lived. No amount of distance would change that. Time might not either. Even if he had fucked up exponentially.
The elevator chimed its arrival at the sixth floor. Time to pull it together, take care of business and get the hell out. She inhaled deeply, willing her Candy persona to the surface again. One final time.
She stepped out, but did not turn right, as she’d been instructed. Instead, she sashayed to what she assumed to be Enzo’s personal reception desk. “Hi there,” she said, smiling at the woman seated behind the counter. Attractive, blonde, blue eyes. Even their clothes were the same, or they would have been, if Candace hadn’t given hers the Candy treatment.
“Wow, look at the two of us,” she said, tapping the envelope she held on the gleaming countertop. “If I had more clothes on, or you had less, we’d practically be twins. Did Enzo—sorry, I guess he goes by Vincenzo here—hire you himself, or did you get this job through an agency?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I meant no offense with the question, honestly. I just find it interesting that Enzo’s administrative assistant looks uncannily similar to his massage attendant. You’ll notice I said ‘attendant,’ not therapist. Though, if he has one of those too, I imagine she also looks like us. He seems to have a type. Which in no way resembles his very lovely wife. Anyway, this is why I’m here.” She removed his recent letter from the envelope and held it up for the woman to read.
The woman’s eyes opened wider as she read the letter’s contents. Nothing explicitly damning, but quite unmistakable in tone. Enzo wanted what Enzo wanted. And he expected to get it.
“May I take a copy of that?” the woman asked.
“Sorry, I’m not letting this out of my possession. Just in case.” For all she knew, the woman behind the desk might put it through the shredder. Not a chance Candace was willing to take. “But I will mail you a copy, if you’d like.”
“I’d appreciate that, yes. Just in case.”
Ah, so, that’s how it was. Not only did Enzo have specific taste in women, he apparently had a habit of objectifying them. Quite possibly, of controlling them.
“I’ll send it out this afternoon. How would you like it addressed?”
Rather than answer, the woman handed Candace a business card. “I promise to be discreet with whatever information you share.”
Candace nodded. “I’m going to head into his office now. That’s the only head that’ll be happening with this visit. I’ve retired from that profession, even though Enzo thinks he can dictate otherwise, as you saw in his letter.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks,” she said, before moving toward the ominous double doors. She had a feeling she was going to need all the luck she could get.
Enzo was waiting for her inside the office, and he did not look happy. “Close the door, Candace.”
“It’s Candy to you, and no, the door stays open.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“You’re right, I shouldn’t be. I don’t want to be. I gave you the opportunity to politely accept my decision and respect my boundaries. You did the opposite. Repeatedly. So, I’m here to tell you again. Do not contact me. Ever. Through any channels, especially my daughter.”
“Candace—”
“Candy,” she said, loud enough for his secretary—and anybody else who might be out there by now—to hear it. “That’s the only name you get to use, and this is the last time you will ever get to use it. I’m sure you’re already in the process of silencing your associates I met in the lobby. If you contact me again, if you do anything to intrude in my life, or my daughter’s, or Jake’s, I will tell more people where you get your kicks. Maybe I’ll tell your wife.”
“Go ahead. People, in general, can be bought. You’d know that better than anyone. As for my wife…” He shrugged. “Loretta already knows ‘where I get my kicks.’”
If that was true, did Loretta also know who he’d spent his time with? Candace choked, the taste of vomit tainting her palette.
The bastard smiled, clearly thinking he’d won. He was about to find out otherwise.
As much as she wanted to scream in his face, call him every scum-buckety name in the book, a lifelong habit of “being nice” wouldn’t let her. Even while performing as Candy.
“You weren’t always a jerk to me, Enzo. The opposite, in fact. Because I appreciated it back then, I’m going to give you another opportunity to cut all ties where I’m concerned. I am no longer