Chapter 2

Sometimes you find out things you would really not want to know. Candy had done her job protecting me, too well. Not much of any consequence came out but ... last night ... she... “Oh, I’m sorry to have to tell you, but ... my friend and I planned on having dinner here and we saw her and a man getting on the elevator and it was not the lift to your penthouse. Not to hard to mix Sil up with someone else, is it?”

Now I was suddenly sick. Candy, sweet, kind Candy, tried to make light of the incident, but then added. “We, one of us at least stayed to see when see when she came out. Your place only can be reached from the Lobby or the garage, so...”

“So?”

“We saw her come downstairs at like 6:00 am the next morning, this morning.”

“I guess that explains why she never showed last night. Or answered her cell. She missed a great meal, ‘Lamb Provencal’.”

Somethings are not meant to be. I had said I was not a very nice person but I was also not a fool. Well, sometimes I might be, but close only counts in a few things.

“You done good kid! Make up some excuse for me, then tell me what you say and cancel the trip to Havana. I’ll let Sil know. I will treat this like ... like ... a kick in the balls like it is but only a suspicion and not proven, at least until...”

Candy nodded. I said to her: “Go on holiday Candy. When you get back in a few weeks, this should all be resolved, one way or another. Let me handle things for now.” I think Candy was afraid how I usually handled things. Not always though. Sil and I were not married ... yet. I did not believe in the benefit of a doubt either, or something like that, but ... something did not compute with this.

When Sill showed up, she would not look at me and went straight to her room. I nodded my head and said: “Sil, we need to talk, when your ready. The trip to Cuba is off, something more important came up. By the by, you missed a great meal last night.”

I pulled a page out of Sil’s book and called Candy to get me a room at another place then exited ‘stage right’.(As an old cartoon character used to say) I should tell you that Candy had known me an ... eon or two it seemed. There never was anything between us. Her sister, well, that was a work in-progress. Now that she was older(Near 18) the future(Ours according to her) was coming up quite a bit. This did not temper what my reaction was to the news on Sil. I already told her my actions if she ever cheated on me, she should have realized how I would react, even before the wedding took place. ‘She could have called at least’ I thought. Also, if the worst was true, she knew too much and could not be trusted; meaning she would have to be ... eliminated. Mixed emotions there Clyde. What to do? I made a call, Miami was not very far and, well ... people from there would be my eyes and ears here and Havana. to determine what I should do next.

Candy gave Sil a message from me. It was short and simple. Regardless of ‘what happened, I could no longer trust Sil. On the same bent, there was no one like her and I wanted her to ... to ... train, in a way a replacement. In the interim, until we found Candy would be my assistant; to start turning things over to her until ... Right now, she should plan on staying here but in 6 months start a new life elsewhere. I would not see or talk with her anymore. Really, there was nothing to say anyway. She could have called or just told me she would not be coming home or to dinner. That, and only that could not be excused, no matter what did or did not happen. The fact that someone was more important was ... was not a way to start anything with me.

To some, I could be considered guilty of a similar breach of trust concerning Candy. Candy, both she and her sister Sandi had been the only people I could trust. There were reasons for this, but they were not my story to tell. Somethings beyond a life and death situations leave those involved with Trust, it is such a strange word. In this business as well as in a personal life, ‘Trust’ means everything. When it is lost, it can never be found again for there would always be doubt left. Deep down, inside me, I knew I would never find another like Sil. However, that was not the point here; what good was it to have ... a known ... a suspected weakness rather around you could not trust. That relationship was not her fault but mine. She never asked for it, I did. Any solution should not be ‘extreme’, no, but it needed to put an end to things between us.