2. Candy Ace

Four Years Later

May, 2000.

It was the d-day, he was finally getting married to a very beautiful woman. His love,his heart, his world, his everything. She was right before him looking as beautiful as ever in her immaculate, white wedding dress. 

“Do you Douglas Zimmer take Brittany Fletcher to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to hold, in sickness and in health, in penury and wealth till death do you part?” The officiating priest asked, sounding bored.

“I do.” He smiled up at her.

“Do you Brittany Fletcher take Douglas Zimmer to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to hold, in sickness and in health, in penury and wealth till death do you part?”

“I do.” She said making him the happiest man on earth. 

He met Brittany at a party hosted by one of his friends who turned out to be her brother. They started off on the right foot, dated for a year and six months and now happily married.

She was two months pregnant already and he couldn't wait to be a dad.

“Mom!  Mom!  Mom!” She heard her four year old son yell as he jumped on her continuously, on a mission to wake her  up. 

“I'm up.” She shouted, frustrated and sleep-deprived as she wiped her cheek with the back of her palm.

Her head hurt really bad, she needed some  aspirin. This was all her fault for deciding to attend the party last night.

“Earth to mama!” She heard him yell, cutting short her endless trail of thoughts.

“Ace, I don’t remember raising you this way. Yelling at your mama without even bothering to spare her a 'good morning'”.

He’d spent the night at Berry's place. Berry was the old lady who lived next door and Candace still had no idea why the old lady went by Berry. 

“I’m sorry.” he said with an apologetic puppy dog face he knew she always fell for. “Good morning mama.” he said with a bright smile. He reminded her of his father and she wasn't ready to go down her memory lane now. 

“Good morning baby.” She cooed. 

“Mom, get ready, you said we were getting icecream today. It will be fun!” he yelled. He definitely had that Zimmer trait in him. They were always hard-headed and short-tempered. 

“Fine.” She said and got into the bathroom. 

After her routine, she flat-ironed her hair and threw on a pair of jeans, a white crop top and black knee length boots. 

The fact that she was a mom didn’t mean she lost her dress sense or became a fashion blunder. 

Then she proceeded to change Ace. He dressed himself up and believe her when she said it was funny. 

“Come on.” She dressed him up in his Nike shoes, a nice shirt and skinny jeans. He looked adorable as she styled his hair.

“Alright baby, let's go.” She said as they went out the door into her SUV.

They drove to the park, went on rides together, and had icecream. To be honest, it was a blast. It was their bonding time. Their outing was going smoothly till she noticed his foul mood.

“What's wrong munchkin?” She asked and he dropped the million dollar question.

“Mama, where's my daddy?” He asked, making her breath hitch in her throat as tears clouded her eyes. 

Oh no.

“Mom, I'm sorry.” He said, looking apologetic. This was the third time he’d asked for his daddy. 

“It's okay baby, why did you ask?” She asked him as her voice cracked. 

“Next week is bring-your-dad-to-school day and my teacher said to bring our dads to school and have so much fun but I don’t have a dad to bring along, mommy. Kim says we could share her daddy but I don’t wanna.” He said fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

The need was evident in his voice and that crushed her heart completely as she tried so hard to not break into a sob.

“Mommy don't cry. If asking for daddy would make you cry then I don't want him anymore.” He said as he wiped her face with his tiny hands. She held them in hers as she gave a weak smile. 

The lights turned green and off they went. 

It was all his fault. 

She knew she’d deprived him of his father for too long, but to be fair, he’d never reached out to his son in any way whatsoever.

Candace smirked devilishly, she was in the mood for trouble, she’d been patient enough.

“You want to see him? ” She asked. 

“Yes!” He said with excitement.

“Let’s pay daddy a visit then.” She smirked as she sped down the highway.

They got their bags packed and that included a small suitcase, a backpack for things they could need for the trip and a mini backpack for Ace. It contained colouring books, crayons, pencils, erasers, gummies and chocolate bars. 

On getting to the airport, they were just in time as we heard the static lady's boring voice indicating the plane was about to leave. 

LA, be prepared, you have some very important guests. Douglas was in for the surprise of his life. 

“Thanks mommy.” He blushed.

