In the next few months, Ezela began to make the house her own. She mopped up puddles from broken pipes, sweeped away the dust, and cleaned up animal droppings.
She weeded and watered the huge, clearly abandoned garden in the back that was so big it was more like a vineyard then a garden. Her unfamiliar fingers found a place in the dirt and weeds and dry leaves, and she found it comforting to revive a shriveled shrub to a lush bush, glowing with health and heavy with fruit.
Ezela got a loan from the bank per Mr. Paul's instructions. She bought herself new clothes, individual outfits. For the first time in her life, she had more than one shirt and pair of pants.
She looked into the mirror and saw herself for the first time, although it was also like staring at herself hiding in a stranger's skin. A stranger who might just be the child of a starlet, the heiress of an entire island.
A whole new world of freedom seemed to have been opened. Free time, to do different
frivolous things that could actually be called hobbies, activities she didn't do for anything but entertainment. The freedom was intoxicating.
But Ezela still felt far from carefree. She came to learn that the photograph of the woman- her
mother- was not one of its kind. They were all over the house, in every room. Every night, as she tried to go to sleep, she had the same icy, violet gaze on her everywhere she tossed and turned in her bed, covering her like an icy blanket.
The court case came sooner than she could have thought. It seemed as though only the day after she first arrived in Angel Falls, she was sitting in the middle of the courtroom, sitting next to Mr. Paul and surrounded by a meagre jury that looked as if they would rather be
anywhere else but on jury duty.
Hopefully, Ezela peered around the room hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious Mr. Dasilva.
I just need to see him, let him see me. Maybe he'll know... but as she glanced from person to person, she realised just how empty the courtroom seemed.
There was a winter pale, lovely blond lady who looked as if she would be taking notes and managing legal papers to review back to later. Within the shuffles of paper in one folder, Irene's picture surfaced again, causing Ezela to shiver. It wasn't right to feel so haunted by her own mother. It just wasn't right.
And then there was the attractive, elegant lawyer, who already seemed to be trying to strike a deal with the judge. She had a arrogant and clever air about her that made Ezela sure that she knew a loophole when she saw one, and could use her words to slide out tight positions as easily as a cat slinking through a hole in a fence to get what she wanted.
The judge herself was a woman in her sixties, with a demeanor that made her seem both fair, extremely intelligent, and strict.
None of the people in the room appeared to be Mr. Dasilva. Ezela's heart sank, although she knew that him not being present in court would be more to her advantage. Where was he?
The Judge and the lawyer finally seemed to reach an agreement, the judge with a grudging look of exasperation, the lawyer a haughty look of triumph.
"Mr. Dasilva is......... indisposed at the moment." the judge said in a peeved way after bringing the court to attention. "So his lawyer, Ms. Seraphine will apparently speak for him." she said, turning to look at the lawyer in a quiet challenge.
The lawyer, Ms. Seraphine seemed unfazed by the older woman's reproachful look, and smirked. "
Thank you, Your Honor. Yes, as Judge Fraeler said, I will act for my client. And my first act will be to call up the accused embezzlers for questioning." she said, smiling a slow, cruel smile.
Alarms went off in Ezela's head.
Accused embezzlers? But we never were accused of embezzlement! Embezzlement how? This isn't a criminal trial, it's determining inheritance! Ezela could no longer think straight. Why hadn't they openly accused her before? Could she possibly even go to jail if the case took a wrong turn? Mr. Paul, without even leaning over or looking at her, whispered, "Seraphine is trying to get you off guard, make you unsure of your own story. She will try to intimidate you.
Don't let her."
Don't let her intimidate me? I'm not even sure of what I'm supposed to tell her, how am I not supposed to be intimidated?
