Hadley Random Legacy: Gen. 2 Chapter 5

 Oliver's POV

I'm so glad that Dad is still around. I know he won't be around forever, but I love that he's able to develop a relationship with all his grandkids. Now that he can basically just perform whenever he wants, he has a lot of free time, and he spends quite a bit of it with Sophie.

I spend as much time as I can with the girls as well, as much as work lets me. Sophie especially enjoys playing chess with me. She's even beaten me a few times. 

We spent some quality family time together at the fall festival. Little did I know that this would be one of the last happy moments for a while. 

Mortimer was there too. He's gone gray since the last time I saw him, but it looks good on him, makes him look distinguished. 

I invited Sophie to bob for apples with us, but she would much rather have an ice cream cone. 

The first sad thing to happen was Snowball, our beloved cat, passing away. He adopted him as an elderly cat already so the fact he lived as long as he did was pretty remarkable. We're all going to miss him though, especially me. I was really attached to that damn cat. I know I will probably adopt another cat at some point, but no other cat will ever be a replacement.

There was some joy of course too. Isabel was growing up. There would no longer be any babies or toddlers in the house. Suddenly it felt so much quieter than ever before. Growing up with five siblings I had become so used to the noise and chaos that it was strange having only the five of us in the house these days. 

I tried to take a nice picture of Isabel after her party, but she blinked! Oh well, there will be time for more pictures later.

(Isabel is now a Technophobe.) 

Sophie continues to spend a lot of time with her best friend Rufus. He's a quiet, responsible kid, always the first to suggest that they work on their homework together. 

One of the first things Isabel did after her birthday was ask her grandpa to read her to sleep. One strange thing I've noticed about Isabel is that she doesn't seem to care about TV or video games. She'd much rather play outside or even read a book than have anything to do with a screen. I find it a bit refreshing actually.

In hindsight, I'm so glad that Isabel got to spend this moment with her grandfather, because it would be among the last... 

Dad had gone out to meet Bella for whatever reason. Bella had always been more of Mom's friend, but I know that Dad had been feeling a little lonely ever since she passed away. I think he just wanted to socialize more with people outside of the house. They were just chatting, and Dad even got to practice the weird mind meld thing with her. It would be the last thing he ever did though. 

"Leighton!"

 "Well, shit."

I don't think Dad was surprised by it though. He lived an extremely long life, outliving Mom by almost a decade, and I think he was ready to see her again. 

"About time, thought I was going to live forever at this point. Can you take me to Fern? We have an eternity to spend together."

(Leighton was 100 sim days old when he died. He did outlive Fern by 10 whole sim days, but he did almost max the Athletic skill.) 

This time it was my job to see Dad safely laid to rest at the mausoleum.

I know I was so lucky to have him as long as I did, but it still hurts. Now both of my parents are gone, and I'm getting older too. For the first time, the legacy rests firmly on my shoulders and my shoulders alone. 

Because she'd gotten a lot closer to my dad, Calliope also took the loss very hard. I just always assumed she would turn to me. We could help each other process our grief and this new period of our lives. That's not what happened though. 

Calliope and I are both middle-aged now. That seemed to hit my wife a lot harder than me. I should've seen it coming maybe. There were signs. Instead of turning to me, my wife turned to one of her friends, a much younger man named Gene Norman.  

He came over one night. I was already asleep. Maybe it was a heat of the moment thing. Maybe they didn't plan on it. I don't really care. When I came downstairs to get a glass of water, that's when I saw them. 

I didn't realize I could hurt this badly. I thought we had something special, a love like my parents that lasted for decades. Apparently I was wrong. 

"How could you do this? You invited him into our home. What if the girls had seen you?"

"It was an accident! I didn't mean to. It just happened, and anyway, it was just a kiss! You're completely overreacting."

Maybe I could try to understand that. Maybe we could even put it past us, but Calliope kept trying to downplay the whole thing, like it didn't even matter.

"Actually, I think I'm under-reacting," I shouted. "Considering you still live in this house."

"You wouldn't kick me out." I could hear a hint of doubt in my wife's voice though.

