Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

Aria's P.O.V.

Sunnyside Adoption Agency was in worse condition than I had ever imagined. The walls of the building were very obviously cracking. The painting of a playground with kids running happily was washing off the wall as well. It was very clear that this place had been poorly cared for. Even the grass had yet to be mowed, brushing against my knee as Niall and I walked inside the building.

Two old ladies sat at a desk, one with colorless hair than the other. I wrinkled my nose, wondering if these ladies were too old to remember anything, any information that we needed. Niall tugged on my hand turning his head to give me a reassuring smile. We walked up to the counter and Niall cleared his throat.

The younger one of the old ladies looked up from her book, creases forming by her eyes as she smiled. "Hello. How may I help you?"

"We're here to find out some information on a, er, child from a few years ago. Do you still have files of kids from roughly twelve years ago?" Niall asked for the both of us, rubbing soft circles into my hand with his thumb.

"Well, if you could give me a name, I can check?" The older of both ladies looked up while the younger lady shot her a glare. The younger one turned to us and gave us a sour smile.

"Sorry," she shrugged. "Files are confidential. We aren't allowed to give away any information about previous children."

I stepped forward and put my hands on the counter to get a good luck at the woman who just rejected us.

"Candace Grace," I said. "Dark hair, blue eyes. Do you remember her?"

I knew I had hit a weak spot by the way both ladies suddenly cowered away, fear washing over their faces. They looked so terrified, just from hearing the name.

"The devil's spawn," the older lady muttered, gulping very clearly.

"She's been messing with our family, or so we suspect." Niall explained. "We're here for answers, and we need them desperately. You need to help us."

To my surprise, the younger lady sighed, signalling her surrender. "She was a terrible child." She said softly, rubbing her temple. "She hated the other kids and they hated her. She never shared her toys, never talked to the adults. And she loved to see the other kids get hurt. She tried to set a bedroom on fire. She stuck a kitchen knife into a teacher's back. The day we planned to send her to a mental asylum, she ran away. She was only around sixteen at the time."

Niall and I gaped at her. Candace had become worse with age. I mean seriously, stabbing a kitchen knife into a teacher's back?

"Do you happen to remember her saying anything about a sister?" Niall asked.

The younger lady shook her head. However the older one nodded, biting her lip before speaking. "We did interviews on children older than ten. Candace was around fifteen at the time. When I asked her her what her life goal was, she responded by saying something about 'getting her sister back'."

"In fact," the younger lady cut in, we have written copies of the interviewed that we normally show to people who may want to adopt."She stood up and unlocked a file cabinet behind her. We watched as she went through the files by last name, pulling out a red file. She handed it file folder to me with a weary grimace.

I opened the folder and pulled out the paper on top, labeled "Interview: Candace Marie Grace." I pushed the paper between Niall and I, and together we began reading silently.



Agency: Sunshine Adoption - Houston, Texas

Name: Candace Grace

Age: Fifteen


Questions and Answers: Session One

1) What is one thing you miss about having family?

I don't miss anything. My family was never family.

2) What traits would you love to see in a parent?

I hate parents. Mine hated me. I hated them.

3) What is one thing you want your future parents to know about you?

I hate love. I hate other people in my space. I'm fine on my own.

4) What is one thing you want to accomplish? One life goal?

I'm going to get my sister back.

5) What is one thing you want to do when you get adopted?

I'm not going to get adopted.

6) What is one surprising thing about you?

I'm smarter than you think.

7) How would you describe your dream home?

Not here. This place sucks.




Candace's answers were all blunt and dry. It was obvious she hadn't wanted to take it in the first place. Niall and I went through the other papers in the file. Most papers were reports of Candace's behavior, and how her respect for others was going downhill.

These file reports told us more about who Candace was, but something important was missing.

"Do you have any clue where she is now?"

"That's the other thing." The younger lady said, handing me a small paper. "We found this in Candace's room after she ran away." I unfolded it and read the words that were written in decent handwriting.