Ms. Seraphine slowly walked up to the desk Mr. Paul and she were sitting at. She placed her manicured hands on the table top in front of Mr. Paul. But she didn't look at him, but at Ezela with a steady, challenging glare. "First witness, sir." she said in a quiet, cold voice, clearly speaking to Mr. Paul but not tearing her gaze from Ezela. Thankfully, as Mr. Paul stoically made his way up to the witness stand, she turned her attention to him.
"You were Ms. Angelin's source to the island, correct?" Ms. Seraphine said in a seemingly casual tone with icy undercurrents. "You are the one who alerted her of her supposed
inheritance." It wasn't a question. Ezela held her breath, sensing a trap. "Yes." Mr. Paul deadpanned in an emotionless, though sure voice, as if he saw whatever trap she was setting and saw a weak spot in it.
Ms. SeraphineEzela's heart stopped beating. Mr. Paul had said that he had not been aware of her existence until a while ago. Had he lied? Was she.... really in the middle of an embezzlement scam?
Ms. Seraphine continued, her voice rising more and more methodically, to raise the anger of the jury and judge. "These were not social calls. You have been contacting Sunset Valley-
who you were contacting, there is no absolute confirmation- about this case for years. You've been planning to steal the Angelin' fortune from my client since Irene's death! You have slunk under the radar for nearly sixteen years, to avoid detection of your scam, not participating in town affairs, not purchasing anything from the island so you could not be tracked." She smirked again. "But you were tracked. You tried to be as unremarkable as possible, but you still purchased a plane ticket to Sunset Valley more than once. The first time, two years after Irene's death, in August I believe. A large span of time went by, and then, about four years ago, you went again. And only four months ago, you left the island, again." She leaned in like a shark smelling fresh blood. "And you came back with a scruffy, homely teenage girl with sketchy birth records, the state as her guardian, who has lived in Sunset Valley, an unremarkable town, her whole life, who claims to be the long lost daughter of a deceased sex symbol."
"And so you are implying that I have been conspiring with Ms. Angelin'- a mere fifteen year old girl- since the time she was two years old, training her to rob what you say is rightfully your client's inheritance?" Mr. Paul said incredulously. "It seems to me that you are trying to grasp for unimportant details to accuse us of embezzlement to simply keep her from inheriting the fortune. And as far as I know," he continued coolly, "this is not a trial. It is a case determining Ms. Angelin's parentage and the question of her inheritance." Ms. Seraphine looked at him with frustration she quickly hid with distaste. He had avoided her pitfall as easily as Jesus had kept from drowning as he walked on water. "If this is all about Ms.
Angelin' then, let her come speak for herself." she snarled. Ezela's heart stopped again, and then began beating much too fast as Mr. Paul stood and looked at her, his blank expression telling her to do the same.
As she stood and began to walk slowly toward the witness stand, she passed Mr. Paul returning to his seat. She looked to him seeking guidance, comfort. He was the only one she knew. He never met her gaze, didn't give her a reassuring touch, didn't let his stony expression change in anyway. He simply murmured, barely audibly, "
Remember what I told you."
Remember what he told me, remember what he told me. Crud. What did he tell me? In her nervousness Ezela couldn't remember, when his impossible advice floated back to her panicking brain.
She will try to intimidate you. Don't let her. Mr. Paul had not let himself be intimidated. In fact, he had intimidated her. He had made her accusations sound irrational, as if she were a child throwing a tantrum.
That's what lawyers do, I guess. Ezela thought.
They make you feel smaller than them and your thought-out argument stupid. She gulped and took her seat at the witness stand, feeling as if she were sitting in the electric chair and Ms. Seraphine was the executioner.
"Now, young lady," Ms. Seraphine said in a demoting voice, as if she were cruelly speaking to a small child, "why don't you tell us where you have been the last fifteen and a half years?" Ezela tried to swallow, then open her mouth but couldn't push the words out.
"Well?" Seraphine growled. "Are you too incompetent to answer one simple question? Or are you afraid you'll give you'll let something slip?"
