Chapter 488) White Ivy

Hey, it’s AG again. So much has happened since the last chapter. So much change. Some of it probably expected, other things were complete surprises. I don’t even really know where to start. Oh, for those of you wondering about the vampires, everyone survived the unturning without any incidents and everyone was adjusting well. Most seemed genuinely happy, debatable whether that was them making lemonade out of life’s lemons or genuinely embracing the change.

Let’s start with me. During my wedding venue scouting trip for Connor and Keira I ended up with a few potential venues left on my list in Brindleton Bay, and while I knew of the town, I had never actually been here. The first moment I saw it, still with Mauro Conti as my travel companion, I was thunderstruck. Where had this place been all my life?! Wow! Yes, please!

I knew they had an upper-class community there; it was where the ‘old money’ lived, the type of long-time wealthy people like the Cromwells, who usually looked down on us ‘new money’ folks, which even after so many generations of wealth, my family still counted as, mostly because of how my family made their money. The entertainment industry was not considered a solid foundation to build a legacy on around here. Knowing that, I always avoided it, thinking it would also be boring, old-fashioned, dusty and lame, basically a retirement community for the financially blessed.
I was wrong. I fell in love with the quaint charm right away, the serenity and the utter and total lack of pesky reporters, paparazzi, and clusters of fans I was used to from Del Sol Valley, while they still had all the creature comforts a girl like me likes to have close. Mauro mentioned that he came here frequently and told me if I enjoyed Autumn here so much, I should see it in Spring and Summer. According to him, this was one of the most perfect spots to live. Except Tartosa of course, his birthplace and home, then again, he was biased. I wasn’t and I was in love. With the town, not the man.

Exclusive access country clubs, upscale spas, cafes with opportunity to people watch and outfit-judge while sipping expensive beverages with fancy names, brunches and dinners at exclusive little restaurants run by celebrity chefs. That was my jam, and it all was here, minus the constant worry if someone might recognize you or someone in your party and all hell would break loose. Plus, the air was so much better, crisp and salty and fresh. Altogether medicine for the soul. But the best part were the horses. This town was the epicenter for exquisite steeds, English style riding, horse jumping, racing and dressage, which I loved.

Once back in Del Sol Valley I wouldn’t shut up about Brindleton Bay anymore, so Bianca and I took a trip to the Bay together so she could check it out for herself. I knew she would love it, but what I didn’t expect was how much she did. Next thing I knew was we both were moving here!

Here is Gavin and Bianca’s beautiful estate, called High Pointe Manor

Yeah, my beautiful bestie uprooted her entire family, none of them was mad about it either, even the kids absolutely loved it, so did Gavin, now Bi and I both owned beautiful estates. With ocean view. I even have stables now! No horses yet, but that was in the works. On several ends.
Here is my pride and joy, designed it myself, it’s called White Ivy Estate

I already technically owned one horse, so I swallowed my pride and went back to see Jack, whom I hadn’t seen in months, to tell him I was going to hire an equine transportation company to get Kismet as I had a place for her now. Shockingly, he still had all three of Sorrel’s fillies, who were foals no more, almost even past the yearling stage and almost ready to be properly trained for riding. While in Chestnut Ridge, I fell back under Jacks’ rugged spell and it took its usual course. Sigh.

Why did I bring that up, you ask? We all have a private life, often involving sex, so how is that even worth mentioning? Well, cos I literally was sleeping with two men now, something I never thought I’d ever do and something I always used to look down on, wondering how any girl could be that slutty. Oh well, at least this slut here was single, both men I was messing with were single, so what the hay, right? Still, this was most definitely not something I would bring up around my family. Not ever.

