“She made it to the facility in one piece.” Leah spoke nervously, her heart heavy in her chest. “I made sure she got there safe and sound, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, Leah…” I didn’t look up at her, I didn’t want to think about that right now. “Sorry that you had to do that.”

“I’m perfectly fine, hon… it’s you that I’m worried about.” Leah hesitantly stepped inside, standing over me and looking down. “Are you okay?”

Of course I wasn’t okay, I almost scoffed at the idea of it, shaking my head at her, having already cried myself out of tears for the night. “No… not even slightly…”

“I can see that, but… are you going to be okay?” Leah leaned down, trying to console me after everything that happened tonight. “She’s going to be safe…”

“I know that, but…” I choked on my words, squeezing the little gold bell in my hand as I held it to my chest. “She’s not going to be with me…”

“You deserve better, Candace-”

“No, I don’t.” I interrupted her, not wanting to hear another word of that nonsense. “I never deserved her in the first place…”

“Don’t say that, hon…” Leah sat down on the couch next to me in my bedroom, putting her arm around my still lifeless husk of a body. “Think of it like a bad breakup… you still have us, after all.”

“I know, I know… Aria’s here too, taking care of the cat’s and stuff right now… doing all of the things that Chloe used to do before…” I paused, taking a sip of hot chocolate from the mug in front of me, doing my best not to spill it with my still shaking hands. “And Malcolm’s not gone gone, he’s just not going to be working for me anymore… and neither are you, I guess…”

Leah sighed, shaking her head at me and smiling. “I’m still here for you, and I still work for the family… mama just got a promotion, that’s all.”

“Congrats…” I didn’t even look up at her, glancing down at my pitiful reflection in the surface of my drink. “I’m happy for you.”

“Maybe you could ask Malcolm about going back to being your assistant?”

“Aria said she’d agree to do that, sounds like she’s scared of my father…” I grinded my teeth, not wanting to think about my father right now. "But dad scares everyone.”

“He doesn’t scare me.” Leah scoffed, glancing back out into the hallway. “What’s pitter patter’s deal, she seems stiffer than usual?”

“I don’t fucking know.” Aria has always been impossible to read, even for me, and that was saying something. We had been best friends for a while now, we texted back and forth daily, we comforted each other, we talked about sex stuff, but I still couldn’t figure out what her fucking problem was. Ever since she’d first met Chloe, she absolutely refused to talk about her, or come over to my house anymore, it was the weirdest thing. “I never fucking know with her.”

“I resent that!!” Aria stormed into the bedroom, spouting a phrase that she had undoubtedly picked up from me. Aria scoffed at me, an unimpressed scowl painted on her face. “I’m literally just trying to help you feel better, and I get that you’re like… having a bad night and all, but can you please keep me out of your pissy ramblings?”

“I’m sorry, Aria…” I smiled at her, recoiling in on myself and pulling the blankets over my shoulders inward to help keep me warm. “Thank you for helping out, I appreciate it a lot…”

“It’s not my fault your slave was a cunt…” Aria sighed, softening her expression and trying to better her attitude so as to not upset me any more than I already was. “Look, just… let me finish cleaning up for you, I’ll be right back.”

There it was again, that weirdness about her. She always flipped back and forth on a whim, acting in weird ways that seemed to contradict each other. I could analyze a person’s motives, but only if they acted logically… Aria let her emotions control her.

She made her way out back into the rest of the house, continuing to clean in Chloe’s stead, leaving me alone in my bedroom with Leah.

“…She’s cute, isn’t she?” Leah’s eyes followed the noise of Aria walking out into the rest of the mansion.

“Didn’t you literally just get a divorce, like yesterday?” I giggled at her, taunting the other woman for paying just a little bit too much attention to the younger girl.

“Not even!!” Leah puffed up her cheeks, growling playfully at me. “But I’m not about to let my soon to be ex-husband keep me from moving on.”

“Did you two really have sex?” I grinned at her, piercing into her eyes with my cold glare. “…How did that happen?”

