Neda, you want to go out with me and Lillian? Dragan didn't mind dragging his sister along on dates, they were twins after all. They definitely had some sort of magical twin- bond, even if he'd never noticed anything. Besides, she spent a lot of time on that computer. Like she was looking for something. He spent a lot of time on the computer to ofcourse, but that was different. Because Neda usually didn't, so this was a bit out of character.
She quickly closed the laptop before he got close enough to see what she was doing. Not that he had any intention to snoop, he just assumed she did girlstuff; looked up boybands she didn't want to admit to liking and stuff. She'd been acting all weird since he'd started dating Lillian. Maybe she was a bit jealous as mum said, beeing used to it just beeing the two of them.
No thanks Dragan. Thanks for asking. Did she sound a bit strange when she said that?
As much as he probably should take some time to keep asking his sister, Dragan couldn't keep Lillian waiting. The movie they saw was an amazing chick- flick. Totally worth the simoleons. But why were they called chick- flicks? He'd seen several because Lillian wanted to see them, and the only thing they had in common was that the characters were women. So, was that why? Because movies about guys weren't called bloke- busters. He should probably have thought about it deeper, but forgot all about it.
Neda was pretty much glued to her laptop. It wasn't the most expensive one, but it was more than good enough for her use.
And without Dragan doing whatever it was that he did with the familycomputer, it ran so smoothly she was near tears more than once.
She felt like she'd been doing this for years and years without getting anywhere, but one day as school was closed due to heavy snow; she got somewhere. And when that happened, it went so fast she barely had time to make any bigger plans. It really wasn't anything she could do now than to wait for the hours to pass.
To ease the stress, Neda went with her brother to the winterfair when he asked her.. Might as well try to take her mind of things. But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't. As a result she ended up falling on the snowboard ramp, hurting her back quite a bit. With her luck, it would definitely leave a mark but atleast she hadn't broken anything.
She had missed spending time with Dragan since he got a girlfriend, but right now she couldn't understand that this was what she's been so sad about. Between the two of them, things tended to end in disaster.
Aino and Daniel also did their best to spend some time away from the house, and the kids. But since they were old, they didn't see the point of willingly going out in the snow. They preffered warm and dry climate, like all old sims.
To think what kind of hell he put himself through, just because his wife wanted to do something. Daniel looked at Aino as the duet started. She kind of looked like she should sound like an angel, but it was more like listening to an angry frog that thought it sounded great. Ah well, the important thing was the she had fun; didn't mean he had to like it though.
Dragan was thrilled when Lillian finally showed up; her already large dolleyes kept getting bigger the longer she stayed on the ice. He tried to show her how easy it was to iceskate, but for now she was to busy trying not getting run over by a very big and buff woman. She was so hardcore that she wore a tshirt in the cold.
They were the perfect couple. So what if he'd never dated anyone else; Lillian was perfect and so was he! Dragan already knew he wanted to marry her as soon as possible. If it were legal he'd marry here right now and move in with her. They were going to have two children, and he could just hack simoleons over to their account. Perfectly safe!
Neda was pacing back and forth unpatiently waiting for the time to pass quicker, when she got interrupted by Arne. They were pretty good friends, but couldn't he take a hint and understand that she had no interest other than beeing schoolbuddies. She didn't really have the patience for him now. She was busy trying to fix something really huge here!
Finally the message ticked in on the online chat; the coffeshop at Beremond in twenty minutes!
Rubbing her aching belly, Neda did her best to ignore that bad feeling in her gut. It was probably just all the secrets making her feel this way. She wasn't used to having any secrets.
Beeing the airhead he was, Dragan had forgotten all about his sister and invited Lillian out on a date instead. He was starving and it was to cold to eat outside.
As it quickly got darker outside, Neda sat in the well lit coffeshop. She'd picked a table where she could keep an eye on all the sims walkin in and out the door. None of them was the one she was waiting for. She'd waited there for hours, and the barista didn't seem fond of her not buying anything edible. It was several hours after the agreed time, and no one had showed up. She wasn't really sure how she felt; a balloon with all the air leaking out of it maybe? At the same time she was still pretty tense so it might not be the best metaphore for herself at the moment.
