Author's note: I've got a ton of screenshots I took 6-8 months ago when I started this save file, and I thought it would be fun to build a storyline that would allow me to share them. Some of the ways the sims then are different from the sims now are interesting, I hope. As are some of the ways they are exactly the same.

 

 

 

So, I have to tell you from the outset, over these next few chapters, I'm going to be revealing a lot of secrets that weren't included in my original History of Newcrest. It wasn't exactly a best-seller at the time, and that's probably because I left most of the good parts out. Well, it's been a few years, and now it's time to share the good parts.

 

I had a series of meetings with Cormac Galway, founding Senior Partner in Galway & Lombardo.

 

 

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, I found this man fascinating from the get-go.

 

 

Cormac and his wife Brighid had been one of the first families to move into Bridgeview when it was still a new housing development.

 

 

By the way, people smoked a lot of cigarettes back then. You'd better get used to that. Anyway, Cormac founded a new law firm directly out of school with his classmate, Vicente Lombardo. Their first office was basically a closet, so Cormac went about town trying to get clients for the upstart firm.

 

 

"Vicente and I both had offers from multiple top firms," he told me. "But I wanted to build something from the ground up. It was I who convinced Vicente to go along with my dream."

 

 

"Meanwhile, I was enjoying an extended honeymoon with Brighid. Love of my life then, and still now."

 

 

"She's a strong woman. She's spent her life as the wife of a powerful lawyer, and on paper, that's what she is. Stay-at-home-mom and wife. But that's a job that deserves more credit than it usually gets."

 

 

"It didn't take long for Eoghan to be born."

 

 

"I'll be getting to how big of a disappointment he turned out to be, but when he was still a little one, Brighid did a stellar job holding down the home, while I tried to build up the firm. It isn't her fault how he turned out."

 

 

"I don't understand. Isn't he a junior partner in your firm and your heir?"

 

"Yes, and when he met Lily, we thought he'd found the grounding he needed to settle into a good life and be the next generation for what we were building."

 

 

"But you're getting me ahead of myself. Let me continue telling you about how we built G&L."

 

 

"We had a plan. Vicente was going to lead the business route - you know, finding corporate clients and helping them get away with all the things corporations get away with."

 

 

"And I was going to take the public track, finding clients who would help us sue the government, which may or may not lead to less money, but would certainly lead to greater publicity."

 

 

"And that's why I was the one who suggested we hire Carlton. I knew we had to have him while he was still at Britechester as a 3L."

 

 

"As part of his clerkship, he had played an important role in prepping for a big civil rights case, Goth v. Bridgeport Housing Authority. It's in all the textbooks now. And I thought having the smartest Afro-American lawyer of his generation in our firm could only be a positive."

 

 

"Luckily, he was excited to join."

 

 

"I also promised you some more juicy history, so I also contributed this to the growth of the firm. I found Sook. She was just some Japanese blowjob specialist who wanted to set up a sex empire out west, and our firm had no clients out there, at the time, so I convinced Vicente to take her on."

 

"This is crazy," I told him. "But I've met Sook."

 

"So you know why she was so good at what she did."

 

"I do."

 

"Well, I was the one who put that in motion. We probably only ever got half the fees out of her we deserved, because our associates were too eager to trade fees for head, but then, I can't blame them, can I? I certainly found it a fair trade in my time."

 

 

"She's moved back to Komorebi," I said. "I saw her when I was there on vacation. She's still got it."

 

"I bet she does.

 

"Here's the thing. I'm not faulting a guy for having a needs. I've obviously had them. But a respectable man is discreet. Maybe I got a little treat from Sook on a business trip. Okay. But I've had the same mistress for thirty years, now. And I pay her well, since she's my secretary."

 

 

"But Eoghan, he doesn't have that discretion. As soon as Lily started showing the first time, he was out whoring around with anything he could find. No classy mistress. Just cheap prostitutes. So now Lily spends most of the day at home drinking."

 

 

"Even if she sometimes overdoes it."

 

 

"It's interesting," I said, "that you have such a strict ethical model not just for traditional family, but also for cheating."

 

He practically spit at me.

 

"Cheating. It's not cheating when you do it right. It's just part of life. Men need to get off more than women, so men without means visit whores. But men with means should stay with their girlfriends, not bounce between brothels. I still love my wife. Brighid and I still are intimate."

 

 

"But I'm also still with Carole, after all these years. She consoles me when I have problems."

 

 

"And my partnership with her is just as meaningful as my partnership with my wife."

 

 

"And most importantly, I don't bring disrepute onto my family. It's discrete. I don't come home with disease. Not like my son, who would rather visit the strip club."

 

 

"And who has never said 'No' when a girl offered extras."

 

 

"This is why I don't want the firm in Eoghan's hands. He's not trustworthy. And Vicente's son is no better. But Carlton, he's a good man. Keeps his indiscretions discrete, as well."

 

"Nice word play."

 

"Thank you."

 

 

"I've told him, when Vicente and I finally retire, I want him to be fully in charge."

 

 

"That's why, even though Ercole and Eoghan are junior partners, we had a meeting recently and made Carlton a full senior partner."

 

 

"Equal to Vicente and me, and when we are gone, he will outrank our sons."

 

 

So, I'll stop the Newcrest updates there for a moment, and tell you, while I was visiting, I drove up to Willow Creek and visited Maya's new club, Foundry Cove. Nice place, I guess, but a little seedy.

 

 

But the big news, she was pregnant.

 

 

And the father was none other than my old buddy Pedro. Of course it was. Maya was always gunning for Pedro to knock her up, I think.

 

Speaking of meant to be, when I got back west, I had a need to get together with Aiyana. We'd been enjoying a great relationship recently, but we hadn't been intimate. That night, things changed.

 

 

No kidding. I didn't think I had it in me, but at this point, I was in love.