“Hell if I know… She’s just really good at consoling a grieving woman, I guess.” Leah sighed, hanging her head with a heavy heart. “I don’t understand it either…”

I paused, trying to read Leah’s expression, absorbing enough insight from her reaction to put together a piece of the puzzle. “She came to you, huh?”

“I’m a fraud and a liar, but I would never cheat on my husband.” Leah took a deep breath, her cheeks flushed with anger. “But that rat bastard deserved a piece of his own fucking medicine.”

“So you cheated on him with Aria, then?”

“I mean, it’s not cheating if he did it first, right?” Leah scoffed, sighing as she got up from her seat on the sofa. “Besides, the girl’s too young for me. You and your gaggle of gays are just a bad influence, I want you to know that.”

“Of course we are… But maybe there’s a reason you’ve always fit in so well.” I rolled my eyes at her, trying to give her a reassuring smile to let her know I was going to be okay, if only to get her to leave. I liked Leah, she had become a close friend, but I needed to be free of the stress that accompanied her for the time being. “Say goodbye to Aria on the way out?”

“Sure thing, you just worry about yourself kid.” Leah stuffed her hands back into her coat pockets, trying not to stare at me for too long. “You want a hug before I go?”

I shook my head no, not really wanting to get up from this spot. “Thanks for the offer, though.”

“I’m not good with hugs anyways.” Yeah right, Leah was an almost pathological liar, and I knew that much about her. If anyone in this room needed a hug after tonight, well… it would be me, but Leah would be kind of a close second, or a close third after…

“You gave Chloe a hug before you left her didn’t you?” I looked away nervously, glancing over at the closet door. “She is actually safe isn’t she, you aren’t just lying to try and make me feel better?”

“Of course she is, I left her with Colton.” I was glad that I wasn’t taking a drink of my hot chocolate, because hearing that name probably would have made me spit it out all over the floor, and I no longer had someone to clean that up for me.

“Colton? Jane Colton?” I swallowed nervously. “The euthanasiologist?”

“One, that’s not a real word. Two, she’s an anesthesiologist-”

“And three, she’s not even a real doctor.” I bit my lip angrily, my grip tightening around the little bell I still clutched in my hand. “The woman carries around lethal injections in her fucking pockets.”

“She also carries around sedatives and morphine, all of the doctors at that place are like that Candace, you know that. They wouldn’t exactly be there if they’d gotten their medical training legitimately. They aren’t going to put a real office worker up front to handle slave transports-”

“She still shouldn’t be putting her hands on my Chloe!!” I spat angrily, my voice seething with rage.

“Do you hear how ridiculous you sound right now? Chloe is fine, Candace, but that’s not really your fucking problem. News flash, she’s not your Chloe anymore.” Leah didn’t even bother getting angry in return. “Why do you even care at this point, she’s somebody else’s problem now. She’s not even a real person anymore. She, along with her personal items, are the sole property of someone else now.”

“You know what I mean, Leah… I’m just worried about her safety is all.” I shrunk back into my seat, sulking quietly. Of course I knew that she wasn’t mine, the words just kind of slipped out. She wasn’t my Chloe anymore, hell she probably isn’t even going to be Chloe anymore, considering the likelihood of her next proprietor renaming her. “I put a lot of time and effort into her and I don’t want that to go to waste.”

“I know you asked your father to make sure she was alive and all, but do you really think that was the right decision? Even if she gets through the facility just fine, she’s going to be out of the family’s hands eventually. She is going to find her way to a new owner, and whoever that ends up being is going to do whatever they want with her anyways, and that could very much end in her being killed, or something even worse… You aren’t going to see her again, so she’s as good as dead to you anyways, you don’t seriously expect that she’ll ever make her way back to you, do you?”

“Of course I don’t, Leah.” My father and brother had been urging me to have her killed from the very start, but I never once considered letting that happen, and I refused to let it happen now. “Thank you for your report… you’re dismissed now.”

“Right. Good luck…” She knew that that was her cue to get out of my bedroom and go home, I wasn’t going to be needing her service anytime soon.