Unsure wether to stay or leave, Nedas phone vibrated again as the next message came on the same online chat: Meet at the park downtown instead. No explanation, no appology, no nothing. She had to go back the way she came to get there. This was really annoying and it was so dark at the park, but she didn't want to seem agressiv. She'd waited for so long, so she could go the little extra mile and go back right? That way she'd also have a lot shorter route home after the meeting.
Dragan already had plans for his girlfriend. In the middle of the nerdstore he pulled out a diamondring he'd bough; all with his own hard to come by, hacked bankaccounts simoleons. How else was he supposed to get all those simoleons? By working like a normal sim?
Lillian was all to happy to accept
the offer; then the two lovebirds had to leave due to curfew. Soon they'd be able to stay out as long as they wanted though.
Dragan, where's your sister? It was the first thing dad asked him when he walked through the door.
She wasn't home yet? Why did he keep forgetting her all the time:
Uhm... she's already upstairs. She was exhausted. Maybe she was planning on staying out after curfew, they did that sometimes. But, she hadn't said anything to him and she hadn't texted him or anything.
She's upstairs?
Dragan nodded;
Yeah, she went to bed already. She was exhausted and probably a bit bruised, she kept using the halfpipe. Knowing that dad probably had no idea what that was. After all, dad barely knew how to use his phone, so that was definitely to modern for him.
Snowboard?
Damn:
Yeah. Then he had a great idea to get dad of his case, since mum and dad had a date earlier:
Where's mum?
For a second he noticed that gleam dad got in his eyes when he was about to tell him to mind his own business:
She's having a bath. He changed his mind though apparently:
And you should go to bed Dragan.
Unlike dad, Dragan wasn't ancient, so he went straight upstairs and started Nedas laptop. Completely unaware about how his dad probably heard him entering her room. And like any real nerd he already knew her password: GoAwayDragan123!, easy peasy. Wonder why she'd chosen that as a password though? He never went into her computer this way, he always just hacked himself in from his own. Not that he did anything ofcourse, it was just practice from his part. Well, he had checked her notepad file that said: password.
He opened the only chat- program on the laptop. No one that knew even the smallest thing about computers nowadays used it. Well, other than old sims and dumb ones, and clearly his sister. And she hadn't even tried deleting the conversation! When she got home, he was going to have a serious talk with her about her lack of computer and internet- security. She should understand that there were sims out there, that knew how to do the same things he knew.
Reading through the chat, Dragan worried he'd choke for a second. How had she figured this out? He barely remembered finding the birthcertificate for their possible sister, but she'd managed to figure out who the dad was? And she'd even contacted him, and got him to meet up with her. Damn. Maybe he should give her credit for computerusage instead.
He wasn't hurt that she'd ignored him when he'd wanted to leave the whole thing alone; she'd always been a bit curious. So he kept reading through the log, just to find that she was supposed to meet the dad today at the shop at Beremeond. As he sat there reading, he just now noticed a recent message from the dad saying he wanted to meet her at the downtown park. And she'd said yes.
Dragan, where is you sister?
Dragan slammed the laptop close as soon as dad talked, then put on the most innocent face:
I don't know. Dad was old, so he worried about stranger danger online. Which was stupid, because everyone was online; even dad. Well, his professional profiles weren't run by him, but he had private ones to.
You don't know where your sister is?
No dad. I don't know where your sist... my sister is. How was dad so charming to other sims, and mum, and always so grumpy towards him. Like he made dad tired or something. That was unfair. Everyone should want to have a son like him.
Dad still hadn't looked at him, but had that eeriely calm voice that usually meant he was in a lot of trouble:
I know your lying to me right now Dragan, so I'll make this easy for you. Tell me where your sister is.
Dragans lips were sealed shut. It wasn't that it was such a huge problem telling dad about Nedas whereabouts; she always forgave him. But he didn't want dad to know that they knew. And what if dad didn't know that mum had another kid. Or what if he did know, and didn't want them to know? Damn, Neda could've been right all along. Why hadn't he actually thought deeply about this?!
Dragan? Is it a boy? After a short break, dad continued:
Do you want to be grounded?
As much as Dragan cared about his twinsister, he liked his freedom more. Like every good brother, he spilled everything:
Neda and I found out that mum has another daughter. And she really wanted to know more. I have no idea how she figured it out, but she found the dad. I looked at her chatlog on the computer, and they're meeting now. She'd ofcourse written out his full name and everything to the man. Not very tactical, but she was a teenager.