And truth be told, no, I wasn't going to kick her out of the house, no matter how hurt and angry I was feeling. She was still the mother of my children. If I kicked her out, she had nowhere else to go, and a lifeguard's pay would not enough to survive on.

But every time she tried to make excuses, to downplay the betrayal and broken trust, it just made me even angrier. It got to the point where I just started ignoring her for my own sanity. Maybe we could eventually get through this, but I needed time.  

I did my best to hide all of this drama from the girls. Sophie was becoming a teenager. This was supposed to be a happy time so I went all out and threw a big party. Calliope and I could pretend like everything was fine long enough to celebrate Sophie's birthday at least.

And of course, who would be the first to show up to the party but Sophie's long-time best friend Rufus? He had already become a teenager himself.  

I invited the whole family. It was just like the big party we threw for Hazel all those years ago. The same old faces arrived and some new ones as well. And of course some of those old faces were literally becoming old faces; Sam had quite a few more wrinkles than the last time I'd seen him. Then again so did I, every time I looked in the mirror. 

Julius was still the spitting image of his dad. It's still hard to believe that Sam is the father of an adult son and a teenage son, Aldric. Time really does go by too quickly. 

Henry came as well, sporting his hair shorter than I'd ever seen him do before.

"Who kicked all these flamingoes over? It was Aldric, wasn't it? Little twerp with a weird ass haircut. What even is that? Are those patterns?"

Actually, Calliope had kicked the flamingoes over in a fit of rage after one of our recent screaming matches. I didn't think anyone needed to know that though. 

"Where is Calliope? She and I need to have a few...words."

So I did tell my brothers what had happened. They were less than pleased, of course, and I had to intercept Theo before he could start berating Calliope in the middle of my daughter's birthday. Nothing was going to ruin this day, especially not our family drama. 

Hazel was looking as beautiful as ever when she arrived. Out of all my siblings, she probably had the most measured, calm response to the situation. She was always the most empathetic one of us.

"You two just need to learn how to communicate," she told me. "You can work through this, but only if you both put in the work."

Since when did my little sister become so mature and emotionally intelligent? She certainly didn't get it from spending time with Theo and Henry, that's for sure. 

Speaking of Hazel, she's still dating Ezekiel. I had to do a double-take when I saw him. He's a grown man now, but he has such a baby face that I thought he was still a teenager. 

Losing Mom and Dad was also a big topic of conversation at the party, despite all my attempts to avoid such sad topics. Julius even burst into tears while thinking about his grandfather. There was sadness over Dad's death combined with anger and tension over Calliope's "indiscretion" underlying the mood of the party that it was a wonder anyone had any fun at all.. 

Again, it was Hazel who really came through and saved the day. She made everyone more cheerful and relaxed just by being around her and Ezekiel. Seeing them together caused a strange swirl of emotions in me. I was so happy for her, but seeing their happiness, their easy love for each other, also hurt. I thought I had that with Calliope, but now it seemed like she didn't even care how I felt at all. 

Somehow we still managed to pull off the party even with everything else going on, all the drama and the high emotions. I just hoped that the girls hadn't picked up on all of that too much. My face was strained with a mixture of joy and worry as I watched my daughter blow out the candles on her cake. 

All my efforts at trying to shield the girls from the drama hadn't been enough. I should have realized that of course Sophie would be perceptive enough to see the truth. My heart sank as she turned to me with a sad smile that quickly faded. 

Theo noticed it too, and the way he stared at Calliope with his werewolf eyes was nothing short of unsettling. The party ended not long after that, with me shooing my werewolf brothers away first before they got any sort of crazy, wolfish ideas in their minds...

(Sophie gained the Athletic trait.) 

Family Updates

Aldric 

Aldric is dating Bella's daughter Isabella. Yes, Bella actually named her child that lol

They are even in a steady relationship now. :) 

Evelyn

Evelyn tied the knot with an elderly Ethan Bunch.

And they moved in together too. So I guess Theo and Henry can no longer mooch and are finally on their own. 

Julius

 Julius and Vinga had their first child, a girl named Judith. If Leighton had held on for just a few more days, he would've been able to meet his great-granddaughter! 

Theodore

Will it last?

 

Hahaha, of course not!