One day, Candy was strolling with her fiance when they happened to meet a group of kindergarten children. Candy who always liked children shouted excitedly, "Can you imagine life with little Candies and Carls in the future?"

"To be really honest with you, I don't like children. I told you this many times!" Carl said sharply.

That day the stock market fell again and many shareholders complained. Carl had to handle all their complains which irritated him. The pressure was huge, his mood turned really sour so he vented that off to Candy.

Candy was hurt. This disappointment had happened again and again which also why they hadn't announced the engagement. Somehow both of them knew somewhere in their hearts were buried sharp thorns. Candy couldn't take it anymore and she decided to confront him. When he took her home she told him her honest opinion about his mood outburst.

"Maybe you could be more considerate to me?" she said softly afraid of having another round of fight.

"How I want to talk, that's the way I talk," he said rudely with a very annoying face.

"I understand that you had a rough day. But, could we just put that behind and enjoyed the evening?"

"I can not. Shut up! Stop lecturing me." He threw away his glove, the shortest object within his reach, to her.

Candy came to hug him. "That's okay, I love you. Let's forget that I said what I said."

Carl pushed her away. "I can't forget. I am so tired of you."

"Carl, I love you. We promise to always love one another," said Candy tearfully.

"I made a wrong promise," shouted Carl. "Go away!"

At this time, Candy started to get irritated. She started to talk back at him. "You should learn to control your temper better, Carl. Cool down a little. It's a fact of life. Either you are mad or not, the problem is there."

"Stop talking to me like that. I don't want to see you anymore!" he shouted really madly. He looked for another object closed to him and threw that to Candy.

"Then don't see me then," shouted Candy back. She took off his engagement ring and threw that at him. She walked away and banged the door behind her, hard.

When Candy cooled down from anger, she started to feel sad. She loved him and had been dreaming of starting a family with him. It's sad that all over now. Since Annie was not there anymore, the closest person she could think of was Neal. She called him to tell him about the sad news. He was in his office working, but as soon as he heard her crying, he hurriedly came to visit her to comfort her.

"This is a rough time for everyone, Candy. The business has been really bad for such a long period of time. It really affects a person emotionally."

Candy kept crying. "It didn't seem to affect you," she said between her tears.

"I am different. I had a much more tragic experience. After what I went trough I think I could handle almost just about any other tough cases," he said with a slight of gloominess for a second. He was thinking of Beth for a second. Soon he remembered that his job was to comfort her not the other way round so he regrouped himself quickly.

"That's okay, don't cry. I have many bachelor friends, I'll introduce them to you. You'll get a potential suitor very soon."

Candy was very disappointed to Carl. She's been with him for so long so even though she had been unhappy with him for sometimes she still felt the loss of not having him around. To comfort her, every now and then Neal came for a visit and they went out together just like in the past.

Candy and Neal met regularly as friends to chat or to accompany one another to go to some public occasions. Sometimes, he took her to the Pony's home and picked her up the following day. They introduced each other as cousins. "This is my cousin, Neal" for her case "This is my cousin, Candy" for his case and for a more formal meeting he'd add "Sir William's daughter" after her name. Sr. Lane and Ms. Pony were surprised the first time they heard the word "cousin". Candy explained privately later that he's Albert's nephew.

Neal worked seriously to find a potential suitor for Candy. Every now and then he took one to meet her.

"This is my cousin, Candy," said Neal as always to start a conversation. Then he would turn to Candy to give a brief introduction about his friend. His friend would shake hands politely with her. Then they did some polite exchange greeting.

But after a while, Candy started to give the same complain as Albert in the past when aunt Elroy introduced him to so many ladies. She's so tired of having to introduce who she was and got the same questions over and over again.

"Where do you work?" his friend would then ask.

"Anthony Brown Hospital," she would then answer.

And of course the next question was what she did, some hospitals joke, where she went to college, and so on. She was sure that they knew many of the answers already from Neal but out of politeness they felt obligated to ask again. And she needed to ask them politely back too although she actually already knew the answers from Neal. She needed to fake smiles and interest.

It was so boring! Above all, she didn't know the person. Probably out of politeness to Neal, his friend also talked some business and politics to him which was the most boring of all and totally made her almost fall asleep. She just didn't feel comfortable to be friendly to strangers. Many times, unconsciously, she hid behind her cousin. Neal needed to secretly made a signal or pushed her so she stood next to the potential suitor instead of next or behind him.

"How could I fall in love with someone by just knowing them in a dinner or after doing one round of ball," she said.

"True, but the purpose is to get to know them. I met Beth in this kind of matchmaking occasion too, and it worked. What important is the follow up after you find one interesting man."

After a few of failed potential suitors Neal said, "Maybe you two should go dinner alone. I shouldn't go with you."

"You are my cousin not my friend, it's different."

"Have a date with three people?" he laughed. "That's not fun. Without me, you and him could behave more naturally too since there's no one in between. He wouldn't feel obligated to talk to me and be afraid to say anything he wants to say. I might turn off may of your potential suitor."

"Accompany me, please..." said Candy scared to meet a stranger.

"What about this, you go alone but I meet you the following day for you to tell me your stories."

So Candy agreed to meet his friends by herself. "What if I introduce you to someone too?" asked Candy excitedly.

"I am not ready with that. Please don't," he gave a gloomy look. "We have you get married first, then we take care of me, how about that?"

"Deal," she said.

