"Are you sure you and Bianca are friends?" Eric asked as Candice withdrew five grand from an ATM. He was keeping watch next to her on the crowded street in Sacramento, looking uneasy as she piled the cash into a small duffel bag they just purchased. "How is that card not hit the limit already?"

They had brought everything Candice wanted to and more in the past hours, dashing across San Jose after a hasty bus ride down from Sacramento. While they weren't sure whether they were followed, no one had bothered them yet and Candice had grown bold. Their next bus ticket was bought with cash, with another pair of tickets to San Fransico brought with the credit card. That should be able to throw whoever was chasing them off for a little while.

"I'll make it up to her," Candice replied. A dress from Bianca's wardrobe easily cost twice that, but Candice didn't expect Eric to understand.

"Come on, we don't want to miss our bus. We still need to get you a phone," Eric said as Candice hastily zipped up the bag and slung it over her shoulders. She had stuffed some down her bra and panties, too, for good measure, and Eric exclaimed and averted his glance.

"You should keep some on you, too, just in case," Candice instructed, stuffing him a handful of bills. Eric jolted, no doubt to protest, but they were on the street so Candice huffed at him and shoved harder until he relented.

The two of them hurried down the street in search of a shop that sells unregistered cell. It wasn't as easy as they made it out in the movie, as most places required them to provide a lot of personal information, one that Candice would rather not give. If they could track her purchase of the phone, that they would trace it and defied the purpose of buying it.

Finally, before they were about to give up, they got a deal at a corner shop that sold sim cards. The man was clearly ripping them off, but they weren't left with a lot of option. In fact, it was such a close call that they practically ran to the bus station.

"Maybe you should ditch your old phone," Eric suggested. Candice had transferred the photos to Eric's and her new cell, and she clutched at it protectively at Eric's words. The phone was expensive and her lifeline. She wasn't going to just throw it away.

"I'm serious, they might be able to track the phone even without the sim card," he continued. Candice narrowed her eyes at him, but it made sense. She had purchased the iPhone along with the sim from the provider, and it would make sense that they could track it with the find your phone function.

Candice handed over her phone reluctantly, reassuring herself with the thoughts that everything was backed up. Her new disposable phone was a crappy flip phone that could barely show a photo.

Eric tapped away on her phone to reset everything, and Candice's mind immediately tries to remember if she had left any incriminating photos inside. She didn't think so... maybe it was a bad idea to take them in the first place...

Before Candice could finish her thoughts, Eric had slipped her phone into the bag of a woman just walking past them. She had to cover her mouth to stifle her squeal.

"Ssh, it's perfect," Eric shushed her and pointed at the bus the woman was getting on. It was headed to San Fransico.

Brilliant.

They had barely made it to their bus and both sighed in relief as it rolled out of the station.

"We should be good, for now," Eric mused aloud. Candice nodded. But now was not the time to relax. They spent their bus journey setting up Candice's new phone and going through the documents again until Candice felt like she might throw up.

"Do you-do you see your parents?" Eric asked tentatively, his face a mask of kindness. Candice took several deep breaths to combat the nauseous feeling. It was clear that one of the two men on the stage would be her father, but she couldn't make out her mom among the dozens of casualties photographed.

"Maybe," she answered. Eric had swiped onto the next document, which was a timetable of the charity gala. Her father's name was clearly stated as the guest speak and presenter for some random award, so if someone were to target him, they could have timed it.

"I mean, on paper, nothing would suggest that this isn't a random attack," Eric started. He had leaned in closer and kept his voice low, no doubt to avoid other people from overhearing them. Suddenly, Candice was super aware of the clean soap and woodsy smell from Eric, and she fought to stay focused. Now wasn't the time to think about boys!

"For now," Candice added. Eric gave her a face that she came to learn as his I-don't-agree-with-you-but-I'm-too-polite-to-argue expression, before swiping to the next one, a witness report.

"No, really. Your parents were only two of the seven people who died. There was another wealthy couple, slightly older, that both got shot. Other than the fact that you are being, argh, attacked, nothing ties it together," Eric concluded.

The witness report they were looking at, along with five others, were all from staff who witnessed the event. They all said exactly the same things: they only started shooting after Richard White tried to negotiate, and then the man who tried to help him, then Linda White when she screamed. Presumably to make an example of. The others were all victim of the second round when they refused to let go of heirlooms.

"It just doesn't add up," Candice replied. Her gut told her that this was connected despite the lack of evidence. They might say not guilty until proven, but in her mind, this was guilty unless proven.

"Unless the police can find more evidence to link them together, we are on our own." Eric threw his hands up in the air and Candice sighed. She slumped back into her seat and tried to think, really think, about the last few months. Were there clues? Her parents had always been stern and borderline maniacally proud of their family name, and their conversation had often been a bit fanatical.

By some stroke of luck, they made it to Carmel by the Sea without a glitch. Perhaps the decoy ticket to San Francisco really had worked. After a quick discussion, Candice picked up some hair dye at a drug store and they made their way to her house by foot. Getting an uber or cab was out of the question.

