Blind devotion

6.

"Where did Sadi and Norman go?" Candace asked as she laid back on the sofa, her head resting on Andy's lap. "I haven't seen them for hours."

Andy smirked and pulled gently on Candace's hair, "The last I saw they were getting hot and heavy in the corridor." He said while she looked up at him with saucer-like eyes.

"Really?" She asked. She felt a sense of happiness that her friend had finally come out of the funk that her ex-husband had left her in when he walked out on her and took their daughter. "Maybe she will start smiling again." She said to no one in particular.

"Candace, you know Sadi. What happened between her ex-husband and her?" JDM asked from his spot on the couch. He was truly interested in the girl who had come into their lives today. Candace sighed before she turned to look at him.

"When she had her accident she couldn't get hold of her husband. Every time she rang him he hung up on her. He eventually sent her a text which the nurse read out to her saying he was busy in work and not to phone him. It damn near broke her heart. There she was, newly blinded and the man she loved with all her heart was brushing her off." Candace wiped a tear away from her eyes, "What she didn't know at the time is that he was having an affair and he was spending the weekend with his mistress. Not at work as he had said."

"How did you know? Did she ever find out?" Lauren asked her as she took a drink,

"No even to this day she doesn't know. When she phoned me she was distraught she had no one to pick up her daughter from school. So I phoned a friend who I knew lived by her and explained the situation. Then I phoned the school to let them know about her accident and that our friend was going to pick her up and take her home. She had 2 girls about her daughter's age so she looked after her while Sadi was in the hospital. Eventually, her ex came home and he was furious that the house hadn't been cleaned. He phoned her to give her hell." Candace felt the tears roll down her face but made no move to wipe them away. "The same nurse who read the text out to Sadi answered the phone and gave him shit. Then I phoned him to find out where the fuck he had been. It was then that I heard a female voice in the background and knew he was seeing someone behind her back. He had gone back to his mistress before picking up their daughter from our friends' house."

"That's awful," JDM said as he lit up a cigarette. "And Sadi never found out." Candace shook her head

"Nope. When she got home he was supposed to be looking after her, but instead, he would drop Sarah off at school and leave Sadi on her own all day. She was still trying to come to terms with her disability and he didn't stay to help her. This went on for about a month. Sarah started cooking her mum food and looking after her because her Dad wasn't there." Candace sat up and looked at the people around the room. "After a month he packed up his and Sarah's clothes and left Sadi to fend for herself."

"But wasn't her sister around?" Andy asked.

"Yeah, I was the one who phoned her sister to tell her what happened. She hadn't even told her. Her sister moved in with her then to help Sadi after he had left."

She grabbed her bottle of beer and took a long drink. "I organized a go-fund-me to try and raise the money to pay for this operation that would fix her damaged corneas. But when Sadi found out she told me to stop as she wouldn't accept charity. She would figure a way to get the money herself." Suddenly she started crying in earnest. "The doctors said it is probably too late to fix her sight now. She should've had the procedure straight away, but it wasn't funded in the UK." She stood up and started gathering her things, "I'd better go and get Sadi, as we need to get home." But Andy stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Why don't you stay here tonight? You can sleep in my room." Reluctantly Candace nodded, she hadn't realized she had drunk so much when the room began to swim around her.