Dad looked like he was about to die:
Where?
At Benville Common. He started by wanting to meet her at the shop at Beremond, but changed his mind. She should be there by now.
Dad stood staring with his mouth open for so long that Dragan started worrying he was having a heartattack of sort.
Then he finally said something before leaving in a hurry:
Not a word to mum!
Dragan didn't have a problem with keeping secrets, he often forgot them. Not all of them though, but most of them. Had he screwed up badly?
Benville common was full of sims, or more likely; the lit, open area of the park was full of sims. She wasn't there. He'd done everything he could to get there as soon as possible, but he couldn't see her. Dragan hadn't needed to tell who the man she'd chatted with was. He already knew; fucking Kol was going to haunt him until the day he died. This couldn't be happening again. He was going to throw up if he didn't find her soon.
It was a strange coincidence he saw his brother there. Keeping an internal feeling of beeing in a hurry, Daniel decided to give it a shot:
Have you seen Neda? Please say you've seen her. Please.
Nah. Turned out he hadn't been there longer than him.
Why? She missing?
Yeah, I can't get a hold of her. He tried to pretend he wasn't panicking as much as he was. Best to keep things calm right? Best not to raise the alarm?
Andy seemed to be under the assumption that Neda had just missed a curfew:
Don't you two have the same type of phone? Just check if hers is nearby.
You could do that? Daniel pulled out his phone and got some help from his older brother. How was he more techically advanced then him? Well, he was a director so he probably had to be a bit more available. Daniel tried to avoid beeing to available for his customers at the fortunetellers wagon.
Shit Andypandy, it worked! He must have sounded a lot more relieved than he thought, because his brother didn't seem remotely sarcastic for a change.
See, her phone's right over there; at the old gasstation. It wasn't so bad as it sounded, it was just some tiny, worndown coffeshop now. But atleast it meant that she wasn't alone with that fucking animal.
Whatever fear he'd had all melted away when he saw her sitting alone at the table. And she smiled at him, like she was happy to see her grumpy old dad stomping in on her. How could he stay mad at her? Look at that angelic little face. And he couldn't see any old geezer he kind of wanted to kill either, so he just couldn't stay angry.
She just kept looking at him, studying him as she waited for him to say something. Daniel was rarely lost for words, but most sims he made up shit to weren't his own kids either:
I found you through your phone. He said just to make sure she didn't wonder:
I didn't even know you could do that.
Dragan probably fixed it, she answered quietly. So she didn't know it either then? That was good, wasn't just him beeing an idiot then.
He swallowed deeply before starting:
So you and Dragan know about Catherine. He wasn't sure how much they knew about anything, so it was best to stay quiet.
Yes. We found the birthcertificat online. Was she playing it cool to? Nah, not his little baby, she couldn't stay cool even if she wanted to.
Was it even possible to find these things online? Didn't they need their parents signature, and national identification numbers. Actually, didn't they need Catherines identificationnumber?
It's true. Your mum had a daughter before we married and had you guys.
So you knew about it? And mum didn't cheat on you?
Yeah, I knew and no she didn't cheat. He had no plans going into details about that. It wasn't his story to tell either way, but come on: Neda was a little kid and didn't need to know that.
Did mum abuse her? Is that why the old lady took her? Because I found some papers in mums drawers that the dad sued her for neglect! And she refused him to meet her?
Well, that was a fast change of things:
No, mum didn't abuse her and the dad didn't want anything to do with her before... he stopped there.
What exactely was he going to tell her? Maybe he should tell. Neda wasn't anything like the rest of her siblings, and to be fair; what was the big deal? She was old enough to understand why that wasn't someone one just shared with young kids.
You know what Neda, first things first: what did he tell you? Did you hurt you?
What? The dad? I didn't meet him. We were supposed to meet at Beremond, with lots of sims around. Then he texted and wanted to meet me at the park, like in the dark. That's not happening! I went here because I wanted to keep an eye on the park.
She wasn't sure if she'd seen him though, because it was dark. Like she was dumb enough to meet a grown man at the park in the dark, she lived in a big city for crying out loud. He probably liked dressing in diapers or my little pony suits some other thing like that.
Why was dad smiling at her, like she did something good. Mum was pretty paranoid, so some of it had rubbed off on her.
He's a liar. Mum isn't abusive and she didn't loose her baby due to neglect. He had no idea how she'd gotten the rest of it, but she had probably overheard him and Aino at some time:
the old lady that took her is your grandmother. She broke out of prison, killed your grandfather and his wife, and took the baby.
What? Of all the things Neda had expected to hear, this wasn't it. It was far from it.
Yes, you heard me right. When that happened, the babies father decided to get greedy and sued your mother. But it was dismissed. Not to long after, we had Irena and Niko. The less details for her the better.
But why was the old lady in jail then? And why didn't the dad want anything to do with his kid? What happened to her afterwards?
He took another deep breath, he was way to old for this:
The baby, Catherine, is dead Neda. There's still sometimes when someone thinks a trace of her shows up, but it's always a fake one. You're mum doesn't admit it, but I know she still hopes she's alive.
But what about the old lady then? And the dad? Why did he get her pregnant and then leave? What kind of a dad did anything like that?
Please Neda, I can't do this again. He was to old and tired to keep getting reminded, and he couldn't keep thinking about it:
I'm so tired. Please just let it lay buried. It belongs deep underground where it is now. Everone involved are either dead by now, or will be soon. Just let it go, please.
Dad sank even more together than he originally had, he looked like he had problems keeping himself up:
Neda please. He's an aweful man, and there's nothing for you to find there.
Okay. He was right, even if she didn't want to admit it. Dragan had been right all along, she should've just let it stay where it was. Damn, even airhead Dragan was better at things than her. Instead she'd upset her dad. She'd never seen him this old and tired before, every line in his face was visible. Maybe it was just the lighting here.
They heard Aino in the kitchen as soon as they entered the hallway:
Not a word to your mother.
She had no plans on disagreeing with dad on this. She didn't want to see mum the same way she'd just seen him.
Dad continued, his voice low with a touch of severity in it:
Act normal.
She could act normal. Couldn't she?
Leaning over the hot stove, Neda recognized her favourite; lobster. They rarely had lobster, so atleast it meant mum didn't suspect anything.
Hey honey, I assume your brother forgot you somewhere.... as usual. He's been completely bewitched since he met that girlfriend of his.You're probably hungry, so I made your favourite.
Uhm, thanks mum. Yeah, Dragan forgot all about me, so I waited for him. It wasn't that bad though, I met Arne instead. Wow, it was a lot easier lying about something so serious than she would've thought.
What took you so long then? She directed the question at dad now, that seemed to have a harder time than her pretending everything was normal.
Andy showed up. It wasn't really a lie, because he had met and talked to his brother.
Putting her hands at her side, mum looked a bit suspicious:
Are you two hiding something from me?
Neda looked her mum dead in the eyes, hoping she looked honest:
No. Well, yes. We went and made some fortunecookies on the way. We broke the machine, so we just made a run for it. She assumed mum would get mad, instead she just said:
Oh, so you're not hungry then?
Mum, I'm not turning down lobster. She could've eaten a horse and she'd still chow that seacreature down.
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Confession: I really wanted Irena as heir so I thought I could ignore the rolling for heir thing this time. But when Dragan grew up as a teen I changed my mind. He grows up really well, not particularly handsome or anything; but the features and colouring is kind of striking (for my game that is). This chapter was supposed to end with Neda just not beeing found, and Dragan realizing he could've prevented it if he'd just been honest to begin with. Which is why I've been very vocal about rolling for heir. Because I actually did roll for the last kid to be heir.
However, Aino was supposed to have three. And Neda is the oldest twin; thus she is the third one, so Dragan is technically not up for heir at all since he's the fourth. Atleast that's how I've used the rules from the start. I kept trying to justify it to myself, but decided to go really hard on the rules, which makes Neda heir. Besides, there's a limit to how cruel I could be to poor Aino.
Anyway, that's how the chapter ended up beeing a bit incomplete at the ending there. Because all the way up to to writing this chapter, Dragan was supposed to end beeing the heir. And hopefully had tricked you readers along the way into thinking it would be Neda. But instead, Neda is the heir and it ends up beeing a good indicator about her roll: which is journalist. And it shows that she's far from as gullible as her mother. She's also not going to look for anything else about her sister, so sorry readers.
thanks for reading
