Gen. 2 Chap. 17: Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I decided to quit my job at the spa so I could be a proper stay at home mom, and boy did that turn out to be a good decision! Looking after two kids was definitely harder than one, but boy was it rewarding.

Hermione and Dain were the light of our lives. 

Hermione was too little to do much of anything yet, but she was a good baby, and only cried when she needed something. We doted on her. 

Dain got up to the funniest things! He liked to hide in his toy box, and bite the heads off his dolls. 

I was a little worried about the biting, but Sean assured me if was nothing, and he was just in training to be an Emperor of Evil like his daddy. I really wasn’t sure what to think of this!
 

As Dain got older, we started introducing him to solid food. His face when he tasted it was priceless! 

He still loves his bottles, so I think we’ll stick to them for a while. Less messy too!

Dain had become quite demanding about having his diaper changed, so one day after lunch Sean just plonked him down on one of the potty chairs I’d bought. 

He looked quite surprised, but Sean just told him he had to sit there for a while, and he sat in there with Dain and read him a story so he wouldn’t get bored. Since it was around the time he’d usually wet his diaper anyway, the magic happened and Dain went in the potty for the first time! We were so happy he seemed to catch on so quickly. We sit him on the potty all the time now, and I think he’ll be ready to use it all on his own soon.
 

In between running after our two kids and trying for another baby (which was always fun) we were looking for a new house to buy. There weren't any up for sale in Sunset Valley, that we liked, though. We wanted a big house, with enough room for each of the kids to have their own bedroom when they were older.

We looked like the picture perfect family. 

But the stress was getting to us, and the cracks were starting to show. Sean and I started to fight over the littlest things, and I hated it. 

Sure, the make up sex was good, 

but to be honest I think I would prefer normal sex without all the fighting. It wasn’t good for Dain to hear.

I was just about to give Dain his bottle one evening when Sean came out of the kids room holding Hermione. My face lit up.
‘Sean, I’ve got some good-’
He cut me off. ‘I need to talk to you, Viola.’
I frowned slightly. ‘Good, I need to talk to you too.’
Sean fixed me with a sharp gaze. ‘You’re going to tell me who it is, Viola, and you’re going to tell me right now.’

 
I just stared at him, taken aback. ‘What on earth are you talking about, Sean?’
He looked angry now. ‘I know you’re cheating on me! You think I don’t know you can get anyone you want?’

 
I was stunned. This was the last thing I’d expected him to say. ‘I’m not cheating on you! When would I have time? We’re always together.’
Sean looked a little triumphant, as if he’d expected this response. ‘When I’m at work.’
I couldn’t believe the nerve of him. I seriously couldn’t. ‘I am not cheating on you Sean. I would never do that.’
‘But you have before,’ he countered. ‘So guess what - I don’t believe you.’

 ***

I was pregnant. I was pregnant and Sean and I still hadn’t made up. So much time had passed that Sean had had his elder birthday. He still dressed like a teenager, and had dyed his hair black of all colours. 

I figured what he was doing to me was some kind of way to have power over me, and vent his insecurities at the same time. I couldn’t be sure though, since he refused to even talk to me. I threw myself into teaching Dain to talk, though I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do so.

 

***

Dear Diary,

I know I haven’t written since I was a teenager. But I just had to write that Sean and I aren’t married anymore. To make it seem real. Because it doesn’t seem real. I still love him.

***

I was halfway through my pregnancy when Hermione’s first birthday rolled around. 

Sean was still living with me, which I was grateful for. I didn’t know how I would cope on my own with two toddlers, and soon, a new baby. But it’s hard, too, because every time I look at him, I remember what we used to be.

We didn’t have a big party for Hermione, but it was still nice.

Sean smiled for the first time in months, and we actually had a nice, civil conversation with each other. 

But afterwards I was just even sadder, because I was reminded of when those conversations were such frequent occurrences, they all rolled into one.

***

‘Dain, please don’t throw a tantie for mommy. Not tonight.’ 

My back was aching. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, hide under the covers, and not come out. But I couldn’t. I had children who depended on me.
‘No chair!’ cried Dain. ‘No chair, mommy hold me!’
I sighed. I lifted him out of his high chair and sat down on the couch with him, feeding him his bottle like he was a little baby again.
‘You know Dain,’ I said as I stroked his hair. ‘You’re really getting too old for bottles. Big boys eat real food. Remember? Mommy gave you some once.’
Dain drained the last of his bottle, sucking furiously. ‘No like food. Dain like bottles,’ he said when he was done. He scooted off my lap so I could get up off the couch, which was a bit of a struggle now I was so huge. My due date was in a month. I picked up Dain, which was also a struggle.
‘C’mon, bedtime little man.’
I expected him to protest, but he didn’t. Instead he just looked up at me with his huge blue eyes and said, ‘Why mommy sad?’
I closed my eyes for a second. ‘Mommy’s sad because she had to give daddy back his ring.’

