"What do you mean you just couldn't do it?" Regina demands, not happy with Regan's failure to seduce Donovan and get caught by his wife.
"I don't like this scheming. Why can't you just talk to Alison about Donovan?" Regan didn't tell Regina what Donovan told her, that Alison already believes he's cheating on her and has chosen to stay with him anyway. That isn't her story to tell, but perhaps Alison would open up to her sister if asked.
Regina sighs, "Alison and I have never been close. Now she won't even talk to me."
"Then maybe you should let this go," Regan answers coldly, beginning to suspect that it isn't sisterly concern that motivates Regina, but simple revenge against Donovan. "Consider your niece, any money that falls into Donovan's hands through Alison's inheritance will go to their daughter." Regina isn't pleased with this answer, but cannot convince Regan to aid her in her plans, and a cold distance comes between the cousins who had long been best friends.
Harlan dies a few days after Saranya passes. Death chose an embarrassing moment to visit, but at least the bathroom was sparkling clean.
Without Regina, Regan has no other friend she feels comfortable enough to cry with except Donovan. He comes as soon as she calls for him, and offers his consolation. She's avoided him since their last meeting because she knows his nearness, his touch, would ignite her love for him, and even though she is grieving, that is exactly what happens.
"I love you," she sighs, holding him, "I want to be with you."
"You're upset about your father, and lonely. I won't take advantage of that," he answers. "I'm here for you, as a friend. We can talk about love another time."
'Another time' is not long in coming. Regan has had other lovers, but none have been to her what he is, and though he's married to another, she's not going to go without him any more.
Though his wife suspected this affair before it had begun, that didn't give him license to carry it on in public view. He'd visit her house when Alison was busy elsewhere, putting up a charade of a platonic friend while her children were awake, only behaving like a lover when they were asleep. The charade became more difficult to maintain as Lauren became a teen.
Lauren was quick to figure out what was going on between her mother and Donovan Landgraab. Her mother was irresponsible and self-indulgent, and Lauren mostly expected the worst from her. All she had of her father was a few snapshots her mother had taken of him in France, but Lauren just knew that if only he were here, things would be different. He would be around for her when she needed him, not focused on some lover rather than his own child.
Regan's career in the restaurant business kept her away from home in the evenings, and caring for little Tao Zu became Lauren's responsibility. More than anything, Lauren looks forward to the day she graduates from high school and can move out of this house, and be responsible for only her own life, not her mother's.
Sometimes she gets so frustrated by it all, she lights fires in the house. Her grandmother, Saranya, the former Fire Chief, had so thoroughly fireproofed the house that nothing ever burns for long or takes any real damage. But, Lauren doesn't give up. Maybe someday she'll get lucky and the whole thing will come down in flames.
Lauren's one consolation through her trying teenage days is her boyfriend, Tracey Wolff. He has his own dark streak, and likes to steal things. The fact that he's a Wolff means they share ancestry, as all Wolffs descend from her great-great-grandfather Thornton Wolff, but the relation is by now distant enough that no one would remark on their pairing.
When he was very young, Tao Zu believed Donovan Landgraab was his father, and longed for paternal attention from him that never came. The pictures his mother showed him of his actual father never seemed real, until he grew up enough to see his father's face looking back at him in the mirror. The hair color was wrong of course, as were his green eyes, but his features closely matched the pictures of the Chinese man. Tao Zu eventually grew to hate Donovan Landgraab, though he couldn't pinpoint a reason why.
Tao Zu's friend Regan Goth knows exactly why he hates his 'uncle' Donovan, and every time he visits the McDermott house, he hopes to run into him and force a confrontation. His beautiful face is a curse, because his mother despises the man that gave it to him. Though Donovan is married to his aunt Alison, Regan has never met the man himself, as Regina and her sister are estranged and their families do not meet.
(Challenge Notes: The 'Perfect Children' requirement is almost fully achieved. Lauren got all hers in and Tao Zu just has to get one more promotion in his part time job to fulfill his end. I decided early on that Regan's younger child would be the heir, mostly because I prefer to have no younger siblings leftover from previous the generation when my heir takes command. I did make an exception for Saranya, because of the red hair. I was tempted a few times to do that again for Lauren, as I do like her quite a lot, but my next gen rolled single parent again, and I've done that twice with female heirs. I've never had a male heir at all, and I'm up for some variety. The 'runs in the family' trait that Lauren and Tao Zu share is Adventurous, which is meh. It doesn't do much for their personalities either way, except for the stupid idle animation and the possibility of wants to travel that won't be likely to get fulfilled. But it's what I rolled. Lauren has the Pyromaniac trait, from being descended from a firefighter. Unfortunately, the trait only allows you to start fires at home. I was going to have Lauren start a fire at school, but there was no option for that. Regan and Tao Zu have Immune to Fire from Saranya.)
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