Ezela felt an unfamiliar pang of anger. "
No." she replied with surprising disdain. "I have been in Sunset Valley my entire life, or as long as I remember. I can vouch for my lawyer and advisor that had never seen him before in my life, nor had any connection to him before three months ago." she said, answering the question with surprising strength that was fueled by her anger.
"We have no proof saying anything that you said is true! Your Honor, I ask- no, I
demand that you have these thieves tried for attempted misappropriation of the Angelin' fortune! You may be very well
allowing her to commit the theft of the century!"
"I have been alone my entire life. No one raised me, and I had no one to take care of me after the age of five. I was apparently in the care of the state, but they flaked and forgot about me. After I was thirteen, I had to take care of myself even more, get one of the meagre part time jobs just to feed myself, while at the same time studying for college SAT's. I have been starved, bullied, abandoned, homeless, fondled against my will, and abused, and nobody ever told me why. If I had not been brought here when I was, I probably would have starved to death or died from exposure" She looked at Ms. Seraphine. "Don't you think that someone who was being trained for 'the theft of the century' would have been better taken care of so she would be alive to comply?"
A deafening silence had overtaken the courtroom. You could have heard a pin drop. Every bored jury member was now with rapt attention. The silence was broken by Seraphine's suppressed scream of frustration. "Your-"
"That is quite enough." Judge Fraeler interrupted another one of Seraphine's outbursts. "Ms. Seraphine, I only allowed those two confrontations to happen to get different prospectives of the matter. As was stated earlier, this is not a criminal trial. I will allow no more outbursts. This case cannot afford to go "loosey goosey."' Judge Fraeler rubbed her eyes tiredly. "I think that we will be going in circles without Mr. Dasilva here in person. I declare an adjournment of the case until we can schedule another meeting. Ms. Ryce will contact you all in a weeks time telling you when we are to return here and finish the case." she nodded to the blond woman. "Mr. Dasilva will be here next time or I shall have to cancel this case." she said pointedly to Ms. Seraphine. "Oh, he will be there, Your Honor." Ms. Seraphine said coldly, glaring so harshly at Ezela she felt like she was going to burn up and shrivel into dust. "Case dismissed." Judge Fraeler said wearily.
As the courtroom disassembled, Ezela whispered to Mr. Paul, "What is she going to do?" Mr. Paul looked at her for the first time since they had entered the courtroom. With his face still blank, he said, "Anything that she thinks will make you lose."
**********
So, YAAAAAY!!! SIMS WITHOUT GLITCHES!!!! THANK YOU DOODLEDOG!!!!!! I did my best to recreate everyone, and added some CC she had. Don't you just LOVE Ezela's new skin??? UNFORTUNATELY, Doodledog's PC didn't download Ezela's house, so I kinda had to wing it in the Joneses mansion. And her computer totally freezes every time it plays with Angel Falls, so that was nixed too. And her PC is stupid when it comes to blogging too. That's why the format is slightly messed up at the beginning. I was up till almost 2 am at her house trying to finish, so that's why the first half of this post is kinda shaky. I was tired, okay??? Just to clarify some things:
1. YES that window really was floating behind Ms. Seraphine when she was yelling at Mr. P (LOL, I totally forgot I had moveobjects on and didn't notice till' afterwards.
2. NO, Irene Angelin's death does NOT count as fulfilling the death in this generation, as she died before the start of the story, so YES, another/several more person/people are going to die in this generation. WHO WILL IT BE???
3. YES, that IS Harley Seraphine from the Seraphine Legacy. When I was making the people for the courtroom scene, the game generated her as Harley because Doodledog had downloaded her, and I was like, YES. So Crazy Harley became a Scary Lawyer.
4. YES, Doodledog IS the the most awesome person on the face of the earth. Love you, Doodledog!!! :D
5. NO, you will NOT survive the night if you read and don't comment about what you think will happen next. (LOL, JK.... OR AM I??? This generation's death could be YOU.)
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