 
‘Ring?’
‘Yes. He gave it to me as a special present, and then he said I couldn’t have it anymore. It made mommy very sad.’
‘Daddy sad too?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Mommy doesn’t know, Dain.’
Dain considered this. Then he said, ‘But - when I take - take teddy off Neenie, mommy say ‘no Dain!’ Why mommy not - not tell daddy no?’
I hugged him, walking into his bedroom. ‘Mommy wishes she could, Dain.’ I put him in his crib, and kissed his forehead. 

‘But don’t you worry. Mommy and daddy love you very much.’
Dain gasped, looking across the room. ‘Mommy! Neenie not in crib!’
I laughed, relieved that he wasn’t asking any more questions. ‘I’m getting her now, Dain. Mommy doesn’t have four arms!’

 


***

‘C’mon Hermione, just sit there for mommy, like Dain does.’ 

I was trying to get Hermione potty trained before the new baby came, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. I was due in three weeks. Just as I heard the tell tale tinkle in the bottom of the potty, my phone rang. I dug it out of my pocket.
‘Hello?’
‘Hello, is that Viola?’ said a perky voice I sort of recognised.
‘Yes.’
‘Oh good, I’m glad I caught you. This is Cheryl from Sunset Valley Real Estate, remember I gave you and your husband a tour of the Goth Manor a few months ago?’
I gulped at the word ‘husband’. ‘Yes, I’m sorry Cheryl, we really didn’t want to buy the Goth Manor-’
‘Oh no, I completely understand! Awful horrible place. Why Cecilia wouldn’t let us redecorate for the viewing I’ll never know. No, I called because I’ve found the perfect house for you. Four bedrooms, classic design-’
‘Oh!’ I interjected. ‘Did Mrs Collingwood decide to sell?’
‘No no, she’s still hanging onto that place. No, the house I found for you is in Riverview.’
Riverview. If I moved to Riverview, I’d never have to see Sean again. The idea was both thrilling and terrifying. Cheryl was still nattering away, Hermione was yelling ‘Done, mommy!’ and I was basking in the realisation that I might actually make it through this.

***

I was sitting on the couch with my feet up, just staring at the screen of my phone. Cheryl had texted me pictures of the house, and it was beautiful. My house, I told myself. My house. Because I’d already bought it. I’d spent all my spare time last week on the phone and on the computer, selling my businesses. I’d sold all of my paintings too, and most of them had fetched quite high prices. I had twenty three simolens left in my bank account, and I was ecstatic about it. I had my house. I had my escape. As soon as I’d had the baby, and recovered enough to make the move, I was going. I’d hire a nanny or something. Paint into the night to pay her, if I had to. All I knew was that I couldn’t live in this house anymore, if Sean didn’t love me.

***

Dear Diary,

I don’t know what just happened. 

I can’t believe what just happened. All I know is that this might not be the end. Sean actually-

 

***

Dear Diary,

I just looked at my last entry and started laughing so hard! I went into labour while writing it. Anyway, the baby was a boy, and I named him Nico.

 

So. Sean is back. And I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, because I’m scared he’ll disappear again. 

But he says he loves me, and he’s sorry, and he doesn’t want me to go to Riverview without him. Nico’s only a week old, but we’re leaving tonight, taking the overnight flight to Riverview. This house isn’t built for three kids, Dain’s been sleeping in a porta-cot in the living room for the past week. 

So we’re going. With Sean.

I just hope I made the right decision.

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Song chapter title, amazingly not Short Stack. Green Day this time.

So, the romantic reputations in my game are glitched. The game thinks VJ Alvi and Jamie Jolina are still alive, it says that Sean and Viola are in an active relationship with each other AND with Jamie and VJ. So I think that’s why Sean accused Viola of cheating. Even though VJ is dead. Cause she wasn’t cheating with anyone!

The whole thing was very odd because Sean had the five day betrayed moodlet, but after three days I get the notification ‘Sean is not interested in fixing this relationship, he has broken it off, they are no longer romantic.’

I was gonna save the whole family to the bin, but place Sean in a different house to Viola in Riverview (I’m moving them in hopes it fixes the glitch, so it doesn’t happen to the kids, etc.). But as I was doing the last bit of play in Sunset, Sean flirts with her on freewill! And they went on for ages, even though the kids were screaming. It looks promising, so I’m putting Sean in the new house. Fingers crossed!

I hope you liked the storyline I did to explain the glitch. I know this chapter might be confusing because it is so jumpy, but that’s for dramatic effect, people! Read it carefully and you’ll be right :)

Inkeeping with the theme, Nico is named after my favourite character in the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan.