there an adult I can speak with, or are you going to keep playing your stupid little game?"

"If you want to talk business, then talk. If you've come here to insult me, you can stick your tail up your ass and leave!" I countered.

"Look, just tell your Daddy that I came here to discuss a merger, and he can contact me at my office after he finishes playing checkers with you!" He turned around and walked out of the office.

I had played enough mind games at school to know a blustering bully when I saw one. I pushed the intercom button and told my secretary to gather in the private conference room all the dept. Managers and Executives, and to let me know when that was done.

I walked into the conference room and introduced myself. "My name is Karl, and I would appreciate it if you all addressed me as such, seeing as we are all on the same team working for the same goals, OK? That surprised a few of them that I would be so direct. "I assume that you all know the company Orbital Electronics? They approached us with an offer of a merger. I will refuse their offer, but we're not done with them yet. I want to own that fucking company, and all of you here are going to help me do so."

"We will undersell them on every front and make them spend their company's 'nest egg' on trying to do the same to us. We willingly buy up their stocks when their shareholders sell because they're losing their money and cutting them loose. We will lose a lot of money initially, but it should work out for us in the long run. I need your thoughts on how we'll get it done now." I scanned the room. Everyone could see that I wasn't fooling around on this, and that's when I dropped my bomb, "There's a $10k bonus for each of you if we pull this off!" Then I grinned, "tax-free, of course."

A little more than seven months later, my intercom sounded off, "Sir, Mr. Turner is here to see you."

"Have him wait. I'm on a conference call now," I was setting up the purchase of the last block of stock, giving me 50.1 percent of Orbital Electronics stock. After the call ended, I had my secretary send him in. "Mr. Turner, can I interest you in a game of checkers?" My smile grew bigger by the moment. "I think I have a deck of cards around here somewhere if you'd prefer."

The look on his face told me he wanted to choke the life out of me, but after seeing Ishmael standing behind me, he got a better grip on his anger. "You stole my company, you son-of-a-bitch! It's been in my family for two generations, and you just had to have it all, didn't you!"

"I explored the option of a merger, but after your schoolboy attitude towards me, I realized that a merger wouldn't work between our two companies. You should have paid more attention closer to home instead of being a bully and trying to force things. I liked your company, but your attitude showed me that I couldn't stand you, so I took the appropriate steps to remove you so our companies could reach the top position."

He lost control and lunged at me. Ishmael moved so quickly that I barely had time to react, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Ishmael straightened his jacket while I told my secretary to call the police as I had some trash for them to pick up. Ishmael chuckled at that. After the police left and the excitement was over, everything got back to normal.

I had one thing left to do on my list. I had a forensic company scour the company's books and found out that my Father had been siphoning money from the company to the tune of $1.8 million and was planning a trip out of the country with his little blonde tart. I took everything to the police and the SEC. To say they were interested would be putting it mildly. Two days later, as my Father stepped out of her apartment door, police and federal agents swarmed in and arrested them both.

I had the nasty job of telling my Mother what had happened and then gave her a divorce lawyer's card telling her she was expecting her call. Mom just sat there and cried, wondering how she would survive. I told her she would have control over everything great-grandfather Markus left to Dad and that it would take care of anything she might need. "Karl, I haven't the head for business. If I did that, my inexperience would destroy it all, and I'd still be left with nothing."

Mom and I had a long talk that night and worked out a deal between us. The following day, I called Ms. Fernhill and had her drop by later. Mom signed over all the assets to me, and I hired her to be the corporate wellness officer to the tune of $1 million a year. She could work from wherever she wanted to. As we relaxed afterward, Ms. Fernhill grinned, "Markus would have been proud of you and how you handled the Orbital Electronics matter. He never liked them either."

I drove to see Cindy at the college she had chosen and brought her up to date about family matters. I took her and her friends out to a nice dinner and then dropped her friends off. I took Cindy for a drive. I had to show her something special. She kept asking me what it was, and I told her she would have to wait. We arrived at a two-story brick house about two blocks from campus.

