Albert won the new business in Florida. He worked very hard for it so he felt so energized and excited. It's his first major project since he's formally known as "Sir William". He's very proud of it. Like having a second chance, after recovering from his memory loss, he's more determined than ever to be a worthy descendant of the Ardley. On one Friday morning just after the press conference for that project, he was getting ready to host a lunch meeting to officials, executives, reporters, and more. To his surprise the first person who greeted him was his cousin.

"Hello Sarah, would you care to join for lunch?" said he cordially.

"Congratulations on your engagement to Candy, William," said Sarah coldly with narrowed eyes ignoring his offer. "No wonder you objected Neil's proposal to her," she said cynically.

Refusing to talk more about personal matters Albert chose to ignore her, "The Ardleys has a new opportunity in Florida. Something that Neil might want to look at instead of going to war. He can start by going to business school and does internship in that company at the same time to see if he has a future interest."

"You want to get rid of us, uh, William?" Sarah said in a very irritating tone.

Albert stayed calmed and said coolly, "Archie will go to business school too," hinting that Neil wasn't the only nephew who would leave Chicago to study.

"I am sure you are aware that the Florida opportunity is real, right Sarah? You were there throughout the press conference," continued Albert with commanding tone looked straight at her eyes as though telling her to stop talking nonsense. "Should Neil have an interest, he can have it. The choice is yours."

Albert finished the sentence with a gesture that asked her to leave unless there's more important matter to discuss. Understood the gesture, without saying anymore words, Sarah left - much to his relieved.

Albert really hated cold wars like what he just had with Sarah. Exchanging nerve wracking comments with unreadable face really required special energy. His skill definitely improved a lot as he needed to do it again and again on daily basis, but it didn't mean something that he enjoyed to do. But as a patriarch and a prominent business man it's his responsibility to try to work together with everyone be it family, friends, or foes.

"I hope one day I'll get used to this more," sighed him and prepared to join others for lunch. He's very happy that the weekend finally arrived and that he'd see Candy soon.

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Meanwhile in Pony's Home:

While Albert was in the business trip, if not attending training with Aunt Elroy, Candy often went home to the Pony's home to see her mothers. She helped to take care of the children and other things. Besides, Pony hill was such a lovely place that helped to re-energize her mentally. It's the place where she met her Prince. Ms. Pony and Sister Lane always welcomed her with big hugs.

That day, Sr. Lane and Ms. Pony looked different and gloomy. Couldn't hide her curiosity, Candy asked what happened.

"Rent price keeps going up, expenses go up, Dear. The number of adopted children this year is much lower than the number of incoming children. In addition, I and sister Lane grow older, we can't plant vegetables or raise chickens like in the past."

"A construction company offered to buy our property. But that would mean, we need to close our adoption center and move the chidren somewhere else," continued Sister Lane.

To close the center? thought Candy. Poor children. Besides, Pony's hill is such a lovely place. It's a great place for kids to grow. There's a forest, little rivers to play and far away from disturbance of big cities.

The problem seemed to be very serious. She couldn't wait to see Albert to ask for his opinion. I am sure he will have some solution and solve it easily, she thought and smiled to herself.

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Back to Albert:

On that same Friday, Albert just finished his late afternoon meeting. He took and read his usual daily report when something caught his attention, "What? Land outside Chicago, where Pony Hill is, is sold?" he almost read it loudly.

When George came in, he saw Albert was reading that article and commented, "The buyer is a construction company who wants to build a commercial area in the land where Pony's home is."

This can't be,Albert thought. Candy might not like it and they have such a precious memory in Pony's Hill.

"Do you know something else, George?"

"Sir, the name sounds familiar to me, so I checked. The owner's name is Mr. Timothy Boyd. He was years younger than your father's. If I remember correctly, he and your father didn't have a good term in the past."

"Contact him, ask him if we can meet on Monday. In the meantime I want to study more about this case. Can you check if you have other information?"

"I'll check more. Please note that your father never had friendly term with them, Sir."

"I notice this won't be an easy ride. Thanks George." George nodded and left to make the appointment.

Later that evening, after finishing his work, Albert went straight to visit Candy in her apartment. Candy was excited to see him.

"How are you doing, Love?" he said as Candy ran to his arms. Candy couldn't stop telling him all the excitements of the manner classes she took. Seeing how much she enjoyed that, he couldn't help thanking aunt Elroy.

"After my parents passed away, aunt Elroy was literally the one who took care of me and Rosemary. The way I am now mostly are all due to her care. Although she seems to be stiff, she always does things for the best of the family. When my father passed away and when I was missing, it's her who made sure the family was united. She has endured so many hardship for the sake of the family."

"I can imagine that. She also seems to love her nieces and nephews a lot too. The way she was devastated when Anthony and Stear passed away really shows that."

"However, If you don't like any part of the training, you should let me know though," said Albert with an air of authority. "Regardless, I am the current head of the family," he said while smiling at Candy.

Although Albert respected her aunt, if needed he could also go against her like during the engagement party where he confronted her. Candy was fully aware of that. She's grateful on how he always made her feel important and special by his caring and support. He always made her feel so safe. She smiled and put her head on his shoulder while assured him that the training was indeed fine. She also got to know Aunt Elroy better.

