Sweet Candy

There was no sign of pity.

What she did see in his eyes might have been a product of her own need. She saw longing. She saw desire, but it seemed to be tempered with sadness.

He was right. It was too soon after his breakup with Crystal.

Then his comment about the adults forbidding them to be together. That's when she fully realized the extent of her mistake. In her desire for him, she'd forgotten herself. She was pretending to be a brain-damaged woman, regressed to an almost childlike simplicity. There was no way for him to be with her. Not as she wanted him.

Not until she was ready to disclose the truth.

And then? Would Greg understand the necessity? Would he forgive her?

Could he... love her? Would anyone?

Her cheeks felt wet, and she realized she was crying. Her sobs tore free from her chest, which felt so tight.

The room was a blur through her tears, and she couldn't catch her breath. She felt like she was dying.

"Easy, girl. Easy now."

Warm arms wrapped around her, and she was pulled against the soft breast of a woman. The fabric beneath her cheek had the stiffness of a uniform, and her panic began to wane. She was being gently rocked and whispered to, the voice cutting through the wails in her head.

"You'll be all right. Everything will be fine."

The voice finally registered with Candace. It was Margaret Stewart. She clung to her like a lifeline and tried to control her breathing as her sobbing continued.

She was so alone. She had been for so long.

When these good people learned of her deception, they would hate her, and she'd be alone again. That thought was almost unbearable. She'd come to love their kindness and compassion and needed them so much.

"Candace, dear. Slow your breathing, girl. Take slow, even breaths. Here you go. Good, girl."

Margaret rubbed her back and held her in her arms. Her voice was almost hypnotic, and Candace felt her panic begin to recede. Soon, she was able to control her breathing once more and began to follow the Head Nurse's instructions. She took deep breaths, and her head spun slightly as the tension started to slip away.

Once she was breathing easier and the trembling began to fade, Margaret leaned back and took Candace's face between her hands. Brown eyes looked into blue, and she smiled.

"You're feeling better now?"

Candace nodded, still not trusting herself to speak. She shuddered with reaction.

"Can you tell me why you were crying? What made you upset?" the nurse asked gently.

It took a few tries as her lips were still trembling too much to speak properly, but she got one word out. It was enough, as it was the truth.

"Lonely."

Margaret's eyes showed her compassion for the younger woman. "You're having a time of it at home, aren't you."

Candace nodded stiffly as she gasped a few times, her chest tightening once more.

"Shhh, easy. Breathe slowly," Margaret instructed, and she did as asked. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing until she felt herself get control back. Tremors swept through her body as she reacted to the easing of the tension that had gripped her.

"I'm going to see if we can keep you here for another night. While your father isn't home, I don't think you should be alone tonight," the woman said to her.

Candace looked at Margaret in confusion.

"Where is he?" she asked.

Margaret huffed a frustrated breath. "He should be in jail for what he did to you three. Instead, the sheriff took him to his lawyer's office. The three of them have been holed up there." She looked into Candace's eyes. She nodded as she saw Candace wouldn't slip back into her panic attack. "Let me go see what I can do."

Candace took her hand. "Thank you."

The woman watched her to see if she'd be okay, then nodded as she turned and left the room.

Candace's mind was reeling from the news that her father was still free after beating the three of them. She wasn't surprised, but the injustice of it took her breath away.

She also knew his plan for abandoning his family, company, and the town and when it was scheduled to happen.

She'd hacked his computer months ago to search for something she could punish him with. She'd read his messages and discovered his plot. He was going to embezzle the employee's pension fund by redirecting the money during its transfer to the new plan at their investment house. The last-minute switch of the account numbers had been hidden from the company's view but not hers. This update was implemented just two days ago.

She'd set up an online archive to store every email and text related to her father's plot, and she'd even tapped his home office phone to record any calls that involved it. Taking another huge risk, Candace had snuck into his home office and scanned some critical paperwork. This was where she learned of the offshore accounts. Having the account numbers and the access codes allowed her to make an adjustment to the plot.