To dearest Sunshine Adoption Agency,

I hope you know I didn't belong in your stupid building. The place was freaking overrated. All I know is I belong somewhere else, where I can put my skills to the test. I mean lets face it, I broke into your computer system and deleted half your files. I knew you were going to send me to a mental asylum because I read your emails. Hell, I broke into your email. Don't try and stop me. There's no point anyways. I know people who will give me the right image while I do the wrong things. Others will think I'm helping the country, keeping them safe. But in truth, I'll be accomplishing my life goal. She won't even see me coming. I will ruin everything she loves and crush her the way she made me feel when she stole our parents love. I will ruin her family, and I will break each of them apart. One by one. So fuck you, fuck this agency, fuck all the parents out there who didn't love their children and sent them to this hell called an orphanage. I have learned that all families are broken. I plan to find my sister and find where they are broken. She will hate me the way I hate her. I'm out of here.

Best wishes,

Candace

P.S. I think your pasta tastes like shit.

P.P.S. Go fuck yourself.




Candace clearly had something up her sleeve since her teenage days. More importantly, she was drowned in the idea that it was Scarlett's fault that she was like this. She promised in the letter that she would break Scarlett's family apart, and that's exactly what she had done. Maybe somehow, she had provoked my father into hating me, which cause my mother to hate him, which made my mother divorce him. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Candace had found the broken part of Scarlett's new family and used it against us. She must have found a way to turn our father against us.

It all made sense. She had definitely manipulated me as well tricked me into believing that it was Scarlett behind all the trouble given to my family, when it was really Candace all along. I felt so guilty, accusing my own sister of committing such terrible crimes towards my family. I should have known something was off. I should have trusted my sister.

I looked down at the letter again and reread a specific line.

I will ruin her family, and I will break each of them apart. One by one.

She ruined my father. She ruined my mother, she ruined Scarlett, and now she was targeting me. I was the easiest to ruin. I had a family of my own, people around me who cared about me as much as I cared about them. This was all a game to her, and on my side, there were so many game pieces, so many people she could knock out in order to break me.

Again I looked at the letter and absorbed another sentence, probably the most useful sentence of the whole letter.

I know people who will give me the right image while I do the wrong things. Others will think I'm helping the country, keeping them safe. But in truth, I'll be accomplishing my life goal.

Candace had allies. She had people helping her, working for her, keeping an eye on me when she couldn’t. And in some way, the position she was in right now, wherever she was, made her look like a good person. The position she was in made it look like she could be trusted. She looked like she was helping the country, when in reality she was trying to ruin me.

What could she possibly be doing?

I thought and thought, but I couldn’t think of anything. Where could she possibly be getting all these spy resources to keep an eye on me without attracting suspicion? Perhaps she had her own secret lair? No, that would be much too obvious. I never thought that Candace could manage to make this situation so complex. There were so many possibilities as to what could be happening. There were still so many unanswered questions that she had created for me to ponder about. She knew she was playing me. And she knew she was good at it.

I'm smarter than you think.

The two ladies told us a bit more about the way Candace had been so rude to everyone, and how she would seem so quiet, but in her mind she was screaming ideas. Both ladies agreed that Candace was mentally unstable. Niall and I told them about the things she had done to our family and not for one second were the two ladies surprised.

“Typical Candace.” they said.

We left the Sunshine Adoption Agency with Candace’s file in my hand. Niall was reading over the letter again, trying to read between the lines. Scarlett had a way of wording herself so that no one could truly know what she meant without hours and hours of studying what she was hiding in my words.

On the way to our hotel, I read through half the papers in Candace’s file. All were files of complaints about her from staff, occasionally complaints from the older children in the agency as well. I flipped through the complaints, all similar things about harm that Candace had in one form or another, given to them. Just as I closed the file, a certain name of a complainer caught my eye. I opened the folder again and grabbed the paper from the pocket, my eyes widening when I realized that I hadn't been seeing things.




File of Complaint for: Amber Jane Knight

Complaint: Candace has been constantly harassing me verbally. She comes into my room and she threatens to hurt me. Sometimes she tells me to join her, to help her in her plans. I always say no, but I’m scared around her. She makes me feel like I’m trapped, and she appears everywhere. She is literally everywhere. I don’t know what to do to get her away from me. She appears in my nightmares. Yesterday night she came into my room with a knife. She told me not to tell anyone that she was harassing me or else I would pay. I wanted to listen to her because I didn't want to know what she was going to do to me, but I’m filing a complaint anyways. I know this probably won’t be seen because so many people file complaints about Candace, but I think there’s something wrong with not going to get help when I can get help. So please, read this. And help me.