What a terrible night. It was like once again all of my hard work had been completely and utterly destroyed. The world championship finals had been last November, almost a full year ago now, almost a full year since Sophia Cavalier destroyed my hard work the first time. I had spent months trying to make this viable, and in the end it just didn’t happen.

I had spent the six months following the finals in a state of constant rage, learning as much as I possibly could about Sophia Cavalier and convincing him to let me plot my revenge against her. It was a huge process, trying to make the necessary renovations to my home, arranging for the people I would need to make it happen, getting the family resources necessary to enact my plan, and finally executing my scheme to kidnap and enslave my archrival.

I spent all of May just trying to get her to cooperate, putting up with her escape attempts, and her outright hatred of me to my face.

I spent all of June teaching her the basics of just being my fucking maid, drilling simple skills into her stupid brain, and continuously beating insolence and disrespect out of her, trying to get her to fear me.

I spent all of July on high alert, as I finally made some progress with that stupid bitch, only barely able to rely on her completing all of her tasks day in and day out. She finally began to truly respect me. She began to see me as her owner, she realized that she relied on me for her survival, and she did her best to keep me happy.

I spent all of August falling in love with her, trying to get her to fall in love with me as well. I made her my handmaiden, and she made it her mission to serve me. She fell in love with me, she finally submitted to me. She learned her place, she learned her guidelines, she learned what it meant to be mine.

I spent all of September in heaven, I was happy, and I thought she was happy too, but there were things that were bothering her, things that she couldn’t push past. I saw our fatal flaw, and I did nothing about it, I thought that we were strong enough to get past it, but we weren’t. Now she was gone, and it was all my fault.

I would spend all of October alone, no Chloe, just me… just Candace. I should be getting prepared for this year’s world championship, but I wasn’t going to, I didn’t want to. It was too soon, following the public death of Sophia Cavalier, Candace St. Clair wouldn’t be making an appearance this year.

My manager had helped me put out a public statement, letting the community know that I wouldn’t be participating in this year’s championship series. But apparently Tallulah wasn’t going to be sparing me from the entirety of the public spotlight.

↞✶↠

“What do you mean you want me to go to the world championship?” My manager called me on the phone, excitedly trying to ramble about something she wanted to mention before she left, but wasn’t able to find the time to talk about. “I thought we had decided I wasn’t playing this year?”

“You aren’t playing this year, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“Then why do you want me to go?”

“Because dear Candy, I have been in talks with some of the people up at the top, and I’ve secured a really interesting prospect for you, if you were to accept it.”

“And what’s that, Ma’am?”

“I was going to bring it up in person while I had the chance, it just seemed like exactly the wrong time.” I had hardly ever heard Tallie this excited, especially over the phone. “But you, Candace St. Clair, if you choose to accept the position, will be hosting this year’s world championship series~”

“You’re kidding…” My heart genuinely fluttered with excitement at the idea of it. Sure, I wouldn’t be finding myself on stage playing the game, but I would still very much be up on the stage in the spotlight, front and center for the whole event. “Tell me you’re kidding.”

“I’m not kidding, not even in the slightest.”

“Are you sure this is a smart idea?”

“Of course it is, Candace darling. Don’t you trust me?”

“I do trust you Miss, I just-”

“Listen, Candy… it might be hard for you, I know. But I think it could also be good for you.”

“How so?”

“Because your heart may be broken now, but I know you love the game, and I think you need something to help cheer you up right now.”

“But what about Sophia?”

“What about Sophia, dear? She died just earlier this year, that’s why you aren’t competing… but I’d be remiss if I let you sulk for an entire year, never even once making a public appearance.”

“But what if I can’t handle it? What if I get there and I just can’t stop thinking about her?”

“You’re doing this, Candace.”

“But Miss, I-”

“I’m not letting this whole failed experiment with Sophia Cavalier destroy your career, little one. Whether you believe me or not, this is the right thing to do, you can’t hide for the rest of your life, and you most certainly can’t retire.”

“I’m not planning on retiring, Ma’am.”

