Chapter 2.8 - The Truth, Part I

“What… what do you mean? Is she dead?”

“Not as far as I know. Dylan, Tara Rose isn’t a real person. Whoever she is, she was using a false name.”

Dylan buried his head in his hands, shocked. “There… there are lots of reasons somebody would do that, right? Some of them aren’t necessarily… illegal.”

Ayla sighed. She hated having to do this to her brother, but… “Maybe that’s true, but what I found… it doesn’t look good. She told you that she moved in with an aunt, right? I found out that a woman named Tina Rose went missing in mysterious circumstances shortly after you graduated high school, about six months before you met Tara. She lived in the apartment that Tara lived in before she moved in with you.”

Dylan was confused and upset. If anything, he had even more questions than he had before he had asked Ayla to find Tara. “Nothing else?”

“Nothing significant. I’m not actually that great at research.”

He nodded. “I’d better head home, then.”

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After he’d paid the babysitter, Dylan stood in the nursery, thinking about what he’d learned. If Tara had never been who she said she was… what did that mean about their relationship? What did it mean about their children?

Jade toddled up to him and tugged on the leg of his pants. “Dada.”

He crouched in front of her. “Yes, little gem?”

“Up?”

“What’s the magic word?”

“Up please?”

“Okay.” He scooped her up, settling her on his side.

“Dada? When you were little, did you do this with your dada?” Jade had recently realized that her dada had once been as little as she was, and ever since, she had been fascinated with asking him what it had been like.

He chuckled a little. “Sometimes. More with my mom. Sometimes I’d play with her hair, but she didn’t like it because it showed her… tattoo. Her dragon tattoo.”

He carefully deposited Jade back on the ground. Then, as if in a trance, he walked into the living room and pulled out his phone.

Do you know anything about Mom’s tattoo?

He got a reply almost immediately.

I’ll be right over.

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“Thanks for this.”

“It's nothing. You have a right to know. All I'm curious about is why you want to know now.”

Dylan told his father the whole story, both about his work and about Tara. At the end, Lee laughed.

“Like father like son, I suppose. Your mother's legal name isn't Nyx Doe, you know.”

Dylan hadn't. But as his father told him about his mother's past, he found that was the most believable thing he learned.

“So the Dragons here probably came from Bridgeport because of Mom. But why now?”

“I can't tell you that. But I can tell you that if they're the same gang, their headquarters is probably in some nice remote mansion by the ocean.”

There was only one of those in town, and they both knew it. “Thanks, Dad.”

Lee moved towards the door, but paused on his way out. “Be careful, okay?”

Dylan nodded. “I will.”

After his dad left, he knew he had to get down to the station to report all of this. He went to call his usual babysitter, but he hesitated. He wasn’t sure why, but some instinct told him that he needed to do something else. So he dialed a different number.

“Hey. I need a favor…”

Author's Note: Lee is old now! Nyx is too, but of course we won't see her. She's actually been old for a while. Somehow she got to be almost a week older than Lee at some point. I had lots of aging bugs back in old Sunset.

Ayla had her baby between this chapter and next chapter. I got a picture because she probably won't appear until a lot later, if she appears at all.

Her name is Eve, which I think is actually something Ayla would name her daughter, so for once SP came through for me.

Next chapter will wrap up this plotline, and then I can focus more on the kids.

Chapter 2.7 - The Plot Thickens

“I still think that the dragon tattoo is significant.”

“Maybe it is, but until we know more about the group, we can’t determine anything based on just the tattoo. There are hundreds of groups that mark themselves with dragon tattoos. We need to figure out why they came here before we can find out who they are.”

“I don’t know. There was something so familiar about that tattoo…”

“Have you seen it before? Because if you have, it could give us a clue about where they come from and why they’re here.”

“I think I have, I just can’t quite remember where.”

“It’s a shame we couldn’t get more out of anyone we caught. If we could get our hands on that Avery guy they all mentioned…”

“Well, if we could get our hands on Avery, we could probably get our hands on his boss. It’s very likely that they’re holed up at the same place.”