Amber sounded so desperate. She sounded like she could have been crying while she wrote the complaint. And damn, Candace was threatening her. I tried to come up with a good scenario as to how Amber could have been involved with Candace. I figured that Amber got adopted by a family who lived in California. That’s where she met Scarlett. I imagine Amber was probably scared of Scarlett, considering Scarlett and Candace probably looked alike. But maybe Amber realized there were two of them. And Scarlett was the good one.

Amber and Scarlett must have grow up to be good friends, and then Candace probably cut in and took Scarlett away taking Scarlett’s place and Amber’s best friend. Candace, pretending to be Scarlett, must have convinced Amber that she wanted to commit suicide because of me. Candace had found a way to make Amber believe that I was the reason for Scarlett’s “death.” I thought back to the treacherous moment when I had been locked up in my mother’s house, when Amber explained her reason for helping torture me.

-Flashback-

“Why are you doing this to me?” I managed to say, just over a whisper. Amber glanced at me, before clenching her teeth.

“Because you killed Scarlett.”

In a second, my vision seemed to clear, and I saw her staring at me, as if she despised the sight of me.

“I what?”

“You fucking killed my best friend!” she yelled, slapping my face.

“I was five fucking years old, Amber!” I screamed. “How the hell do you think I could do that?”

“You know,” Amber started, gripping my arms. “she came to my house one night. She told me that your parents didn’t care about her anymore. She said that they hated her; that she was invisible to them after you were born. She told me that all she wanted was for someone to love her. Scarlett said that she heard your parents fighting about whether to disown her. She said it was because they loved you more than her. Then, she went to a bar. She got drunk, and drove herself home. But you know what she told me before she went to that bar? She told me two things: one, to not expect her to be alive the next day, and two, to find you and hurt you the way you hurt her.”

-Present-

All she wanted was someone to love her.

Her parent’s didn’t care, they hated her.

She was invisible when I, or Scarlett, was born.

She heard her parents fighting about whether to disown her.

Holy mother of God.

Candace had definitely gotten into Amber’s head. Candace, at the time when she was Scarlett, was so good at convincing Amber with her emotions, because her emotions were real. Candace told Amber everything she felt, only twisted it to make it seem like she was talking about Scarlett and I, when she was really talking about herself and Scarlett.

So Candace had managed to ruin Scarlett’s best friend as well. After messing my father up, Candace must have talked him into threatening Amber to help him capture me. The pieces clicked in my mind faster than they ever had before. Shit, this was absolutely insane.

And I was terrified.

If Candace could manage to manipulate and use so many people, would she start playing people who I loved? Would she start messing with Corryn? Would she find a way to break me so she could break Scarlett?

In order for me to be such a heavy target of Candace’s part, I must have had a very special value to Scarlett. My heart warmed for a split second, knowing the Scarlett really and truly did love me, or else Candace probably wouldn't be after me. I didn't know whether I should be happy or scared about that. I mean I was grateful that my sister loved me, but that love was also attracting Candace to me.

A small kick in my tummy dragged me out of my thoughts. I smiled, resting a hand on my belly as the baby kicked. But slowly my smile faded and my heart sunk.

What if Candace found a way to kill my baby?

I bit down on my lip, wondering what the hell I was going to do. First I had to figure out where Candace was. I needed to be ready. I needed to know her every move. I also needed to know how she knew my every move. I unfolded her letter once again, and began reading. She had to have left a clue somewhere in the letter. I had to think like Candace. Where would she go to get the proper resources to track me down? A place where it would look like she was helping others out?

And then it hit me.

Notes

Wow. This was Just about the most intense chapter yet I think. I don't know. But I'm seriously so freakin excited about this story. And I'm the writer! Haha.

I hope you read this chapter carefully because otherwise it gets confusing with all the switching between Candace and Scarlett. Also just incase you forgot, Camryn is the same person and Scarlett. Do you guys like how things are turning out? And what do you think Candace's position is in order for her to be in control of so many tracking devices and ways of figuring out where Aria is? Comment your guesses down below!!

Thanks for reading!!!