Candace added to this repository every document she could find implicating the sheriff and her father's lawyer, who were assisting him with the embezzlement for a percentage. Her latest inclusion to this was the hospital records proving her father had the police suppress Kal's blood alcohol level from the accident that left her scarred.

Today, her greatest fear was that her father would kill her or otherwise silence her before she could expose his evil. He was growing more erratic as the deadline got closer. If he discovered her activities, there wasn't a safe place for her in the county.

While Kal was also being cut loose by their father, Candace couldn't rely on him. He was every bit as cruel as his father but without the crafty intelligence behind it.

She was alone.

Her father's plan was a day away from implementing, and he'd just lost his shit and almost ruined it. Candace was sure the sheriff and the lawyer sequestered him just to protect their share of the imminent windfall.

Candace didn't have much time left to spring her trap. She realized she couldn't do it from the hospital. She needed to return to the house and her bedroom to get her laptop. She'd have brought it with her if she had been able to think clearly.

Once she had that, she needed someplace safe to hide from her father and the sheriff. She'd cross that bridge once she got to it.

She sat up, and her head throbbed but not as badly as the night before. She needed to get dressed and leave before the nurses returned.

Getting to her feet was an achievement, and she found her clothes from the night before in the closet. She dressed quickly but left her hair tucked into her blouse to hide its color. Standing next to the door, she listened for a lull in the sounds outside, slipped out and across to the stairwell, and took them to the ground floor. Leaving the hospital unnoticed was simple then.

Getting home was going to be harder.

Then she remembered the old man who lived a block from the hospital who fixed discarded bicycles in his garage and sold them. She walked in that direction and spotted the gentleman rolling his wares onto his driveway.

She spotted a pink bicycle with white streamers dangling from the handlebars and smiled to herself. It wouldn't surprise anyone to see her on that.

"Hello, Candy!" the man said with a wide smile.

She looked closer at him and suddenly recognized him as one of the patients she'd met in the hospital. A gall bladder issue, she recalled. "Mr. Nash! How are you?"

The old man seemed very pleased she recalled his name. "Please, call me Burt. I'm doing much better! It's nice of you to visit!" He looked closer and suddenly saw the bruising on her face. "Oh my! What happened?"

She was about to say she fell to avoid a lengthy discussion, but she couldn't bring herself to lie to the man. "Daddy punched me."

The gentleman's jaw dropped. "Why did he do that?"

Candace took a deep breath as her chest was tightening up from remembering. "He hurt Missy and Crystal. I was helping Missy."

Burt took her into his arms and hugged her, and she clung to him as she got control over herself again.

He released her and smiled. "You're not too hurt? Should you be in the hospital?"

She shook her head lightly as quick motions still hurt. "I'm okay."

Candace turned her head toward the bicycles lined up in a row and pointed to the pink one. "I'd like to buy that one!"

He looked at the pink bicycle and grinned. "It's like it was made just for you!" he teased. She smiled as she nodded.

"Tell you what I'm going to do. Because you were so patient with me and listened to this old man's whining, I'd like you to have it for free," he said with a smile as he wheeled the bicycle closer.

Candace gave him a surprised look. "I-I can pay—"

"No, I'd like you to have it. Please," Burt insisted gently. She looked into his eyes and finally nodded.

She gave him another hug. "Thank you."

Burt's face was a little pink from being squeezed against her tall, curvy body, but he remained a gentleman.

"You're welcome," he responded.

She admired the bicycle, which had wider tires, an upright seating position as the handlebars curved back, and an easy step-through frame so she didn't need to swing her leg over the seat.

"It has seven speeds controlled by turning the right-side grip. Gear one is for climbing hills, and seven is for going fast on flat roads. These are the hand brakes. The right side is the rear brake. The left side is the front brake. Use the right more than the left. Hang on a minute, I think I have a helmet that will fit you."

Burt walked back into his garage while Candace familiarized herself with the bicycle's controls. She raised the seat a little to make it more comfortable.

"It's not pink, but yellow is a nice color, too," Burt remarked as he carried out a bright yellow helmet. He put it on her head, and she bent forward to let him adjust the straps.