“The longer you sit on your cute little ass and do nothing, the more and more likely it is that you just… give up. It’s time to reassociate the world championship with something positive.”

“Like hosting the event?”

“Exactly.”

I sighed, pulling my phone from my head and pondering it over. She’s right, she’s almost always right. “I’ll do it…”

“Good girl.”

“What do I need to do next?”

“Sit tight, let me make some phone calls and get back to you with details… in the meantime, take a break, and answer those voicemails you keep avoiding.”

“I don’t want to meet with him, Tallie…”

“I know you don’t, but you can’t avoid him forever.”

“Right, I’ll set up a meeting with him… maybe in the next couple of weeks.” I bit my lip, shaking my head at the idea. “Talk to you later.”

“Take care, Candy Cane~”

Fucking hell. I hung up the phone, tossing it across the room and watching it land on my bed. “I don’t want to host the world championship…”

“Why not?” It was Aria again, she was always somewhere, lurking around the corner waiting for an appropriate moment to step in.

“Why do you think, Aria?” I got up from my seat, letting the blanket slump back down on the sofa below. I turned my back from Aria, opening up my curled fist and looking down at the little bell in my hand. Chloe’s bell.

“Is it cuz of Sophia?” She asked, not really needing an answer at all as she stepped into the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

“Did you finish cleaning up?” I didn’t need to answer her question, so I didn’t. Instead I instinctively defaulted on the one thing I’d gotten used to doing, being a slave driver.

“Doors are locked, dishes are cleaned and put away, cats are fed, and I straightened up everything I could.” Aria took it surprisingly well, trying to be as helpful as she could be, despite deserving more respect from me than I was giving her. “My apologies, I don’t know exactly where everything goes, so I just kind of guessed.”

“That’s more than acceptable, thank you.” I sighed loudly, not wanting to think about having to clean my house right now, it was always a chore, and now more than ever it was going to be an extreme pain in the ass, knowing the mental trauma that’s now associated with it. “I guess I finally ought to hire an actual maid, huh?”

“Or you could just buy another slave, couldn’t you?” She smirked, shaking her head at me as she examined her nails, trying to make sure that she didn’t break any of them while cleaning. “I guess that’ll be hard to do while she’s up for sale, huh?”

“Yeah… I’d have better luck getting someone else to do it.” I stepped towards my nightstand, setting down the small little bell in the same spot where I usually kept my bracelet. I’m going to miss that bracelet a lot.

“I could do it, if you’d like.”

I turned to face her, taking in the genuine smile on her face. To say that her offer caught me off guard would be an understatement. “So what, you want to be a slave now?”

She gagged at just the thought of it, clasping one hand over her mouth to keep her from literally wrenching. “Ewww fuck no, not in a million years.”

“Why then?” I scoffed, letting out an exasperated and exhausted sigh as I sat down on the edge of my bed.

“Because you’re my best friend, and we haven’t gotten to see each other in a while.” She stood there, obviously wanting to step inside and give me a hug, but not willing to do so without my permission.

“That’s your own fucking fault Aria.” I seethed angrily. It wasn’t my fault that she had always hated Chloe, it was her own. If she wanted to hang out with me more I could have very easily put my slave away for an evening just to have some time alone with her. “You’re the one who refused to come over while she was here.”

“And I’m sorry about that, I really am… but slaves creep me out, a lot. It’s hard to even be around your sister-in-law without heaving.” She bit her lip, her whole body shuddering in disgust. “Look, I’m offering to help, take it or leave it.”

“I haven’t even decided whether or not I’m going to be hiring-”

“For fucks sake, Candace.” She rolled her eyes, groaning at me. “Leah got a new job, Malcolm quit to be with his boyfriend, your manager is off doing whatever freaky shit she gets up to in her offtime… and your slave got taken away.”

“That doesn’t mean I need help.” I glanced towards the closet door, wishing that Aria’s last point wasn’t true. “I can take care of things by myself.”

“But you shouldn’t have to…” Aria frowned, stepping forward into the room and marching right up to face me. “I’m worried about you, Candace.”

