“I have to, Mom.” I kept my voice strong and my chin high.
“No, Kandy—you don’t have to. You want to!”
I turned, rolling my eyes and going for the door.
“Kandy!” she called, hurrying around me. She stood in front of the door. “Do not leave like this again.”
“Well, how else am I supposed to go, when you guys are always trying to keep me trapped here? I get it, you’re scared! Well, guess what? So am I, but I’m not going to let my fears keep me trapped in this house!”
Mom blinked back her tears. “At least wait for your Dad to get back? He’s on the way—”
“You and I both know that wouldn’t be wise.” I looked her over as she pressed her back to the door. “Mom, would you rather me sneak away and not tell you? You can’t fight me on this. I’m going.”
“So your mind is made up?” She sounded defeated, like she knew she was losing the fight,
“My mind was made up weeks ago.”
Her back straightened and finally she moved away from the door. I walked past her, opening it and walking right out. Just as I expected, there was an Uber waiting for me at the curb.
“You called an Uber? What money do you have?” she asked.
“I have enough,” I told her.
“Who did you get it from?” she asked, catching up with me as I hustled to the car.
“Lora gave it to me. I guess she figured I would need it.”
“Jesus Christ. She’s no better than he is!”
The driver popped the trunk, and I tossed the suitcase into it.
“How will you get there? An Uber can’t take you that far,” Mom called after me.
“Bus,” I said.
“Jesus, Kandy. I know you love him, and I understand visiting, but staying with him? Why do you want him so much? You saw what happened last time, and you still want to go back?”
I pressed my lips, my eyes falling to the black asphalt. She was never going to understand. Neither of my parents were. Hell, I didn’t understand myself sometimes, but my heart was far from quiet. It was screaming. My heart wanted its beat to be in sync with Cane’s, and even though I knew my heart could be vulnerable and stupid, my mind had teamed up with it. This was happening. Besides, no one said anything about staying. I only wanted to visit.
I hugged Mom tight, sighing over her shoulder. “I love you,” I murmured.
“Kandy,” she whined. “What can I do to get you to stay?”
I pulled back. “Nothing, Mom. There’s nothing you can do that will get me to stay here. Even if you convinced me today, I would still want to see him tomorrow.”
She raked her fingers through her hair, looking both exasperated and terrified.
I heard tires rolling and looked over my shoulder. Dad’s truck.
“Shit,” I hissed.
Mom’s eyes expanded. I looked at his truck, and there was no chance in hell anyone could miss that frown through the window. He didn’t even park in the driveway. He stopped right in the middle of the street, putting the car in park, jumping out, and glaring at the Uber driver.
“What the hell are you doing, Kandy?” He marched around the car to get to me.
“Going,” I stated, grabbing the door handle.
“Did you not hear what I told you last night? All those things you know about him—terrible things—and you still choose to go?” His voice was tight, the anger slowly surfacing.
“I heard everything you said, but like I told you before, I’m going to see him.”
Dad turned to look at Mom. “Are you serious right now? Talk to your daughter, Mindy! You’re just going to let her go?”
“Derek, I can’t stop her!” she shouted as I opened the back door. “Even if we don’t let her go now, she’ll find a way.”
“Are you kidding me?” Dad walked around the car to get to my side as I climbed in. He slammed a hand on the top of the car and peered inside, glaring hard at me. “Kandy, if you go, don’t bother coming back. Do you hear me? Since you want to be grown and think you know it all, don’t come back to my house!”
I looked up at him, seeing all the pain and anger swirling deep in his irises. He didn’t mean it, I knew he didn’t, but he was hurt and frustrated and didn’t know how to get me to stay. He knew he couldn’t drag me out—it wasn’t like him. He couldn’t force me to stay home, or cuff me to my bed because I’d only neglect him.
“I love you, Dad,” was all I said, and his mouth twitched. Cars honked around us and I looked up, spotting several vehicles behind his truck, trying to get by.