He stood back and smiled at her. "Don't you look pretty!" he said with a smile.

She dipped her face in embarrassment. She knew she wasn't. The scars ruined that. "Thank you, and thank you for the bicycle."

He nodded, so she got on the cruiser and rode down his driveway onto the sidewalk. She'd ridden a bike when she was younger, but it had been years since she'd been on one, so she was a little shaky at first. The old adage was true enough, though, and she quickly got comfortable with riding. The seat on the bike was wide and springy, so that didn't hurt, at least. She couldn't pedal too hard as a faster heartbeat made her head hurt.

Candace rode through the neighborhood leading back to her home, keeping her eyes open for signs of her father's car or a police car. The most nerve-wracking section was the long stretch through her treed neighborhood, which was sprinkled with mansions. Luckily, she met no one as she finally reached her driveway. Riding toward the house, she only spotted her brother's car by the front door.

She rode around the side of the home and leaned her bike up against the side of the building. She rested the helmet on the seat and snuck around to the back. Peeking in the windows, she saw no sign of Kal, so she unlocked the backdoor and let herself inside. She listened carefully, but the house was silent.

She padded up the stairs to the second floor and eased herself past Kal's closed door to enter her bedroom. She loaded a backpack with her computer, power cables, and the journals she'd secretly kept. Then she packed some clothes into the bag.

She didn't hear Kal's quiet footsteps on the carpet, so she wasn't aware of him until he roughly shoved against her back, sending her flying over the mattress of her bed to crash against the wall and fall into the gap between it and the bed.

She moaned from the back pain where he'd hit and her shoulder where it struck the wall. One of her legs was still on the bed, but she was sliding down into the narrow gap.

Kal growled as he yanked on the bedpost, the bed sliding a little further from the wall, causing her to fall further in.

As she struggled to get herself back onto the bed, Candace's hand landed on something. It felt smooth, and once she had a grip on it, she realized it was a neoprene-coated dumbbell she'd dropped down the side a week ago.

Rough hands grabbed her ankle and pulled her back onto the bed as she twisted to get onto her back.

"You stupid fucken' bitch! Fucked up everyfing!" Kal slurred as he growled at her, yanking her further onto the mattress. Her hands were both above her head, hidden from Kal, but the stench of alcohol on his breath made her gag.

He moved to straddle her body when she slammed the five-pound fitness weight against his nose with both hands, using all her strength. He screamed and fell backward off the bed to crash to the floor, blood gushing from his destroyed nose.

She staggered to her feet, then kicked him as hard as she could in the balls. His scream rose three octaves, and he curled over onto his side.

Candace dropped the weight, picked up her backpack, and slipped a few more items inside. Then she stood over him.

"You're a foul excuse for a brother, and you'll always be a loser."

He blinked up at her in surprise, seeing her disgust and scorn. She turned and left the room as he tried to yell something at her through his nausea. She heard him retching instead.

She got outside and onto her bike, snugging her helmet down before riding back down their drive to pedal away as quickly as possible. She figured out the gears and began to go faster. She wanted to be out of this neighborhood now!

Before she reached the end of their lane, she heard a yell from behind her.

"Gonna fucken' kill you!"

She glanced back and saw Kal stagger into his car then the engine roared to life.

Fear shot through her body as she pedaled harder.

There was very little in the way of cover all the way out of the estate neighborhood. The road wound its way between the huge, manicured properties showing off their wealth with expanses of lawns, tennis courts, and inground pools. These were mostly closed for the winter, but the Gordon family had a heated dome over their tennis court, and their pool was inside a glassed-in building for four-season swimming.

She pedaled as hard as she could, but she could hear the deep rumble of Kal's Mustang getting much louder. She knew she'd have to get off the road as she was too exposed here.

Candace was desperately looking for a way off the road when the Mustang slid out of the driveway and squealed its tires on the road as it shot forward, swerving erratically from side to side.