“You’re welcome darling.” She grinned at the adorable little boy.

He walked in with Brittany right in front of him. They’d just arrived from the hospital due to some complications. She was eight months gone and needed plenty of rest. 

They sat at the dining table as Marilyn served them lunch. Marilyn was the support staff.

“Marilyn, this Californian Maki is superb.”

“Thank you sir.” She sported a small smile as she curtsied slightly.

“Could be better.” Brittany turned up her nose.

Her state was making her really cranky and quite bitchy. He didn’t want to be in Marilyn’s position because she was the one who usually bore it. 

Midway through their food he heard a knock on the door and signified to Marilyn to answer it.

 A really beautiful lady walked in holding a boy who looked exactly like Douglas and then it dawned on him as he stared starstruck at the all too familiar face.

“Candace?” He breathed out, shocked. 

“Douglas.” she spat with coldness in her voice. 

“What are you doing here?”

“Who is she?” Brittany gave Candace a onceover.

“Is…” He trailed off as she stared at his splitting image.

“Hi.” He waved as his heart melted at the boy who clutched onto Candace’s hand. 

“Baby, this is daddy” she said, a tad nonchalantly. 

“Hello.” the little boy said, hiding behind her legs unsure of what to do. He was quite shy.

“What's going on here?” Brittany asked with tears in her eyes. 

“This is your husband's son.” Candace said, beating Douglas to it. 

Brittany's face went pale as she fell back into her seat, eyes frantic as she tried to steady her breathing, her erratic heart beating against her ribcage while Marilyn tried to calm her down amidst her own personal shock.

“Mama, are we gonna live here? It's beautiful.” He cooed as he stared in awe at the spiral staircase and the huge chandelier that hung from the ceiling.

“You will, baby.” She said, making the little boy stare at her, confusion written all over his face.

“What about you?” He asked, Ace was a very smart child.

“I wouldn’t.”

“Why?” He asked as his lips quivered. 

“It’ll be just you and daddy.” She gave a small smile as she held back her pain.

“I want to go with you.” He said. 

“No baby. You will be fine here. You already have daddy now.” 

“Mom no!”

“Yeah.” She sighed as she blinked back her tears.

“Candace, you’re just going to up and leave?”

“It’s what I need to do Doug.”

“But Candy…”

“That was years ago, I don’t go by that anymore Doug.”

“Candace.”

“Take care of my baby, please.” She said to Marilyn. “Please.” She repeated to Douglas.

“Mommy no!” Ace sobbed.

“Candace don’t do this.” Doug pleaded.

“I love you.” She said before blowing Ace a kiss, tears in her eyes as she left without looking back at him. 

He jumped away from Douglas who tried to calm him down and ran out the door to look for her but it was too late. 

He stared at the car in the distance, the dust behind it as Candace raced down the tracks. He ran a few meters before giving up, there was no way he could catch up.

He sat down defeated as he bawled his eyes out.

“Mom…” His voice broke as she stretched his hand out towards the direction she went.

“Mom please.” He weeped, his shoulders shook from the pain he felt.

“Mom…” He called out for the last time before getting off the floor, dusting himself off. He turned around to walk towards the huge gates of the mansion when he came face to face with a smiling Marilyn.

“Hey.” She smiled at the poor lad.

“Hi.” He replied, quite uninterested as he rolled his eyes.

“I’m Marilyn.” She said and he ignored it.

“She left.” He pointed towards the already settled dust.

“I know, it sucks.” She supported him.

“Yeah. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Kim.” He perked up.

“Come on buddy.” She beckoned him over, picking the jet-lagged, heartbroken little boy up. He placed his head on her shoulder as she walked through the huge gate, into the mansion.

Candace’s eyes watered once more as the memory crossed her mind.

“How long do I have?”

“Not long Candace.”

“Doctor, long enough for me to get my son to a better place?”

“Yes, about that long.”

“Alright.” She said as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“It’ll be okay, Candace.”

“I’m trying to stay positive, doc.”

“I’ll give you a moment.” He said as he excused her.

“Who do I entrust my world with?” Her sobs got deeper as she thought of nothing else but her little bundle of joy.

“He’d be okay.” She wiped her cheeks dry as she sped towards the already building traffic.