"This is your family's vacation house?" Eric asked, and Candice heard his footstep stopped. She turned around to see his jaw had slackened and he was watching the building in awe. She turned back, taking in the cream and lilac painted exterior, the wrap-around porch and the swing out front. It was two storey, but only had five bedrooms, not where near as big as Bianca's family vacation house in Wisconsin. But the real estate was more expensive here.

"It's alright, I know," Candice said for lack of a better response. For once, she was glad that the house wasn't installed with a digital or biometric lock. If whoever was after her could track her phone, who was to say that their security system wasn't compromised. She bent down at the flower pot at the front and twisted the whole pot anticlockwise. She felt Eric coming to a stop behind her and hovered above.

After the first twist, she turned it clockwise twice then anticlockwise again. After that, she lifted up the pot to reveal a hidden compartment, and inside was a ring of keys.

Eric whistled as Candice picked up the set and helped put the flower pot back. It was the old trick of hiding the keys with an added level of security. The hidden compartment was locked onto the ground and a wrong combination in successive order would send the key into a secured safe underground.

"Wow," Eric exclaimed as they entered the foyer. It wasn't as grand as the White family mansion, but Candice's mom had decorated it with a sea-side theme in mind. Candice dumped the keys on the white-washed wood counter after locking up, and she watched as Eric surveyed the lilac and light teal walls, finally resting his eyes on the chandelier that hung from the ceiling.

"I'll check if the back door is properly locked, feel free to pick a room that is on the right side of the stairs after you go up," Candice instructed. Her parents were vigilant about security, and Candice had never appreciated it as much as she did in that moment.

"Do you have a computer or a laptop here?" Eric asked, meeting her in the kitchen. Candice opened the fridge to confirm that it was stocked with nonperishable, another odd thing her parents did which she was super glad about.

"In my parent's study, I think. Wait, I'll come with you," Candice replied and grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge, handing Eric one. Their footsteps echoed loudly against the white marble staircase, and Candice felt weird being here without her parents.

"I thought this is supposed to be a vacation home," Eric teased as they stepped into the study. Eric laughed; her parents could never stay away from work. The study was a moderately sized room with two desks for her parents, and both sported a computer. She gestured for Eric to take his pick.

Eric moved towards her father's desk and Candice moved to sit behind her mother's. She might as well do some research, too. She both dreaded and hoped to find something. Perhaps she should try and contact Nelson while she was at it. He must be wondering where she was by now.

Candice stole a glance at Eric, unsure whether she should tell him. It felt like a bad idea to contact Nelson, but he was her parent's butler. If anyone knew anything, it would be him. But what if reaching out to him meant exposing their location? Their plan?

As her internal battle raged, Candice could hear Eric typing away on the computer. It occurred to her that people must also be wondering about what happened to them on campus, too. But the idea of college gossip and worries seemed a world away. Nothing mattered except finding out why her parent's will were the way they were and who was behind her parent's death and her getting attacked.

It felt as though her head was a mess, so Candice reached for a notebook on the desk and flipped to a clean page and grabbed a pen. She needed to note it down:

Current status: being chased by unknown attackers three times. Unclear if they are the same group.

Aim: to find out what is happening. Was my parent's death an accident? Why is the condition in the will so weird? Who is(are) trying to attack me?

Leads: police report on the robbery shooting from Sacramento.

Candice frowned at the list. It felt like a whole lot of questions with no leads whatsoever. She paused, then continued.

Things to find out:

More information on the robbery

A list of possible suspects in my parent's death

The will: is it tempered with? Why is it written like that??

Hm, that didn't seem helpful either.

Next steps:

Find out what is going on

Go back to White Falls

But was it safe to go back?

Candice was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear Eric called her name until he chucked a ball of paper at her. "What are you writing?" he asked.

"I'm just trying to get my thoughts into less of a jumbo. It's not working, by the way..." Candice replied and closed the notebook. Only then did she saw that it was her mother's thought diary. That was odd, she usually kept that with her at all times...

"Candice? What's wrong?" Eric called, but she was too busy flipping through the pages to respond. Her mother was a meticulous person and had a different notebook for everything. Her thought diary was for her random thoughts and ideas. It might not sound important, but she kept it with her at all times because that's where she kept all her un-categorized meetings, thoughts, and lists if she was in a hurry. Which was often.

"This is my mom's thought diary, I had no idea why she'd left it here. She always had it on her," Candice finally spoke, but only after Eric had moved to stand behind her. A quick flip through told her that it wasn't the latest edition as she had first hope, but rather, one that had a section in the middle that wasn't lined. And her mother didn't like to write on those.

But the date at the back was only a month ago. So whatever was in here, it could be useful.

Candice finally managed to explain to Eric what the thought diary was after getting her tongue tied in excitement a few times. He was equally excited about the find, but Candice sent him back to do online research.

After all, she had no idea what she would find inside.

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Hey guys - it's safe to say that I have fallen off the NaNoWriMo bandwagon...

I got caught up in a last minute freelance project and after that, it was hard to find time + energy to catch up...

Having said that, I would continue to write Little White Lies (let me know what you think of it so far as motivation) and try to do my own NaNoWriMo in December. I'm kind of fumbling with the plots a bit and I hope just writing will sort it out.