She felt Kal rapidly closing, so she turned off onto the front lawn of the Gordon's property, which had a series of terraced gardens running parallel to the road. The armor stone rows forming the levels kept Kal from following her onto the lawn, but he raced beside her to scream out his window. She couldn't hear his words above the noise from the engine. His tires hit the curb, and he yanked the wheel and spun out of control until he slammed on the brakes. She shot ahead of him, but the roar of his engine told her he was quickly catching up again. She saw she was going to run out of protection soon as the terraces were replaced by a rolling green expanse of lawn, so she pedaled harder and turned from the road to ride further into the grounds of the property. There was a small creek with a bridge over it just ahead. Beyond that was the glassed-in pool at the top of a small rise. She pedaled hard for the bridge.

The Mustang's engine raced as Kal took his car over the curb and chased his sister over the rolling property. The bike was having less trouble navigating the bumps as the car began to emulate the behavior of its namesake, bucking and jumping. Kal struggled to keep the wheels on the ground, and the nose pointed at his target as he was thrown forward and back in his seat. This made him stomp and ease off the gas, which worsened the erratic jostling.

He almost caught her back wheel, but the nose of the car planted against the soft soil, suddenly bouncing the vehicle to the right.

Candace was riding with her heart in her throat as she felt him directly behind her. Then, the bridge was under her wheels. She veered left on the other side to follow the gravel path back as it wound its way toward the road. She heard the Mustang's engine suddenly scream a higher note as it went airborne over the creek. She couldn't prevent looking back as the car hit the ground and launched up the slope at full speed to crash through the glass wall.

Her bicycle pitched forward as it fell off the path, throwing her over the handlebars into the bushes lining the route. Behind her, she could hear screaming and shouting. She was too dazed to move for a moment. Her head was pounding in perfect synchronicity with her pulse. She was hurting from the fall, but it was her head that kept her on the ground.

When she finally managed to get the will to sit up and extract herself from the hedge, she was dirty, scratched, and covered in leaves and twigs. She looked back at the pool house and heard glass breaking as additional panes fell from the broken structure. Shouting and panicked voices could be heard from inside the building, but no one seemed to have noticed her. She cautiously picked up her bicycle and walked away down the gravel path, limping from the scratches.

When she reached the road, she got back on the bike and slowly pedaled away until she exited her neighborhood. She breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't damaged her bicycle. She immediately took random lefts and rights to work deeper into the suburban maze, always moving away from her neighborhood toward the other side of town.

When she crossed the train tracks at Prentice Street, the idiotic words of Crystal's friend returned to her about Greg living on this side of town. How that girl was making it through high school was a mystery.

No! She reined in the negative attitude as she didn't want to regress to her old and bitter ways.

Finally, she stopped at a small park and shivered as the clouds were beginning to roll in. Glancing up in worry, she thought it might even snow. That gave her pause. She needed a place to hide where she could get an internet connection. She needed to act quickly but didn't know where to go or what to do.

The hospital had free WiFi in some areas, but she would be too conspicuous there and at the library, too. She couldn't rent a hotel room as everyone thought she was simple-minded.

Candace had no friends, no one to turn to for help. She struggled to hold back her tears.

The first raindrop landed on her nose and made her blink in surprise. She looked up, and a second drop hit her on her forehead. She got moving again as she had to get under some cover. Five minutes later, she stood astride her bike in a torrential downpour, crying. She didn't know where she was, but she was surrounded by cozy homes in a nice neighborhood filled with happy families.

She never felt more alone.

"Candy! My god, girl! What are you doing out in this? Come inside before you catch your death of cold!"

Candace jumped at the sudden voice next to her and looked down into the compassionate eyes of Greg's mother. His father rushed up beside them with a big golf umbrella. She stared at them in shock. How could they be here?

"Marion, get her inside. I'll get her bicycle," the man said gently, handing her the umbrella.

The woman took Candace's hand and pulled her gently from the bike as George held it steady.

As Marion put an arm around her, she walked them past two homes to go up a driveway to reach the front door of a lovely ranch style home. George followed and pushed the bicycle into the garage to tuck it away.

Then Candace was inside one of the coziest homes she'd seen, and Marion was helping her take her helmet off as her own hands were shaking too much. Her teeth began to chatter from the cold.