CHAPTER 5: News
A few weeks later...
Candy was giving her patient a vaccine shot in Happy Clinic. The last one for the day.
"Don't cry. We're done." Candy gently wiped the little girl's arm with cotton and alcohol.
Lucy cried even louder. Candy opened a nearby drawer and took dry roses Mrs. Park made from Neal's roses. "Look. Pretty little flower. Want one?"
Lucy stopped crying at the distraction. Candy put the dry petals in her little hand and silently she examined it with undisturbed curiosity.
"Thank you nurse," said Lucy's mother, relieved.
Candy smiled. Today was Saturday so Happy Clinic closed early. Candy then got ready to leave, too.
A delivery man came at the last minute to deliver packages.
"Four packages total. Please sign here, nurse White," instructed the delivery man. He then grimaced, "No roses."
Candy laughed at his comment. After receiving roses from Neal for a few weeks, suddenly it stopped a few days ago.
He is bored of me, she thought gleefully.
She turned off all the lights and left for the weekend.
An hour later, Candy and the Cornwells were settled in a park, a white red checkered beneath them, picnic baskets on their sides. Stear, Archie, and Candy were chatting while Annie took up her knitting, Patty was reading. They were waiting for Todd before starting on their late afternoon meal.
A newspaper boy came and held up a paper. Stear bought one.
"Look Archie," Stear whistled. "It's a public story now."
Annie glanced over but carried on knitting. Patty didn't move and kept on reading.
"Wow that's serious," Archie whistled.
"What is it?" asked Candy with interest.
Stear showed Candy the headline.
"The Entsy Meltdown: Stephen Leagan Guilty?"
"Entsy stole money from their clients and covered it up by cheating on their accounting. Some accuses uncle Leagan to have some part in it, too," explained Stear to Candy.
"$1,000,000,000 [1] scandal!" exclaimed Candy.
"Whoa! Uncle Leagan is under house arrest!" Stear flabbergasted. "Neal runs the company! That's terrible."
"Too bad for them," said Candy just for the sake of commenting. It's hard to sympathize to that family.
Archie ran over to read the paper from his brother.
"Can you believe that spoiled brat runs a company?" Archie jeered.
"I can't!" Candy mocked. "I want to see the disaster, though."
"Neal just started working like what four months? What does he know in four months?" added Archie. He and Stear knew it too well since they both worked with their parents too.
"Must be difficult," Stear shook his head. "I don't think anyone wants to listen to him."
"He should whine and cry to get their attention," Candy joked wearily.
They laughed again.
"He deserves it," Annie chipped in.
"What goes around comes around," Candy agreed. "Humiliation can teach him a thing or two. It's about time!"
"With the intrigues and legal struggle, I don't think Neal can survive. The Leagan is over," continued Archie mercilessly.
Stear shrugged. "Neal is a smart fella. He can think of tricks and be creative when needed." After going to war he had witnessed variety of extreme human characters. How pressure could miraculously make, change, or destroy men.
"With only four months of experience? Give me a break!" Archie shook his head.
Before Stear could make a counter argument they heard a voice coming from behind them.
"Hi everybody!" Todd was finally here. He approached Candy and pressed a kiss on her forehead. "Sorry for waiting. Let's eat?"
"Let's eat!" Candy jumped. Annie put her knitting down. Patty inserted a bookmark and closed her book.
The Cornwells opened their basket and offered everyone sandwiches and cake.
"I love this ham," said Candy.
"Our chef cured it with salt taken from a lake not sea," explained Patty.
Then Candy opened her basket and offered everyone the apples from Mr. Cartwright's [2] ranch and the apple jam she made with the apples.
"Whew good you bring these, Candy!" welcomed Archie.
"I can't have enough of these apples," said Stear.
Everyone fought to get a scoop of the apple jam for their bread.
"I got the apples last weekend when Mr. Cartwright sent someone to fix the roof in Pony's home," said Candy who visited Pony's Home almost every weekend.
"Are the children still singing for him in Christmas?" asked Annie.
"Of course. And not only in Christmas because he's so nice to us," said Candy.
Everyone was busy enjoying the legendary apples, the conversation momentarily forgotten.
"Tasty," said everyone approvingly after there's no apple and apple jam left.
After lunch, they cleaned up. Then, Stear, Archie, and Todd read the sport section in the newspaper while the girls read ads and the travel section.
"I and Todd are going to Niagara falls this summer. Want to join us?" Candy started. She pointed at one travel ad.
"We already did last year. This year we will go to Europe to see aunt Elroy," answered Patty.
"You must try the buffalo chicken wing there, Candy! Very good," said Annie. "Archie finished five plates!"
They laughed. "Hey! Ticket to Europe is on sale!" Patty pointed to the paper.
"$74 round trip if we stayed for a month," said Annie. "Let's go Candy."
Albert didn't support Candy. She's too proud to receive free money. Secretly, she had been saving money for Pony's Home. She didn't tell anyone though because she didn't want to influence their decision. Rather than going to Europe she'd rather work and save for Pony's home.
"Or you can come with us," said Patty carefully. That translated as they're paying for her. "Albert might come to London this summer."
Candy shook her head. She would not take advantage of her rich friends, either. "I told Dr. Martin I will stay for the summer," Candy reasoned. She felt lucky that she worked so she didn't have to make up excuses.
They hung out for a while before going back home. Stear left the paper on the park bench so Candy took it home with her. After she finished with her evening cleaning, she sat down and flipped some pages of the paper. The headline was big in the middle of the business front page.
"Stephen Leagan under house arrest. The bail[3] is set at $1,000,000."
Holding her breath, she read the article about Neal's father. All of his properties, bank accounts, and assets were seized by the court.
Terrible... A lot of money is involved.
Candy took a deep breath and sat still, overcome by what she read. Suddenly she realized all happened about at the same time as when Neal stopped sending her roses. Those roses brought joy to so many people in the clinic. Many children stopped crying if she gave them rose petals.
Candy started to feel uneasy. She reached out to a telephone book and checked where the Leagan office was.
oOo oOo
The court ordered Stephen to be removed from the Leagan mansion to serve his house arrest sentence in their mansion that's in a remote location separately from his son.
Stephen was grateful that he had asked Sarah to stay in London. At least, she didn't have to suffer.
"Take care of mom and Eliza!" said Stephen to Neal before the police officer closed and locked the mansion front door.
Neal watched the police officers locked the gate of his own mansion so he couldn't enter.
Back in his office, wasted up Neal threw himself to a janitor chair in his office building basement. He wouldn't touch it in the past, but It's a good hiding place now. No one listened to him. No one did what he ordered. No one answered his questions. Now he understood, in the past they obeyed because his father stood next to him.
Seeing there's no one around, Neal sneaked outside. He didn't want to meet anyone since everyone meant problems. Suddenly he heard Candy's voice.
"Hi Neal," she called softly.
-To be continued-
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Thanks for reading.
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NOTE:
1. Then and now money are not the same. $1 now and $1 in this story are different.
2. Mr. Cartwright and his farm: Book 2 of manga
3. "bail out money": one needs to pay this amount or go to jail