"I told her our experience when you lost your memory," said Candy laughing. She told Albert how excited aunt Elroy was with the story. They were laughing about it.

Although all seemed moving along smoothly, Albert was concerned that Candy wouldn't be happy if all she did was to be a socialite puppet. Sure all was fun now because it's a new thing for her. After a while, he's afraid she would get bored, especially that he's on business trips very often. When he brought up the idea, she replied, "As usual, you always can read my mind. Albert, if it's ok with you, can I go back to school?"

"That's fantastic, I love the idea," said Albert excitedly. "In fact, I just talked to Archie. He will go to graduate school in Harvard. Neil probably will go too," said Albert without elaborating the annoying conversation he had with Sarah this morning.

"Yes, Archie told me so. Annie will not go though. She prefers to work with her parents."

"What do you want to study?"

"I plan to know more about health care program. I will go to U. Of Chicago so we can be close together."

"Thanks for putting me into your plan, Candy," said Albert touched. "I hope I don't limit your life though?" inquired him.

"Actually U. Of Chicago has one of the best program in the country. So it's a perfect match..."

The two then enjoyed the rest of the evening together. First they had dinner and then took a walk. Then they went to the mansion. Candy was anxious to bring up the Pony's home problem but was concerned that Albert had enough of his own problems for the day. But the more she tried to wait, the more she got impatient. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't suppress her emotion anymore. Sensing something was wrong, Albert asked if anything bothered her.

"Ms. Pony and Sister Lane can't pay rent, Albert," bursted Candy almost screaming with emotion like a dam that couldn't hold more water. "That means, Pony's home will be closed at anytime."

Albert startled but tried to remain calm. His blue eyes looked deeply into her eyes to know if she knew about the land ownership struggle. The land ownership information was confidential and not yet made public. Since she didn't talk about that he assumed she and the mothers didn't know.

"Don't worry," Albert said calmly. "If Ms. Pony and Sister Lane agreed, the Ardley foundation can support the Pony's home trough its charity program."

Candy couldn't hide her happiness. She hugged him and said happily,"You always be my problem solver, Albert. I knew you know what to do."

"Haha," he laughed. "Tomorrow, when you go home, we will take our proposal to them. Hopefully they agree to accept our support. If so, the rest will be easy"

Inside his heart he's determined more than ever to take care of the land problem on Monday. Although feeling a little bit guilty (remembering the sandwich agreement 1), he decided not to tell the problem to Candy until Monday meeting in order not to worry them too much. Besides, he was confident he would find a good solution for them. In addition, it's not entirely lies since it's a surprise gift for her too.I will buy her the Pony Hill, thought Albert excitedly.

"But tomorrow is Saturday," said Candy.

"We take George to do the paperwork and have it all done on Monday. I will go with you too." Albert planned to get the paperwork ready so he could take it with him on Monday to finish the negotiation. In his heart he promised himself to not do anything behind Candy's back anymore in the future.

In the car, Albert asked Candy if Pony's home problem was the one that made her agitated yesterday. Candy nodded.

"Then why didn't you tell me earlier?" he asked softly while holding her hands.

"You were already very busy and tired by your work, I didn't want to add more to it."

Albert assured her, "Remember when we shared half of the sandwich? At that time we agreed to share our problems, right? Never hesitate to bring things up to me, Love. Anything at anytime. You are the most important thing to me."

Candy promised him and hugged him thinking how happy she was to be with her kind and reliable prince thinking to herself, What would I be without him, I love him so much.

To Candy and Albert's relieved, Ms. Ponny and Sr. Lane happily accepted the proposal. While George worked on the details, Albert took a walk outside with Candy and the kids. They had such a good time. Ms. Ponny and Sr. Lane didn't stop thanking him. After the paperwork was ready, George left although everyone insisted him staying over dinner. Being a good man, he knew where his position was. He refused to stay and left to do his work right away. They cooked dinner together and had a wonderful evening... The following day, Albert and Candy went back to Chicago. After spending a day relaxing in Lakewood, Albert dropped her in her apartment and left. Both of them prepared for Monday's work.

"Sir, I have more information about Mr. Tim," said George as he entered the room with a stack of folder that Sunday night.

Albert stared at him as a sign for him that he's listening.

George continued," He and your father knew one another. Mr. Tim was years younger than your father. At that time they both competed for some big and important construction business, your father won. Tim was very devastated. The project turned out to be a very important turning point for the Ardleys business. It helped to make the enterprise bigger than it had never before. After that, Tim's fortune was surpassed easily by your father."

"Very good, George. I remember vaguely who this person is. I remember dad talked about him," said Albert trying to remember all he could about what his father told him about Tim.

"He was very upset with the loss. I don't see why he shouldn't remain that way to this day, Sir. Here is some more information about his company, if you'd like to take a look," said George handed him the folders.

"Well done George, yes I want to look at it. I will think more what to do tomorrow. That'd be it for today, George. Good night." George nodded and left. Albert was thinking some strategy for the meeting and went to bed too.

On Monday...