While there were obvious reasons why there would never be a relationship with Jack, which was also the reason nobody but my bestie even knew the first thing about him, the other man in my life, Mauro Conti, was wealthy, handsome and charming and everything a man should be, but he was also suffocating me a little with his attention. Constantly flowers, calls, messages, gifts … him in person, or all the above. The kind of man you immediately tell all your friends and family about, right? Well, guess not this girl, as he and I had been seeing each other for many months, and mom, dad or Nick still had not heard a single peep about Mauro from me either, until he just one day stumbled into one of their visits at my place. Hard to not introduce a guy to mommy, daddy, big brother and sister-in-law when they are sitting right there as a man kisses you at your front door. So, with not much of a choice left I introduced them, then later told them I hadn’t done so as I wanted to be sure he is worth introducing first. It was a lie. Had they not happened upon each other, they would still be none the wiser. Bianca liked him, except for the fact that she immediately stalked him online and couldn’t get over why a man like him with a confirmed impressive net worth and childless at his age had never been married, especially since he was from her home country of Tartosa.

Whenever he could get away from his vineyard and other obligations, he would come see me or invite me to one of his homes or take me to exclusive events. At some point, he just started introducing me as his girlfriend, and then started hinting around on us maybe moving in together. While I managed to hide my shock well enough to let him down gently, clearly, that would be a big no from me and if he didn’t stop with that, I would have to cut him loose. I don’t suggest anyone making me choose between them and my new-found freedom. For the first time in my life, I had my own home, at the ripe age of 31, so no way was I willing to give that up again, not for ANY man.

While I could barely get rid of Mauro, I couldn’t get my own damn kids to come stay with me. There was always something more important, school, family, landmark events with their father’s horses, … always something. One single time they had been to my brand-new home, along with all my family and friends to celebrate my housewarming. Max had come too and I didn’t mind him being there at all. At least my kids were finally here. Strangely, we had a good relationship and they loved me as I loved them. Guess we just weren’t each other’s priorities. Even while here, everyone and everything seemed to be more interesting to them than I was after the initial hugs and kisses. Max tried hard to downplay it, but he and I both knew he was just being sweet.

Max and I still got along pretty well, he had been an instrumental advisor when I had my stables and paddock built, he came to see me and talked to the architects and builders several times, while sharing his expertise about horses with me freely when it came time to furnish the stables, we’d never be best friends of course, but were better than civil.

He did tell me that eventually, when a reasonable time after the divorce had passed, he would start taking Charlene on his travels to officially introduce her to society as his new partner. Oh joy. Yes, I had seen them together when visiting the kids at Cromwell Manor, and yes, it gave me a pang of jealousy each time, but damn, hearing it like that was a real punch to the face. Nobody likes to be replaced so easily and soon. No matter the circumstances.

Even Max seemed to have his ducks back in a neat little row, and here I was, secretly hopping through various men’s beds, poor and rich ones. Oh, the irony. My super-conservative ex was about to go Facebook official with Lady Charlene Ashford, while I was over here the posterchild of the opposite of someone having their shit together. Argh.

On the upside, I was spending so much time with Bianca now, for the first time in the many years we had been friends we finally lived close, so we saw each other daily now, hanging out at each other’s homes or going out somewhere. We loved going to the local establishments, where the local upper class hung out – and NO paparazzi! We went to retail therapy, yoga, it was HEAVEN. And we started making new friends along the way, people like us.

Rohan was also dealing with the mother of his oldest kid, Aryelle, who was part of the Werewolf unturning frenzy, since it wasn’t just the vamps who had to cut numbers. Esmée and her husband, plus his teen son Nathan were all regular mortals again, but frankly I couldn’t tell a difference. Michael had always been an oversized ruffian, loud and obnoxious, Nathan was his father’s son and Ezzy was the same bitch she had been before and after being a Werewolf, easily angered and claws and fangs came out when she bit your head off over trivial BS, whether she was an occult or not. Sorry, Ezzy and I are first cousins and we never got along, even as kids and there still isn’t any love lost between us. Her sister Emmy had always been sweet, vampire or not, their kids were just as kids are before and after, but her husband Connell was tan now, which still always caused me to do a double take on him. He looked great! I noticed that with all unturned vamps. Literally the first thing they all did was gorge themselves on foods as they could taste it all now, then go lay in the sun and tan, cos they could. Well, it really is the small things, I guess.