“This is a mistake, Kandy,” he mumbled. “You’re smarter than this.”
“I have to go,” I insisted. By now, my vision had blurred. I could hardly see him through the thick wave of tears.
Cars kept honking.
“Sir, I’m about to start my meter,” the Uber driver said.
Dad glared at him and then focused on me again. When one more car honked, he finally pulled away, cursing beneath his breath and slamming my door, storming for his truck. He climbed in and got behind the wheel, driving the truck to the end of the driveway.
“Take me to the bus station please,” I told the driver, and he pulled off.
“KANDY!” I heard Dad yell. I looked back at Mom, who was going toward the driveway, holding Dad back by the chest and yelling for him to calm down. Then she looked at the car, her face tear-stained.
I looked away before their anger and fear and doubt could get its claws into me.
I bet the driver thought I was an idiot. I cried the entire way to the bus station. He repeatedly asked me if I was okay, but I was sobbing too hard to answer. I hated breaking their hearts, but I also hated limiting myself. The feeling of being torn had to be one of the worst feelings ever. How was I supposed to decide?
How was I supposed to be happy when I felt happiest with Cane, but my parents also completed and comforted me in a way that no one else could?
I understood their worry—their fears—but at the end of the day, this was my life, and my mistakes were my own, and no one had control over my destiny and my future but me.
I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing, or if I’d even stay with Cane, but I was sure I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t at least talk to him.
Chapter Thirteen
CANE
I had to admit, I was at a loss. Kandy’s message was loud and clear. If she really wanted to be with me, she’d have come with Lora.
I scoffed at the thought, turning in my desk chair. She wasn’t coming. I’d lost her, and this time there was no point in fighting. Kandy wasn’t a dumb girl. She knew right from wrong, and I was no good for her.
I pressed my hand to my chin, looking over the deal in front of me. We were opening a Tempt store in Uptown Charlotte. I wanted to be thrilled that we were even able to do so, but the thrill wasn’t in me. My eyes veered to the left, and I glanced at my phone, wanting so badly to call her. “Fuck it,” I mumbled. I pushed out of my chair and swiped the screen of my phone to unlock it, but just as my finger hovered over her name, there was a knock on the door.
“Sir,” Cora called, popping her head in. “Mrs. Hugo is here to see you. I have her in the waiting area.”
I frowned, looking toward the clock on my desk. “She’s early.”
“Would you like me to tell her that it will be another moment or so?”
“No.” I looked down at my phone screen, Kandy’s name right there, then sighed, shutting it off and tucking it into my front pocket. I turned toward Cora. ”Send her in.”
With a nod, Cora left the room, and as I stepped behind my desk, the door creaked and heels clicked on the marble floor. Mrs. Hugo walked into the room and looked right at me with her cold, green eyes. Yes, cold. The woman had no warmth to her whatsoever. I’d met her once, and never wanted to meet or see her again, yet here she was.
Her white hair was pulled up into a formal updo, pearls in her ears and draped around her n
eck. She wore a black dress, her lips stained red. There were deep lines around her mouth, and small wrinkles around her eyes, despite the visits for Botox that I’m sure she’d made a habit of. Nonetheless, she was a very good-looking woman. She had to be well in her sixties, but could have easily passed to be in her fifties.
“Mr. Cane,” she chimed, giving me a fake smile.
“Mrs. Hugo. What gives me the pleasure?”
She continued her smile, coming closer. The door closed behind her, per my instructions to Cora. She glanced back before focusing on me again. “Oh, don’t mind me. I won’t be here for very long. Don’t want to hold a busy man up.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Interesting that you say that, because I’m curious to know why you bothered coming to me at all.”
Her mouth twitched, her smile slowly fading. “I think you know why I’m here.”
“If it pertains to your daughter, I truly don’t give a damn.”
She breathed hard through her nostrils. “Listen, I am just here to tell you that if you are waiting for some great, big trial to happen where you get to testify about how scared you were, it won’t be.”
That caught my attention. Brows narrowing, I said, “It’s a bench trial, but I’m sure the judge will want the witnesses to give some kind of testimony.”
“No they won’t,” she uttered with too much confidence.
“Why the hell not?”
She simply shrugged and smirked, like she had it all figured out. “The family lawyer is very good at what he does. He made some agreements with the judge, and we were just informed yesterday that Kelly won’t do any time in prison.”
“What?” I growled, dropping my arms. “How?”
“How else do you think?” she laughed. “I’m sure you know very well that money is power, Mr. Cane, and we have a lot of it. The judge they assigned the case to is lousy. Easy to pay off if someone wants to brush something under the rug. But of course, to make him look good and keep a steady record, we had to bargain. Kelly will do four years in intensive psych, but if she shows improvement early on, she will most likely get an early release.”
“That is a fucking joke!” I barked.
“Not only that,” she went on, “but the girl’s parents agreed that they wanted to keep this out of the news, so their lawyer is speaking for them. Since they knew it would be hard to push for Kelly to get a prison sentence, and that it was very simple to prove Kelly’s mental instabilities, their lawyer came to us with a deal. They requested an immediate restraining order to go into effect for the next twenty years and $50,000. We’ve paid them, the restraining order has been filed, and Kelly will start psych tomorrow. The case has been closed as far as I know.”
“Are you kidding me? That’s bullshit!” I spat. “Why would they let her get off that easily? She deserves to fucking rot for what she did to her!”
“Like I would let my daughter rot for you,” she snarled. “You and all the other men before think you can just use her up and toss her aside like some dirty towel. Well, you’re wrong.” She took a step forward. “I’m not saying what she did was okay, but you are the reason she cracked.”
“Oh, I’m the reason she cracked?” I laughed dryly. “I told Kelly to stay away from me repeatedly, but she didn’t listen. She even resorted to trying to blackmail me over something she had no business snooping around for in the first place. Matter of fact, she blackmailed me twice!”
“The girl you were with, wasn’t she almost half your age?”
“How the fuck does that matter right now?”
“I’m just asking a question.” She rolled her eyes. “You know, there are things about Kelly that I’ve had to pay people to keep quiet about. She hasn’t always been like this, but she meets men like you and she just…loses it.” She paused, doing a small shake of her head. “I’m sure you know she was checked into rehab before?”
“Yes, the one I met her at. The one she lied about.”
“Yes, well, anyway…she was there because of the man she was with before. Kelly left the nest early. Went to college, did well. Worked for a while. She was living a wonderful, normal life. She decided to move to New York around her thirtieth birthday, and that’s when she met Carter. Carter was wealthy and handsome, but he was a heartbreaker indeed.” She sighed. “Anyway, during her stay in New York, she spent more and more time with Carter. He owned a nightclub there, made great money, but he was also into the party life. You know, drugs, drinking, all of that. He made Kelly do all sorts of drugs with him, which made matters worse for their situation. They were never officially dating, but he slept over her place often. She never slept at his. There was never a title on their relationship, but Kelly called him her boyfriend. He didn’t address her as his girlfriend. To him, she was just Kelly. I want to say their little thing lasted for a year or so. Kelly was falling for him more and more, but he began to pull away.” Mrs. Hugo walked toward the window, looking out of it, studying the skyline. “There was one night when she called me crying about how he hadn’t answered her calls in a whole week. She even told me she’d visited his club, but he was never there. I told her to let it go and move on—that he wasn’t worth the trouble—but of course she didn’t listen. She’s just as stubborn as her father. It didn’t help that she was still doing the drugs during her free time.” She paused. “I didn’t hear from Kelly for two weeks straight, and then when I did hear from her, it was because I had received a call from her. She had been arrested and was in jail.”
“For what?”
Mrs. Hugo peered over her shoulder. “For assaulting Carter’s fiancée.”
“Shit,” I hissed, remembering Mario’s story about Kelly’s record.
“Turns out he’d been engaged all along. His fiancée worked in Japan, so she was hardly home. She probably visited here and there, but not much until she came back for good. Their wedding was coming up, and of course Carter had to be there for the arrangements, which meant leaving Kelly in the dust. He was lonely when the fiancée was away—Kelly was just a fling and nothing more to him. But Kelly got…possessive. He told her that he was engaged but she didn’t care. She insisted that he leave his fiancée behind for her, but he refused to do that. She kept popping up at his club and his apartment, making demands. He could keep her out of the club, but not away from the apartment, so he broke his lease and moved in with the fiancée…but somehow Kelly found them.” She turned to face me. “Kelly saw them leaving one night and ended up grabbing the fiancée by the hair and cutting her face with a pocket knife. She was arrested that same night.”
“Damn.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Is this what you meant when you asked me on the phone a while ago if she was acting different? Was that a warning?”
“Yes. And that isn’t the first time she’s been so unpredictable. Kelly has been possessive her whole life. We had to pay Carter and his fiancée a large sum of money, just so they wouldn’t file a suit against her. She used to threaten me when she couldn’t get her way. She’d destroy my clothes by cutting them up or bleaching them. She’d break my jewelry or mess up the furniture. She’d manipulated her father many times just to make him buy her things or to do things for her. We had her checked in to see several therapists for her personality behaviors.”
“What personality behaviors?”
She sighed. “She was diagnosed with Bipolar Personality Disorder at first, which they had told us was simple to treat. But then more and more kept happening at her school and at home, so we took her in again to get tested and she was diagnosed with Narcissistic Disorder as well.”
“Go figure,” I muttered.
Mrs. Hugo frowned.
“Look, if you’re telling me all this to try and make me feel sorry for her, it’s not working. Kelly stabbed a nineteen-year-old girl who did absolutely nothing to her. She has a fucking problem.”
“Yes, she does, which is why she doesn’t deserve prison time. She needs help—someone to save her from men like you.”
/> “Or maybe she needs help, so men like me don’t end up in her clutches.” I walked around my desk. “You can’t possibly think you’re going to be the person to help her.”
“I’ll be whatever I have to be for my daughter.”
“Oh, please, Mrs. Hugo. Don’t come into my office trying to ride your fucking high horse now, all right? Kelly told me all about how you treated her as a child. You deserved what she did to your clothes and jewelry. You never made time for your daughter. You and your husband tried to buy her off so you could travel and shop and do whatever the hell else you liked to do during your spare time. Don’t act like you give a damn about her now!”
She took a step closer to me, looking me over. “You do realize that the only reason Kelly wanted you is because she considered you another Carter? And just like Carter, you abandoned her completely, all for a younger girl. So don’t you stand there and pretend you’re any better than me! Men like you make her crack!”
“Kelly already knew what we had wasn’t a real thing. She made it deeper than it was and only ended up punishing herself for it. It isn’t my fault she has a problem with facing reality.”
“Oh, whatever.” She turned away, walking to the door. “You better pray she gets better, Mr. Cane, because if she doesn’t, I’m sure you’ll see her again. Unless the therapists can help, she won’t move on until she finds another man just like you or Carter. That is my warning.” Mrs. Hugo gripped the doorknob and swung the door open. She marched out without so much as a look back. When she was gone, I slouched down in my chair, seething.
How the hell was she getting off virtually scot-free? This was clearly her second offense. She deserved to rot in jail for what she did.
My jaw clenched as I stared at the skyscrapers outside my window. If Kelly got out early, my troubles with her wouldn’t end, and if I really wanted Kandy back, there was no way in hell she’d stick around if she knew there was even a sliver of a chance that Kelly could return.
The Cane Series: A Complete Forbidden Romance Series (4-Book Set) Page 61