“If only we knew when the next crime would be.”

“Well, if onlies aren’t going to get us anywhere.” Officer Keaton spoke for the first time. “Doe, what solid information do we have? Let’s lay that out and take it from there.”

Dylan took a deep breath. “Well, we know that the rate of violent crime in Sunset Valley increased rapidly about five years ago, and it hasn’t come down since. We connected that crime rate with a new crime boss in town. We know that the second-in-command of the group is a man named Avery, who’s big, older, has long hair, and whose nose has been broken at least once. Most of the minor players in the group are from out of town, and they all have dragon tattoos. Most of the crimes that we’ve linked to the group have been theft and arson, with a couple of kidnappings and one murder thrown in.”

Officer Keaton frowned. “That’s not much. What can we solidly hypothesize?”

“Well, Bridgeport, Starlight Shores, and Roaring Heights all have gangs that mark themselves with dragon tattoos. None of these groups have been especially active in the last few years, and the behavior we’ve seen doesn’t really match any of them. What I would conjecture is that someone who used to be affiliated with one of these gangs split off and came here. What I can’t tell you is why here, as opposed to somewhere else.”

“That’s a possibility. I’ll get in contact with the local police in all of those places, see what they can tell us. In the meantime, we need to figure out what their next target will be. Doe, start analyzing the previous crimes and find out what they have in common. Wainwright and Alvi, bring in everyone we know is affiliated with the group and wring every last drop of information out of them. Goddard and I will go down to the warehouse and see what they know. Everyone else, get out into town and find out what regular citizens know about the crime. We attack this from every possible angle until we get answers.”

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It had been a long and frustrating day. No matter how hard Dylan tried, he couldn’t find a common thread between the cases. He knew that there had to be one, but he couldn’t figure it out no matter how he looked at them. It was like trying to read in a language you weren’t quite fluent in while hanging upside down. You could see the letters, you could almost make sense of them, but in the end all you got out of it was a headache.

So after all that work for nothing, he was thrilled when Ayla texted him to say she had information about Tara. She wanted to talk to him in person, but not at his house. So he called to let the babysitter know she would have to stay a little longer, but he would pay her extra for it. Then he went to meet Ayla at her place.

They stood in her living room as he waited for her to say something. Eventually, he felt the need to prompt her. “So… what did you find?”

“How are the kids?”

“They’re doing great. What did you find?”

“Have you been to see Sam lately? Aren’t his kids cute?”

“They’re adorable. Ayla, please, what did you find?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“Anything is better than this.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“Look, I’m an adult. I think I can decide whether or not I want to hear this.”

“Ok. If you really insist.”

After a long pause, Dylan spoke. “Well?”

“Tara Rose doesn’t exist.”

Author's Note: I may or may not have planned this entire plotline around this cliffhanger. Sorry for my brief absence. Unfortunately, real life sometimes intrudes into my simming time. Also, I got City Living for Sims 4 and I wanted to play around with that a little. I have the next two chapters written out already, and I should be able to finish shooting them tomorrow. The next chapter is almost done, so it'll definitely be out tomorrow. The one after that might not be out until Saturday, but it shouldn't be any later than that. I've played all the way up to the triplets' child birthday, but I still have a few pictures to take that don't involve them. I really want to get this plotline wrapped up so I can focus more on the kids. Next time, the cliffhanger is resolved, and other things happen!

Chapter 2.6 - Family Matters

“How are you doing?”

“Not great, honestly.”

“If you need anything, you know we’re all here for you.”

“Maybe you’re here for me, but you can’t really do much about any of it, can you? Sam and Kaylynn have two kids of their own to deal with, and you’re starting to get your own happy family set up. Don’t think I didn’t notice that engagement ring. Between that, your baby on the way, and your fancy high-powered job, you don’t have time to help me with the kids, either.”

“I’m really sorry, Dylan.”