Mom and dad had aged quite a bit, nothing too bad, both still looked amazing, but they looked a lot more like grandparents to young children now rather than 20-somethings, and it was something to get used to again. Just like it had been when they looked similar to the way they do now, then were turned and got younger visually.

My grandparents Blaine and Scarlett remained as vampires but had been forced to give up Cameron Mansion to move to Forgotten Hollow along with all other vamps to keep the community sealed off from mortals.

So, their Del Sol Valley home was offered to my mom, since she is their oldest child. Obviously, she was looking to move herself, away from Del Sol Valley and not just down the road from her mansion, so it went to the next oldest, Blake.

Blake was Grandpa Blaine’s son with his first wife, not by my Grandma Scarlett, which explains why he and most of his offspring are blonde. He was already retired from acting, living in a gorgeous estate in Sulani, meaning he was absolutely not interested in moving back into the polluted Del Sol Valley hills, so he offered it to his son Reed, who had just moved to San Sequoia to be closer to his son Chandler, who was expecting his first child with his wife. Chandler was a successful actor like his father was and his grandfather had been, and he gladly accepted Cameron Mansion. He and his wife Ashlynn, a doctor, were expecting a son any day now, who would be named Everett, after the mother’s maiden name, a tradition Blake and Mila had started and every generation after them on that side of the family had followed, but it was also a sign, as an ancestor named Everett once built that house, many remodels ago. Full Circle.

Oh, my cousin Connor and his long time fiancée Keira were in the final home stretch for their wedding now. They had moved to San Sequoia and were finishing up the final touches to their long awaited wedding. Looks like this time it would really happen. Good for them.

I have a new roommate, a beautiful Himalayan kitten named ‘Chester’. I love him. So sweet.

I kinda wanted a dog initially, but I intend on travelling a lot, and that’s just more difficult. Bianca got a cat too, a little Bengal kitten she named ‘Gia’, and we love to watch them play together.

She got a dog too, a Yorkie named ‘Gigi’, and her hubby Gavin keeps pissing her off by called the dog “Chi-Chi”, like the term for overelaborate pretentiousness. I thought it was funny too, so usually when I was over and Gavin started teasing Bi (again, pronounced ‘bee’, not like the sexual orientation, unless you want her mad at you), I would get in trouble too for laughing at his ‘Chi-Chi’ jokes.

My parents added a Miniature Poodle named ‘Zsa Zsa’ to the family.

While dad preferred big dogs, he was a dog lover and adored that spoilt little dog, which mom lovingly called her four-legged baby. Good thing I wasn’t the jealous kind or I would have felt threatened as their two-legged ‘baby’.

So much for a few of the many updates, next chapter will be just storyline again.

Author's Notes:
Please note that this is not intended as just an update post, but an actual chapter, just going over some changes.
Those changes mentioned in this chapter were only some of many, too many to list since I just have too many households and it would be boring to anyone reading it, so those may or may not come up naturally in future storylines or in FB blurbs. 
My game really got some significant makeovers, while this wasn't the first (and likely not the last time) of my remodeling all my worlds, it seems to be one with the most impact to date, visually, from the storyline aspect, but also with a sleuth of new, small mods I added that affect gameplay and make it even more realistic yet off the record. 
I always enjoyed my gameplay, but now it reached a new level again. 
All the remodeling is very time consuming, I am still not done, but didn't want to delay posting a new chapter again. 
As for the casting call on FB, thank you to those who submitted, I did already add quite a few new households made by others, but am not forcing them into the storyline, unless they end up befriending my main characters naturally. So, if you submitted someone, be patient, they may (or may not) come up eventually, but as I said in my post, no guarantees. Good things take time. :)