After I had Sierra, I felt hopelessly out of shape. So I decided to make an appearance at the local gym to try to lose some of the post-pregnancy weight.
Toya’s pies and rich meals were murder on my figure. So I started with aerobics and worked my way up.
Then when I was on the treadmill, my phone rang. It was Noah. He told me that Sadie had died.
When I got to the mansion I was in a little bit of a state of shock. Surely explained a lot. I didn’t even know she had been sick. I guess I’d been so busy with my own family – between driving all over town to Satis’s newspaper staff meetings, AJ’s scouts and Sage’s ballet classes, plus my own unexpected pregnancy, I barely had time to breathe, let alone keep up with neighborhood gossip.
I’d also heard through the grapevine that just before Sadie died, Neil had moved out with his girlfriend, Noelle Hong, and into a house down my street. There’s definitely a lot more to this than meets the eye.
I found out something else too. I found out dad had been having an affair.
I decided to confront him. But first, he asked about the kids, and I told him about Sety and my plan to send him (and the rest of the kids) away to Fort Starch Military Academy. I also told him that Andy was opposed to my plan and insisted on disciplining Sety on his own, without consultation from me.
“Well, princess,” he said, “it’s a good thing that Andrew is taking such an active role in the upbringing of the kids, but the two of you have to come to some kind of agreement on Imsety’s future. Have you spoken to his counselors at school?”
“We have, and Sety continues to act up.”
“Well, Imsety is clearly testing the two of you. He wants to see how far you go before you snap. You did the same thing to your mother and me when you were his age.” I could still see the twinkle in his eye, even if it was fading with age.
“Is it true?” I asked, “about the affair?”
Dad cast his head down.
“Who is it?”
“Dena Hart,” he whispered. “Beatrice Hart’s daughter. I never told you about Beatrice –“
Dad slipped into storytelling mode. And when he gets into that mode it’s hard for him to break out of it.
Apparently Beatrice Hart was the best friend of Holly Alto (Noah’s mom). She was, depending on who you spoke to, either the second or third woman my father bedded. And apparently, of the two of them, he had been with Beatrice, then called Bebe, first. “I think I may have slept with Beatrice only once,” he recalled. Sometimes I wonder if my father ever loved any woman.
“How long has this been going on?” I tried to hold back tears.
“Since right after Sebastian left.” It was my mother, coming in from behind.
She found out about the affair, and though they are still living under the same roof, it is as if they are strangers. It’s definitely an odd state of being. I know if Andy even THINKS about cheating on me, he is out the door.
Meanwhile, back at home the war between Andy and Sety rages on unabated. When Sety walked in out of a police car in the middle of the night again, this time after apparently stealing some tests from his teacher’s file cabinet, Andy’s voice rose to unprecedented decibel levels. I’d truly never seen him so angry. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, son,” Andy roared, “but you are in a lot of trouble!”
“You not my father,” Sety’s familiar broken Simlish refrain continued.
“No, boy, I’m not your father. But I certainly don’t want to see you ending up like your father –“
“What you know about my father? You don’t know nothing about my father.”
“I know enough about your father to know that he will never see the outside of a jail cell as long as he lives, and at the rate you are going you are going to suffer the same fate, unless you change right now. You are GROUNDED, young man! You can forget about going to your prom and any other non-school activity.”
He then sent Sety to his room.
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