Our story began with Adam Slade arriving in Sunset Valley to start a new life and a lasting legacy, a Slade dynasty that would be at the heart of the town's life. Time has passed, and that original vision has been handed down through Adam's only son, Brandon and then on to the third Slade generation, Cleo and Carl.
In this chapter Garett introduces Cleo to her own past ...
Cleo was not in any mood to see Garett. In her mind he had played her and her brother, he had wormed his way into their family and cold-bloodedly ripped it apart. But...
But the photograph that he had sent to her, of her grandfather in Twinbrook, posed questions she had no answers for. Garett, of all people, was claiming that he knew something of her family's history, was it possible that he really did know why Adam had come to Sunset Valley? So why, then, would he play such games with them now?
With her head full of confusing questions, Cleo made her way to the Pleasant Rest graveyard to meet with Garett as he had requested.
"Ahh Cleo, I'm glad that you decided to come, so I assume you recognised the photographs?"
"Yes, one of them. Is that really my grandfather? Why would you have a photo of him, and why is he in Twinbrook?"
Garett smiled, "As I thought, you know nothing of your history. How simple it must be to be fresh and new in this world, unencumbered by a difficult past. Well, today is the day when you learn about your family's past, your family's secret past."
Cleo was not enjoying Garett's gloating, "Look, Garett, if you have something to say, just say it, after what you have done I'm not in the mood for riddles."
"What I have done?" Garett repeated, amused by her choice of words.
Abruptly his tone changed, the smile leaving his face. "Do you recognise any of the graves Cleo? Do you know any of these people or their stories?"
Cleo frowned at him, glancing quickly at the nearby gravestones. "No, I can't say that I do."
"No," Garett continued, "you have your smart, expensive, memorial garden on Summer Hill, isolated and separated from all the others here. These are not the graves of rich people Cleo; their families did not have the means to build large mausoleums or anything like the grand gravestones you have erected. But every one of the people buried here has a story that can be traced back for generations. Generations of history, not always honourable, but a history that informs the people they leave behind."
Cleo was getting ever more impatient, "That's all very well but what has that got to do with me, or my family?"
"Because, Cleo Slade, when your grandfather arrived in Sunset Valley, it wasn't to create a new life for himself but to hide his past and what his family had done. He didn't want anyone to know his story, the part he had played in ... well, no, let me start at the beginning."
"That photo is indeed of your grandfather, Adam Slade, with his mother, Wanda." Garett began his story ...
"Adam's father had run off soon after he was born, Wanda was only a girl herself when she got pregnant and wasn't what you'd call a 'good mother'."
"Adam would have spent more time with that dog than with his mother."
"Unlike his mother, Adam, was a pretty serious kid. He did well enough at school – he actually went, which is more than his mother had!"
"Seeing as they didn't have much in the way of income the boy kept a little vegetable plot by the side of the shack. From what they say he didn't socialise much with other kids, preferring to stay at home with the dog or tending to the garden."
"His mother, on the other hand, spent as much time as she could away from their home."
"The story goes that one of her favourite hang-outs was one of the down-town gyms. She'd managed to get hold of a membership card and would spend hours on the machines or in the bar finding gullible men to spend money on her."
"It was at the gym that she met Sinbad Rotter. It was that meeting that has led us to situation we now found ourselves in ..."
Chapter 25: Sinbad's Offer
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