Candy met Neal's friends alone and met him afterwards to discuss her opinion. On paper, all his friends were really not bad. They all had prestigious job status, either because of family relations or because of self made efforts. Most of them were businessmen, some were lawyers or other professions. But, she always imagined professional men to be like Albert or Neal who were friendly and like a family man. But they didn't seem so. Their formality scared her. She's not sure what the real person really was behind those smiles. She brought her concerns to her cousin.

"We've known you since you were little, it's different, Candy. Be patient and give them some time to adjust," he tried to encourage her.

Regardless, one or two did follow up with Candy although they didn't become her suitor. They went out with Candy once in a while and became her good friends. One was an engineer. He reminded her so much of Stear that the interest was immediate.

One time she was going out with one of them when she met Carl who was walking with another woman in his arm. Candy saw him kissing that woman. She cried when telling Neal that part and he hugged her. The sharp contrast of his kindness to Carl's intolerant behavior made her heart felt pierced by his gentleness. She felt so comfortable in his warm and gentle arms. His familiar aroma gave peace to her troubled heart.

He then looked at his cousin and said, "Don't worry. You'll get someone better. I promise you," with the gentlest look and care that shone from his two soft brown eyes.

She felt touched even more and sighed to herself, how come none of my potential suitor was like him?

That week, she gave him a call. She told him she had a potential boyfriend. He's Tom, a new neurosurgeon director in the hospital. Tom was a fun and positive man. He's new in Chicago. He's very research oriented, just like Stear, but in medical field. All he cared about was his research and not much of anything else. When he read newspapers he read mainly the science and technology section. He read a lot of medical books. He wasn't aware that Candy was one member of the famous Ardlay family. He went out with Candy often to visit many areas of Chicago.

Neal was happy with him. He seemed to be honest, straight, and unpretentious. A good suitor for Candy.

"We'll meet at the regular time and I'll tell you more about him later. It's easier than talking on the phone," she said.

"But, what about Tom?" Neal asked.

"He worked this weekend," she said. "He's a new director, very busy and occupied."

"I know, but he might not be happy if you keep going out with me, Candy."

"What's wrong of going out with my cousin?" Candy kept arguing.

So, they still met regularly with her telling him things about Tom and other things.

Candy introduced Tom to Neal too. They agreed to meet in her favorite restaurant. When Neal came, Candy hurriedly ran to greet him.

She said to Tom, "This is my cousin, Neal."

Her face was blooming, probably blushed a little. Tom was stunt to see how Candy changed at her cousin's presence. She suddenly looked shining and alive with sparks in her eyes. Her two green eyes glued to her cousin with a beaming smile constantly present on her face. Seeing that, Tom almost blurted out asking, "What kind of cousin?" which he swallowed at the last second, wondering if he's not in the place to ask such a personal question. Tom estimated Neal was about the same age as Candy, much younger and taller than himself

"Nice meeting you" said Neal. "I heard that you are the newly appointed neurosurgeon director in the hospital. Congratulations on your new position."

"Thank you. I am Tom. Nice meeting you too," said Tom introducing himself. "What about you? Where do you work?"

Tom stared at the clean cut tall young man thinking he'd believe it if he said he's a model.

Neal looked at Candy briefly whose face didn't make much expression. Since she didn't talk about it, he didn't want to talk about it either.

"I work with my uncle and my father," Neal answered shortly.

They had a pleasant chat throughout the lunch. At some point during their conversation, Tom asked Neal for a direction to a nearby building. Neal took Tom outside briefly to show him the building he's looking for. Candy was sitting waiting for them as well as to watch their table. One waitress who she knew well came to approach her.

"Girlfriend, which one is your boy friend actually?" she asked. "My coworker said she saw you kissing the shorter man, but regardless, I sense the taller one is your boyfriend."

Candy looked at her in horror and whispered, "Ssh!" She put her finger in front of her lips. "The taller one is my cousin! Don't let him hear what you just said. He would refuse to go out with me again!"

"Cousin?" whispered the waitress back. Her eyes stared at her in disbelief. "What kind of cousin? The one with blood relation thing?"

"Not really, it's just how I call him," she smiled to her. Always be a friendly girl, she wasn't offended and took the conversation as a friendly joke.

"Well then, I might still win the bet. Who knows!" She winked. "Don't worry, I won't tell him!" She waved and left.

Candy giggled to herself. She found it funny how people talk behind their back. She cautiously took it as a warning to watch out for her behavior to Neal in public.

After that day, occasionally Tom and Candy took Neal to go out with them.

Not until much later that Tom accidentally found out from Dr. Leonard about Candy and Neal's status as the Ardlays.

"How's your weekend?" Dr. Leonard asked.

"Good, I went out hiking with Candy and her cousin."

"Her cousin?"

"Yeah, Neal," said Tom.

"Neal? Neal Leagan, you mean?"

"I don't know what his last name is actually. She just said Neal, her cousin," Tom said as though he really didn't care much about who Neal really was.

"It should be him. He's the big boss of this hospital."

"Really? How come I never see him in any of the meetings."

"He's too big to attend one," laughed Dr. Leonard. "This hospital is funded mostly by the Ardlay Foundation which is part of the enterprise and he's representing Sir William as the head of the Ardlay enterprise here in America."

"So that means Candy is...?" said Tom.

Soon, Tom was aware of the Ardlay family and their influence. It's hard to escape them especially in their hometown of Chicago. Tom was surprised that he's dating an Ardlay. He started to find the topic to be interesting especially now that he's dating one and started to enter the management level in the hospital. Starting from that day, he paid more attention to the local news outside science.

-To Be Continued -

Carl: Candy's ex-fiance

Tom: Candy's new boyfriend

Thanks for reading!