"Sir William, nice to meet you." Tim said coldly although he couldn't help secretly looking at him from up to down and noticing his resemblance to his father, a worthy competitor, who left too early.

"Hello Mr. Tim," replied Albert graciously.

"What bring you here?" he said ignoring his friendly gesture.

Undeterred Albert said, "I read that you bought a land outside Chicago and your plan to develop it into a commercial area. Are you are aware that there's an orphanage in that area?"

"Yes, in fact they haven't paid their rent for a few months. I will have them moved. I understand that you are aware that the land price in that area has been moving up steadily," hinting that all his after is money not charity works.

"That orphanage is under Ardley Foundation protection. What can we do to retain the orphanage?" Albert said hinting that he's willing to purchase the land at any cost.

"Well well well Sir William, are you gonna threaten me to buy the land I just purchased for your own use? You can't seem to let go and let me do business alone, can you? If it's protected by the Ardley foundation, why haven't you paid the rents for them and made me do it instead?" Albert understood his point. Still showing emotionless face and voice he continued.

"I am not interested to do any commercial in your property. All I am interested in is just 1% of your total area, the Pony hill and the surrounding area. The orphanage is a recent addition to the Ardley Foundation. We can compensate your cost by paying double the amount you paid for the land."

Tim couldn't help to admire the young man. He looked like a younger version of his past competitor, he had a good control of his emotion. His father would have been very proud to see him.

"Money is not the issue. Be it double or triple," he said slowly and sharply, unyielding. "I want the entire land to eliminate even a slight possibility from your side to interfere with my project." He answered coldly. He too was a master to emotion control. Besides, he's been in the business longer! He couldn't believe the Ardley is threatening and again trying to compete with him. Then was the father, now is the son. He wouldn't surrender, how would he know that they had no hidden plan to do something harmful to his business. To have a side by side business with the Ardley was not a fun thing to do!

Silence fell. Albert thought quickly how to solve the problem gracefully knowing that Tim must have had bad impression on him due to past hatred with his father. He knew it wouldn't easy to make Tim cooperate. He even rejected the money offer! But, Albert definitely wouldn't just surrender he quickly thought of other alternatives that might interest Tim.

"Mr. Tim, we have a new area developed on the South. I will give the project to you if you sell Pony surrounding land to us. In addition, your name will be mentioned as an important contributor to the Ardley Foundation. This is not just about money, it's for a good cause," Albert said slowly and clearly. He used the last strategy he could have thought of. He knew how much Tim wanted to do a big construction project, like the one he lost from his father.

"Will you genuinely use the land for the orphanage instead of business?" Tim reiterated one more time.

"You get my word for it, George can discuss the detail of the terms today or even right now with your team. We will not use the land for things other than Pony's Home and related charity projects and definitely not for business or commercial purposes," said Albert with his finest business tone.

His strategy worked. Tim was happy to get the big project he had been waiting for throughout his life. He stood up and shook Albert's hands, saying, "Your father would have been very proud of you, young man," said he genuinely impressed on Albert's negotiation skill.

Tim insisted on inviting Albert to lunch. Seeing his sincerity, Albert couldn't decline. Throughout the lunch, he told many things about his father that he had never heard before. He told him about their past encounters, and mentioned good things about him. Their competitions were fierce but he always respected the man. Albert was very happy to hear fresh stories about his beloved father and graciously thanked him for the kind words he had about him. In return, Albert invited him to come to his and Candy's engagement party which Tim promised to go.

Albert couldn't wait to tell Candy the good news. He had saved and indirectly bought the Pony Hill, the memorable place where they met for the first time. Like what he had expected, Candy was very excited too. She was shocked beyond words to know that Pony Hill had actually been bought by someone and if it's not because of her prince, the orphanage would have been gone forever. Albert didn't forget to apologize that he hid the story till the end. "It's a surprise gift, Love," he said trying to reason with a reasonable excuse with her. Candy accepted the excuse but she also reminded him about the sandwich agreement and asked him to promise not to hide problems from each other anymore for next time, which Albert obliged. Candy went home as soon as she's done with her Ardley training and Albert was away on his business trip again. She shared the story to her mothers who couldn't stop thanking Albert. They, too, didn't know that the problem was deeper than not paying monthly rents. The land had actually been sold and bought by someone else and the orphanage would have been closed at any day had it not been Albert's interference. They were very happy that they could continue taking care of the orphanage and the kids as before.

That night Candy was thinking of his prince. She recalled the time when she was worried about the Pony's home and now realized that actually Albert worried too but she just couldn't read that from his face. While he observed her worry and asked her what the problem was, she didn't pay him enough attention to observe his. She was so ashamed to be so self centered and promised herself to pay more attention to Albert in the future.

Poor Albert, he's always so ready to help me and solves my problems, but I never did that to him, she thought. She said good night to her prince softly and went to bed.

- To be Continued -

Note:

Sandwich agreement: In the manga, Albert took Candy out by only bringing one sandwich so they need to share it for lunch. Albert meant to tell Candy, to share whatever news she had, be it a happy one or a sad one.

1. Albert was violating the agreement, because he didn't tell Candy the problem that bothered him: the Pony's hill actually had been sold.