“Worried about what, exactly?”

“About you doing something stupid, or hurting yourself, or both…” Aria grabbed me by the hands and pulled me off of the edge of my bed and back onto my feet, squeezing my palms. “I’m worried about you self-destructing.”

“I’m not going to self-destruct.”

“Yeah you fucking are!!” She almost snarled under her breath, a much different sound from her usual mewl and purr. “You did it right after the party, and with Leah when she was here, and just now over the phone…”

“I’m going to be fine…”

“You’re not doing a very good job of convincing me of that, you know.”

“Aria…Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, I want to be alone right now?”

“I know you do, and that’s totally valid.” She smiled, letting go of my hands and getting up on her tiptoes, pulling me in for a hug. “I just want to make this as easy for you as I can… I want you to be happy…”

“Thank you, Aria…” I smiled, no longer able to hold back my tears as I wrapped my arms around my friend’s waist and burying my head into her shoulder as I sobbed.

“I’m here for you, Candace.” I felt her tighten her arms around me, holding me close as I cried. “You’re my best friend~”

↞✶↠

I told Aria that I would think about her offer, I made no promises, but I told her that I would eventually get back to her with an answer, and that seemed to satisfy her.

We hung out for a little bit longer, catching up on everything that had happened since the last time we saw each other, sharing stories of whatever gossip we had been hearing about, before parting ways.

I sent her home, calling in for a ride to take her back to her house, where my family always had a constant eye on her. She wasn’t allowed to leave the island or even drive around the island herself, the family had somehow succeeded in having her license completely revoked. She wouldn’t be passing through the gates of the bridge that connected us to the mainland, and I was kind of glad for that, not only because it was nice to have my best friend around, but because something was up with her.

Right, finally, I get some time to myself. There’s no time to be thinking about Aria right now, I don’t really care about what’s up with her, or with Malcolm and his boyfriend, or with Leah and her soon to be ex-husband… though knowing her, there likely wasn’t going to be a divorce at all, not because getting back together was a possibility for them, it wasn’t… it was just that, from Leah’s perspective, it was just easier to become a widow.

Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about anyone else, now was the time to be thinking about me and me alone. But that wasn’t going to be happening tonight, there was someone that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

I wanted to think about me and me alone, but I couldn’t stop thinking about me and Chloe. Chloe was still the only thing on my mind.

“This is all my fault, Chloe…” I turned to the door of the guest bedroom after I had seen Aria out of the house, trying my best not to think about her, but failing spectacularly. That bedroom attached to the lobby was going to be Chloe’s someday, and I was so proud of it, I knew just how excited and happy she was going to be when she finally got to see it… except she wasn’t going to get to see it. There were a lot of things we were never going to get to do together.

I had more gifts to give her, things to reward her good behavior with that I would now never get to give to her. I’d gotten her a little dog bed for her cell, and I was going to reward her with it tonight… once this was all over.

But she’s not here now, and she’d never get to use it. It was like I bought it for nothing, like everything I’d done up to this point, it had been for nothing.

I stared at the thing, shaking my head at myself for buying such a large dog bed that I was never going to get to use. Unless…

“How much could a dog possibly cost, anyways…” I sighed, disappointed in myself for even entertaining the thought of it, and even more disappointed in myself for already having made up my mind on the matter.

I texted Tallie about the idea, and she seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, ready to jump the gun and make some phone calls before I even wanted her to. Aria was less enthusiastic about it, a lot less enthusiastic about it, but she was immensely supportive. Whatever I thought would help me feel better, she urged me to go ahead and do, and she promised she wouldn’t try to avoid this one like she had the last one.

I looked through my phone to try and find more information about it, but I was stopped once I remembered about my voicemails, all of those missed calls that I hadn’t personally been responding to. I set my phone down, and I stepped away from it.