"What are we doing here?" Cindy asked.

"I have a friend. I want to see him. Come on, it won't take long," I replied.

I rang the doorbell and stepped back as the door swung open, "Cindy!" Candy screamed and hugged her before dragging her inside. "You've got to check this place out. Let me show you around!" I went into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. "OMG! There's a hot tub on the roof!" I heard them say. They came running back into the apartment when Cindy suddenly noticed the furniture was new, but the pictures on the walls and the flatscreen T.V. came from their dorm room.

Cindy's eyes narrowed a bit, "What have you done now, Karl? Spill it, what are you up to?"

"I visited your dorm room while you were in class earlier, and I'm sorry, but there wasn't enough room to turn around in it, let alone have some quiet study time. I found it unacceptable, so I did something about it." I laughed. "Why do you think we went to dinner so far from campus? I had to give my people time to get you into your new apartment. It's fully stocked, by the way."

"So, who lives on the first floor?" Candy asked.

"I do when I'm in town to visit with you guys." I smiled, "It's late, and we all should get some sleep. I went down to my apartment and took the time to run through what I had done and wanted to do. A sudden light knocking on the door broke my chain of thought. I opened the door to find Candy standing there in a trench coat. She put a hand on my chest, pushed me back into the room, and closed the door.

"I haven't thanked you properly for everything you've done for me," and then let her coat fall to the floor, showing me her naked body. She then dropped to her knees and started attacking my pants, lowering them to the floor as she engulfed the head of my cock, causing any thought I had to disappear. When she was done, I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. We made love in almost every position we could think of and even tried to invent a few new ones.

Dawn came, and I found myself alone. I made some bacon, eggs with toast, and a glass of orange juice. While eating my breakfast, I noticed a note from Candy leaning against the napkin holder in the center of the table. I finished breakfast and then read her message.

"Dearest Karl, I have cared about you for quite some time now. I just never knew how to voice my feelings. Currently, there is no way that I can without it looking like I was making a play for your money. I wish we could go back in time so I could tell you how I felt before all this happened, but that isn't possible. I have given a lot of thought, and it's just too hard for me to stand by as a friend while you look for a life partner. When I gave you the last of my heart that Halloween night, you stood up for me and protected me from harm. I can't stand there while my heart and love are torn apart. For this reason, I have decided to leave school and face life on my own. You don't need a silly girl dragging you down with her feelings, and I can't live seeing you with another. I hope you understand and remember the time we spent together. Farewell, my love, yours forever, Candy. P.S. The keys to your car I left under the note.

Cindy wasn't home, so I tracked her down in history class. I walked in, found her, and asked her, "Where would Candy go if she was troubled and needed to think." The teacher grabbed my arm and tried to remove me from the classroom. Without thinking, I spun around and connected with his jaw, sending his body flying over the row of students at their desks and landing unconscious on the floor in front of his desk. I turned back to Cindy, "Well?"

Cindy stared at me, her eyes going wide. I shook her a bit, "Come on, Cin, I need to know now, damn it!"

"S-s-she has a half-brother who lives in town. He works managing a. coffeehouse, I think"

"Name Cin, I need a name!"

"James Belcher, what's going on, Karl?" she asked me as I headed out the door. I jumped into my car and headed into town. I called Ishmael and told him where I was going and that I needed help now!

Ishmael called me ten minutes later, telling me he worked at the coffee shop by the waterfront and the team would meet me there. I used the voice command on my car's GPS and saw it was 20 minutes away. I made it in 8. I walked in and yelled, "Belcher! Get the fuck out here now!" All the customers turned and looked at me as a man came out from in the back," I'm Belcher. Who the hell are you, and what do you think you're doing here?"

I backed him right up to the counter and snarled, "It would be better for you if you just tell me where Candy is, asshole!" I heard something in the back and jumped the counter to head back there.