Chapter 30: Leaving the Past Behind

Two generations ago Adam Slade arrived in Sunset Valley to start a new life.  Not just for himself but for those that would follow him - he dreamt of establishing a family legacy.  Having acquired one of the finest properties in Sunset Valley, Adam built a solid foundation that his son, Brandon, expanded and handed down to his daughter, Cleo. But Cleo, the third generation Slade in the Valley, is learning that her family's story actually started elsewhere ... and the foundations that Adam had laid might not be as sound as was thought.

In this chapter the consequences from the first meeting of the Slade and Fisk families are finally revealed ...

"And that was when Walter Fisk's life came apart." Garett sighed.

"He returned home shortly after Anna had finished reading the newspaper reports. She confronted him about the story. Perhaps he should have lied and tried to front it out, deny everything – isn't that what cheats do?" Garett looked pointedly at Cleo, but she knew it wasn't a question she was expected to answer.

"But he didn't," Garett continued, "he admitted that he had been seeing this woman, Wanda. He tried to explain that it was just a one-off, that he truly loved Anna and Lewis, that he would do anything to make it up to them."

"But Anna was having none of it. There was no reason why he would cheat, he had everything he could want right here. What could he possibly find appealing in a woman from the Swamplands? The very idea made her skin crawl."

"What truly shocked her was that Walter had brought this woman into their house and exposed their son to his sordid affair. For that alone she would never forgive him."

"The more he tried to apologise the angrier she got. And when he claimed, as truthfully as it may have been, that he knew nothing of Wanda's criminal connections her rage exploded. Walter would bear the bruises from that afternoon for many days."

As impatient with his rambling story as she was, Cleo sensed that Garett was finally getting to some sort of point, one that he hoped would explain away his own recent actions. She could see the moisture starting to glisten in his eyes, and his voice was breaking, but however emotional he was getting she was certain there was nothing he could say that would excuse his actions.

"When Lewis returned home from school the tension between his mother and father was palpable, just by the way they looked he knew it was bad, but it was his mother who was particularly upset and when she saw her son come into the house she just rushed outside; on the verge of tears."

"Sensitive to his mother's emotions, Lewis followed Anna out, but she wouldn't let him near until eventually she composed herself enough to instruct the boy to collect his favourite things - they were going to stay with his grandparents for a little while."

Garett paused, clearly struggling to control his own emotions.

"On that same day Anna left Walter, forever."

"Walter's business was intimately involved in many city projects so any suspicion that he had criminal links was bound to bring the police to his door. Sure enough, just moments after Anna had left a police car pulled up outside their home and Walter was arrested on suspicion of corruption and money laundering."

Garett paused again, to make sure that he still had Cleo's full attention.

"I can't tell you exactly what happened in the swamp lands, but I can make a pretty good guess considering what we know Wanda, Sinbad, and Adam did after Walter was arrested."

"I don't know if Sinbad had any genuine feelings for Wanda, but he must have thought she was useful to him. He was seen spending time on Bayou Gulch; he probably spent several nights there, convincing Wanda to keep to his plan."

"His 'office' on Riverside Road closed within days of Walter's arrest. He and Wanda Slade suddenly left town, I don't think it took much to convince her, Wanda probably wasn’t much more than a simple plaything for him, paying her attention and offering a share of his ill-gotten gains was all she seemed to be interested in."

"Was she bothered about leaving her son, Adam, behind? Somehow I doubt it. Did your grandfather ever mention his origins in Twinbrook? No? I didn't think so."

"Sinbad Rotter had it all planned out. He was getting a huge payout from his 'associates' and used that to keep Wanda sweet and onboard. But, you know what his masterstroke was? Having nearly half of that pot sent into Adam's own account. I don't doubt he and Wanda expected to come back and collect it but, as it turned out, they never did."

"And can you imagine that conversation Cleo? You beloved grandfather and his mother sat down one morning after she had destroyed Walter Fisk, somehow she would explain away this enormous sum of money Adam was suddenly going to have. How she and Sinbad were leaving Twinbrook to set up 'business' in some faraway place?"

"Newly graduated and about to make his way in the world, this kid from the swamps now had money to burn. And his mother was going to run off with her latest fancy man, to be honest, he probably expected it would have happened anyway."

"I would like to think that she had a moments doubt over what she was doing, but, y'know, I really don't."

"So, there it is Cleo. That fabulous piece of land you live on, that impressive mansion you now own, bought not through skill, or enterprise, or even simple hard work, but by the proceeds of fraud and deception. More than that; a deceit that destroyed not just Walter Fisk's business but also his family. My family!"

Realising that his story was coming to its conclusion, Cleo asked the question she had been waiting to get an answer to: "OK, so you're related to this 'Walter Fisk'? He lost his business, which is sad, but it happens ...”

"It happens!" Garett snorted. "Walter Fisk was my great-granddaddy, and he didn't just lose a business; his reputation, his family, was stolen. Sinbad Rotter was just a front-man, behind him was a corrupt cabal conspiring to take over ever major government contract not just in Twinbrook, but the entire county. The very criminals who were paying off Rotter were sat on the committees that handed out the city contracts. They weren't satisfied with a back-hander from the companies they employed, they themselves had bought companies they could give the work to ... they would get very penny the council paid out."