“Lord, please make sure that Chloe is okay…” I didn’t pray often, but it seemed like this may have been as good a time as any. Of course I was religious, what kind of person identifies with the name St. Clair if she’s not religious, it was almost more ludicrous to think otherwise. “I’d never forgive myself if something bad happened to her now…”

The road to recovering from this was going to be long and difficult, and honestly, really fucking painful. But I deserved this… this was as much my punishment as it was Chloe’s… and I had to live with that. I had to live with the knowledge that as her master, this was all my fault. I had to live with knowing that I had completely ruined her life, like I had set out to do from the start, but in doing so, I ended up ruining my own life as well.

Hopefully whoever she ended up with would treat her well. She deserved to get away from all of this, from me and my family and everything we do, she didn’t deserve to have to put up with us anymore.

She needed to move on from me, and I needed to move on from her. But there was something I needed to do before I could truly let go of her.

I checked my voicemails, writing down the number that he had left for me to get back to him on, and then I punched them in and I dialed them in, finally giving him a long overdue call back. I stepped out onto my porch as I made my phone call, standing outside of my dining room in the dead of night, under the light of the moon and the stars, admiring their reflection in the water as I stared out into the ocean, wanting to dive head first into it and swim away.

I heard the line being picked up on the other side, honestly quite surprised that he would answer at this time of night, not that I knew exactly what time it was. Though as soon as he did pick up, I realized that it only made sense, there was quite the time gap between us. California was three hours behind us here in Florida, after all. “Hello?”

“Hello, my apologies for calling so late at night, but I think I’m long overdue to return your calls…” I swallowed nervously, my fingers trembling as I held my phone to my ear, nervous to finally be speaking to him for the first time. “This is Candace St. Clair, I was hoping I could speak with Justin Donovan…”

“This is him…” He was clearly just as surprised to be hearing back from me after all this time as I was that he was answering his phone this late at night. “How can I help you?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” I tried to stay positive with him, trying not to think about his former client. “I’m ready to talk…”

It was already late, so we only talked for a little while, a little bit about Sophia, but mostly about the upcoming championship, and it actually helped lift a bit of weight off of my chest to discuss the prospects of hosting this year’s finals after what happened the previous year. We touched base, and then we hung up, leaving me standing there alone once again, gazing out into the beautiful light of the ocean.

I would never get to keep my promise to her… I would never get to take Chloe swimming in the ocean with me…

I texted Tallie, and she hooked me up with some flights, and some appointments across the country, including a stop to look at puppies to adopt, to try and get my mind off of Chloe for a while. In just two weeks, I would be flying across the country, doing all sorts of things and meeting with all sorts of people in preparation for hosting this year's finals.

It was honestly kind of exciting, I hadn’t had the freedom to go anywhere or do anything while Chloe was here with me, her absence was almost freeing in a way, however bittersweet that really was. But I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere alone, I needed at least someone to fly across the country with me, and who better than my best friend…

She said yes, of course she was going to say yes, she was just dying to get away from this place. I would be keeping a good eye on her, not letting her out of my sight, never giving her a chance to escape. She couldn’t be allowed to spill family secrets to the outside world, and it took a hell of a lot of convincing to get my father to agree to it, but he eventually relented. My father loved me after all.

I would have to keep as tight of a grasp on her as I had with Chloe if I was going to be allowed to have her accompany me, it was almost as if she was going to temporarily be my slave now, a thought that utterly disgusted her… but hey, it was what was going to make me happy, so she agreed.

This is going to be fun.

But first...

I still couldn’t stop thinking about Chloe, and how much I wanted her to be the one coming with me for this.

I opened up the door to her cell, I had more than one controller for it of course, I could open it up even from inside of it. It was empty, even emptier than it had been before she had even stepped foot inside of it for the first time.

It was way past late, I was tired, and just looking at her empty cell was enough to destroy me. I pressed a button on my controller, watching the door seal itself shut behind me.

If Chloe could sleep in this cell alone for months on end, I could survive inside of it alone for one night…

“I’m so sorry, Chloe…” I curled up into a ball on the floor of her cell and I cried, pulling my knees to my chest to help me soak up my tears as I sobbed.

I was never going to get to see her again, and that was my punishment.

“I miss you so much…”