Generation 1, Chapter 4: Birthdays, Betrayals, and New Beginnings

Days in our household seemed to relax a lot once Vivien became a teenager.  I’m grateful to say that she did not give us the hard time that most teenagers would.  She was very focused on school, and she’d even begun to take French. She loved it so much that she kept taking it even after she’d taken the required 2 classes, and her interest in travelling to France blossomed.  She’d even started to pull her long hair back into a high chignon, which I must admit accentuated her features quite nicely.

I noticed that I began to slow down since I had aged into an elder.  I relished lazy Sunday mornings when I could prepare breakfast for my family. 

 I loved to sit with everyone and catch up on their lives – my life may have slowed down, but it seemed my family’s lives were going ninety miles a minute! Vivi was always occupied with homework or friends, Jared continued to work and hone his cooking skills, and Kai was talking up a storm. I could barely keep up with it all, but I loved it.  I loved to see my family bustling and thriving.  It gave me such a strong sense of pride that I was practically bursting at the seams.  I never missed an opportunity to tell one of my children or my husband how much I appreciated them.

I had to learn to revel in these precious times precisely because they were so precious.  It seemed like only a few days had passed between the time I brought Kai home from the hospital until the time he was due to age into a child.  Where had the last few years gone?

Kai is a secret ninja, don't you know.

Kai was quite a cute kid, but I couldn’t help but notice that he still had that gaze that I had hoped he would grow out of. Oh well.

Life was sweet. I continued to hone my sculpting skills, and found I was getting quite good at it. Vivien agreed to be my first human subject.

Kai started his first day of school a few days later. I found myself feeling a little lonely in the empty house.

Vivien and Kai spent a lot of their spare time together. Even though they were a few years apart and Vivien had her hands full with highschool, she always made time for Kai, where it was playing tag, or teaching him to paint.

Vivien was a bit of an introvert – I could tell she was very family oriented, but friends did not seem to be on her priority list. She was very focused on school and her extra-curricular activities (namely French Club) and she almost never had any friends over to the house. However, she seemed to be quite content with having few friends, and she did relish spending time with her brother.

I was truly lucky that they got along so well – in fact, I have no idea how it happened. My coworkers who had children often complained about the fighting and grudges between their children. I almost felt guilty for not having any of those stories of my own to share. 

My marriage was a bit of a different story.  As Jared had grown older, he also seemed to grow more distant from me. I couldn’t pinpoint what was bothering him. I thought it could have been any number of things – his job, getting older, getting tired. I honestly had no clue. I was growing tired of it though. Oh sure, looking back on everything, we had a decently happy marriage. But it had also been marred by doubts and insecurities. When I was younger I always assumed they would just go away. But they weren’t going away. Finally one night, I had to ask.

"Jared...are we okay?"

He looked surprised and I got the impression that my question had taken him aback.

“Of course, Addy. We’ve been married for nearly 20 years. Why wouldn’t we be okay?”

I would have felt foolish to say it out loud, but this wasn’t reassuring to me. It was crushing, but I finally realized that even though I loved Jared, he probably wasn’t the best Sim for me. I felt like we were mostly together out of convenience and familiarity at that point in time, and that made me despondent.

I decided to focus on Vivi and Kai, and trying to hold our family together for their sake.

And because aging and birthdays seem to be such a regular occurrence for a young sim, Kai was due for a birthday party before I knew it.  He was due to be a teenager, and I couldn’t be more proud. Jared and I decided to throw him a party.

Kai aged into a handsome teenager. The party went on for a quite a while and I felt refreshed by being around so many friends and family members.  Everyone seemed to be having a fantastic time.

And as it turned out, some people were having a much better time than others.

I had taken a brief restroom break and walked into this scene in my living room. I did not have time to process my emotions. I felt blood rushing through my face and ears, all I could hear was a whirring noise and I saw pure red. I did not know what to think, I didn’t even think to question about how this could happen or why.  All I knew was that I was mad and at this point in time, I hated the man I had called my husband for the last 20 years.****

He looked remorseful. He tried to spit out what had happened.

“Addy…Sandy and I…we’re only friends, she kissed me in the heat of the moment and I didn’t know how to react. Please Addy…please forgive me, for the sake of our children and the wonderful years we’ve had together.”

I wasn’t buying it.  And I was not in a forgiving mood.

I asked him to leave. Maybe we could talk later, and try to work on things.  But for now, I needed him gone. I couldn’t even stand to look at him – it made me want to vomit.

For a moment, he looked genuinely morose and unhappy.

But in a flash his mean-spirited nature had bubbled to the surface, and he looked at me with a hatred I will never forget.  I couldn’t understand it.  He had cheated on ME, now he had the nerve to look at me like that?