He sighed. “I know you are. It’s just… I was barely prepared for one baby, and I assumed Tara would be here to help me. I love all three of them, but… it’s hard.”

“Tell me what I can do to help. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to do much, but I can do my best.”

He thought about it. “Actually, there is one thing you could do.”

“What?”

“Find Tara for me.”

Ayla stared at him, frowning. “How exactly do you expect me to do that?”

“You’re a journalist, aren’t you? You have press access to all sorts of sources I can’t touch even with police clearance, and you do research for a living. I know you can find her.”

Ayla closed her eyes. “I’ll give it a shot. But no promises, okay?”

“All I’m asking is that you try.”

“Alright. Now I want to see my niece and nephews before I leave.”

The nursery was in a rare moment of peace when they entered. All three children were playing happily at the block table. Alaric and Beckett seemed to be getting along for once. Those two would fight over anything and everything, and they couldn’t even really talk yet. Jade, as the one in the middle and the only girl, usually played peacemaker. She was the first to notice them come in. “Dada!”

She held up her arms in the universal symbol for up. He picked her up, grunting a little as he settled her in his arms. “You’re getting heavy, little gem. I want you to meet your Aunt Ayla.”

“Ayla?” Jade pointed at Ayla, clarifying the connection.

“That’s right. That’s Ayla. Can she play with you for a little while?”

Jade looked her aunt up and down. Finally, she said, “Yes.”

Dylan put Jade down to play with her Aunt Ayla, then went over to where the boys were playing. “What are you two doing?”

“Bwocks,” Alaric told his father, in a tone that said ‘duh’.

“I can see that, but what are you doing with the blocks?”

“We’s making a castle. Dere’s de moat, see?” Beckett spoke quietly, but his voice was animated. He was fascinated by water, the only one of the three who never objected to bath time.

“That’s a great moat, Beck.”

“And there’s shawks in the moat, and they eat the invaders!” Alaric really liked sharks. And lions. And tigers. And just about anything with really sharp teeth. Dylan worried about it a little bit, but he’d been told that it was a pretty normal fascination for a little boy to have.

“Sharks, huh?” He scooped up his eldest, who, like his sister, was getting remarkably heavy. “Do they eat them up like this?”

“No, Dada, no tickles!” He managed to get the words out through his giggles. “Wet me down.”

He did, and Alaric immediately went over to the toy box. Beckett was still playing on the block table. He had the longest attention span of the three. Jade couldn’t do anything for more than ten minutes, and Alaric was a little better, but not much. He was distracted from his musings by his sister’s voice.

“This has been great, but I really have to get going. I’m having dinner with Terrance’s family tonight, and I really need to go now if I don’t want his mother to hate me forever.”

“You know she’s my boss, right?”

“I didn’t, actually. Do you guys get along?”

“Pretty well.”

“Then I might mention I was here and see if it earns me any brownie points. I’ll stop by once I… have the information you’re looking for.” She knew better than to mention their mother in front of the toddlers. They were just old enough to start to wonder why she wasn't there, and she didn’t want to upset them.

“Please do. Good luck with the whole dinner thing.”

After she left, he sat down for a moment, letting himself feel a little bit of self-pity. Both of his siblings had happy, functional relationships, and until recently, he’d thought he had one too. But now he was left raising three toddlers by himself, and as much as he loved them, sometimes he wished he still had problems like Ayla, who worried about getting a promotion and impressing her fiance’s parents.

Then he shook it off and went to tend to his children. He didn’t have the time to think about things like that anymore.

Author's Note: Some cuteness and an introduction to next generation's heir candidates before we get back to plot.

Ayla's fiance is Terrance Keaton, who you may remember as the one she beat out for student body president at the end of generation 1. What's funny is that I planned to move him into the house if she became heir. He would have been the Job Hopper, because he's a diva (a snob and a diva, that must be a tumultuous relationship). He's one of the only people I managed to save from old Sunset. Join us next time to get back to Dylan's job and see what Ayla finds out!