"But it wasn't just planning committees, they had influence over every aspect of life in Twinbrook, so my great-granddaddy had the papers, the police, the courts, everyone ranged against him. They wanted him destroyed."

"The police 'found' evidence of criminal conspiracy; the papers turned his foolish affair with Wanda Slade into a catalogue of debauchery and corruption. He had to sell the business for next to nothing but, worst of all, he never saw Anna again, and didn't even see his own son, Lewis – my grandfather – more than half-a-dozen times after they had left."

"Such was the shame my great-grammy felt she divorced Walter and reverted to her maiden name, Krist."

"Right," Cleo guessed she knew what this was all about now, "so you're after revenge for what happened to your great-grandfather, I understand that, but why my family? Weren't they just pawns in this, just like yours?"

"Sure, that's the simple view." Garett continued, "but I have made it my mission to repay everyone who played a part in that setup, that they get what is due to them. Do you know what happened to Anna and Lewis when they left Walter? Do you think life was easy for them? It was not! The Krists were not a wealthy family, far from it; they were barely any richer than the Slades back in Twinbrook and even if she would have accepted any of it, Walter's fortune was in his business, when they took that he had nothing to give anyway."

"My granddaddy, Lewis, never recovered from the shock of his parents splitting up, and even though he took his mother's maiden name, Krist, everyone around Twinbrook knew who he was, it was all over the papers, and no one ever gave him a chance."

"But, somehow, he made a living and got himself a wife; they had two children, Joanne and Oliver, and he was creating a life for himself when Joanne was murdered in a dirty backstreet by some addict. It tipped him over the edge; he died drunk and destitute at only 53 years old. But out of that, losing his sister and father, Oliver, my father, grew stronger; he'd heard gossip about what had happened to Walter and vowed to find the truth."

"Can you imagine, though, what that takes, one man against every power in the town? But he did it, he unearthed the truth, there were trials of some of the few old men still alive and he even traced Sinbad and Wanda. They had ended up halfway across the country in a place called Moonlight Falls. Sinbad died in a gangland shoot-out and Wanda, well, no one was quite sure, but they reckon she was attacked and killed by a pack of wild animals."

"The last piece of the puzzle was Adam. While my family was struggling in the gutter of poverty and disgrace, Adam Slade had escaped to Sunset Valley, using the spoils from my family's disgrace to make himself even richer and provide his family with a luxurious lifestyle mine couldn’t even dream of!"

"But the struggle to find the people who had destroyed my great-granddaddy took its toll. Even when he could find work, his constant focus on finding out what had happened always got him into trouble, constantly moving house, changing job, he gave up everything to clear our name and give me a future."

"We suffered, Cleo Slade, because of what your family did, we have suffered because someone broke into our family and ripped it apart – and by giving you a taste of that I can finally close this chapter and start restoring the honour of our name."

"Is that it? Revenge for something that happened generations ago? Is that what this is all about!" Cleo screeched; her normally placid features twisted by rage. A rage borne of anger at being deceived into having feelings for Garett, guilt for what she had done to Pascal, and what this would do to Danielle.

"Even if what you say is true, my grandfather was as much an innocent in this as yours. Just because ... just because some of the money was dumped on him ... how dare you blame him for what this Sinbad and the council did! You came here to wreck my life because a young man tried makes the best of what life handed out to him?"

"How dare you!"

"You speak of 'honour' Garett, there is nothing honourable in what you have done here. Whatever torments your family have been through is no justification for inflicting this on us after all this time."

Deflecting Cleo's verbal and physical assault Garett smiled tightly at her. "Oh, you can rationalise your distance from what happened in Twinbrook however you like but let's take it back to first principles - every action has an equal and opposite reaction or even an eye for an eye. This isn't simply revenge; this is 'just' retribution."

He paused, as if to say something more but, instead, Garett turned and started to walk away from Cleo.

The moment Garett turned his back on her, Cleo felt suddenly limp, the tightness in her stomach, across her chest and back released and she almost fell, crumpled, to the ground but she somehow had strength enough in her legs to keep herself upright. The rage at him she had felt just a few moment earlier turned into a crushing sadness; Yes, he had done this, deliberately inveigled his way into her family, but she had let him. If only she had been stronger, faithful ..."

Leaving the cemetery Garett took one final look back at the woman he seduced into betraying her family, a family he had ripped apart just as her great grandmother had done all those years ago. For the briefest of moments he felt sorry for her and, most especially, young Danielle; for what would follow from today. But then his thoughts turned, as they often did, back to the desperate, destitute, and squalid last months of his own father's life and knew that he would not, could not, have done anything else.

He didn't know what the future held for him, but Garett Fisk, son of Oliver, grandson of Lewis and descendant of Walter Fisk of Twinbrook was finally able to leave the past behind.


Authors Note: and so we conclude the "Generation 0" back story, so now, we can rejoin the legacy story where we left off all those months ago! :-)

Chapter 31: Expecting and the Unexpected