I escorted him to the door, where he informed me he would be staying with Connor if I wanted to get in touch with him.

I was still reeling and I didn’t even have time to think about whether or not I ever wanted to see his sorry face again.  We had raised 2 beautiful children together. We’d built a house and a life together, we’d loved each other for so long. How could this happen? How could he throw it away for some stupid tart that I didn’t even know existed until she had come and wrecked our home, on my son’s birthday no less?

I tried to allow myself to become numb to this, and hoped it would pass. I had to be strong for Vivien and Kai. I continued to work, and I was home every night to make dinner and spend time with them. 

I hired a maid to help with the chores, and to my delight, she was a wonderful girl.  I even interviewed her for one of my stories, which focused on the underground service industry in Sunset Valley.

Kai was quite depressed at his father’s actions. He had put on a bit of weight in the months following the separation, and he had finally decided it was time to shed the extra pounds.  He began to work out in his spare time.

He was not very good at first. But once he got the hang of it, he found that not only did he love it, but he was quite athletic as well. 

Vivien, however, took everything much harder. She had always been her papa’s girl.  But, she was also very family oriented and she found her father’s actions to be unforgivable (regardless of the circumstances). She didn’t try to contact him after he’d left, and she spent most of her time holed up in her bedroom studying, or listening to French music and reading books. I was worried about her, to be honest. I tried not to be, but I knew she was hurting after her papa had betrayed our family.

I decided it was time to reach out to Jared.  I spoke to him for the first time after the infamous birthday, and we made plans to meet for dinner and talk the next night.

I also sat down with Kai that night– he said he had something he wanted to discuss. I could only imagine that it had to do with carrying on the legacy. I had briefly mentioned to both Vivi and Kai that I hoped one of them would agree to carry on the Collier name, and live in the family home (remodeled to their taste of course) and bring in the next generation.  Both of them seemed equally uninterested in the prospect, but they were also just teenagers, so I could hardly blame them for not having marriage and children on their mind.

Kai and I sat down to some waffles late that night, and he told me everything. 

“Mom…I think Vivien should inherit the legacy. She’s so family oriented, and I can tell she has an emotional bond with this land and this house.  As much as I love you and dad, I can’t picture myself living here forever.  I have so much I want to do and places I want to visit before I decide to settle down, and when I do settle, I know I don’t want to settle here.”

His words didn’t hurt – most moms might be offended that their children didn’t want to inherit their childhood home, but I wasn’t. I understood. It was settled, then. Vivien would inherit the Collier legacy. I decided to wait until her birthday next week to tell her.  I knew that she would be excited, even though she was only mildly enthused when the prospect was first laid out for her.

The following night was my meeting – date? – with Jared. I had showered and was in the process of getting ready (still in my bathrobe, no less) when the phone rang. I was surprised to hear Connor’s voice on the other end.  He sounded small and desperate.

“Adair? I’m so sorry, Adair.  It’s about Jared.  Something’s happened.”

The phone dropped from my hands onto the hardwood floor with a clatter.  My face flushed red with emotion and I felt tears welling up painfully into my eyes.

A heart attack snatched Jared away just an hour or so before we were due to meet. Even though I was still angry with him, that didn’t erase the years of happiness we had prior to his cheating.  It didn’t erase his two children and the fact that they didn’t have a papa anymore. I was inconsolable.

Vivi and Kai were both upset as well. But they seemed to move on faster than I did.  Maybe they were more resilient, as they didn’t have as much time with Jared as I did.  Maybe they were still angry at him for the betrayal.  I don’t know.  But I do know that life began to move on in the Collier household, slowly but surely.

And before we knew it, it was time for a birthday.  I informed Vivien that morning that I wished for her to be the heir to the Collier legacy, and to my delight she accepted.  Now it was time to celebrate! We had a small party - Vivien didn't want anything ostentatious.

I even invited our delightful maid, whose name escapes me in my old age.

Vivien blew out her candles and to my delight, she aged into a beautiful young woman.

I have one last surprise for her up my sleeve, but…this is her story now, so I’ll let her tell you all about it.

****Author's Note: I did not orchestrate Jared's betrayal. In fact, it made me sort of angry because it was NOT in the plan for this legacy. However, during the birthday party I was playing as Adair and paying no one else any mind (no one invited to the party was a romantic interest of his or anything), and then I got that popup on the top right that informed me that Jared and Sandy French just shared their first kiss. I didn't even have a chance to react, and of course he kissed her in the middle of the living room where everyone could see, so there was no hiding it. I have no idea why he did it, other than his "inappropriate" trait. He also promptly dropped dead two days after I moved him out of the house, meaning there was no chance for reconciliation. Ah, such is life. So it goes.