3.26 Trust

Fabian couldn’t be more delighted about Ada.

And Zahra couldn’t walk near him without getting a dose of what he thought of her.

He told everyone who would listen, over and over again, that he’d never been happier in his life.

Soon, it was Ada’s birthday

She grew into a vivacious little toddler with wisps of her father’s jet-black hair and the light green eyes — Susie’s light green eyes — that both parents shared.

Her first word was “play.”

But she meant something different than her parents assumed.

Fabian was working long hours as a beat cop, and even when he wasn’t working he was pulled off to work-related events like hangout time with Hank Goddard and the others at the diner. He spent a lot of time with his family, but as the long days of maternity leave crept on, Zahra began to feel his absence. When she wasn’t watching Ada, she was in the garden. Every day, she brought armloads of produce into town to sell to the farmer’s market.

It was there that she saw two people whispering to each other and casting her strange looks.

“What?” she demanded. “You’ve never seen fresh flame fruit before?”

“You’re Fabian Branch’s wife, aren’t you?” one of the asked.

“Sample,” she said, looking down her high-bridged Egyptian nose at them. “He took my name.”

“And I assume you’re all right with his… extracurricular activities?”

Zahra’s eye’s widened. “His what?”

She was waiting for Fabian when he came home from work.

“Agnes Crumplebottom! You’ve been seen with THE Agnes Crumplebottom? Behind my back!”

Fabian was dumbfounded. “Wha… huh? I what?”

“Don’t play stupid with me! You haven’t even been trying to hide it. People talk.”

Then it seemed to sink in.

“Oh my God, Zahra. I’m so sorry. It’s not how you think!”

“All right, then, how do I think, and how is it different?”

Fabian was silent.

Zahra’s throat caught. “Are you seeing her?”

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I love you. I love Ada. I never meant to do anything to hurt you.”

Zahra couldn’t even cry. Her voice was flat when she answered. “And it never occurred to you that cheating on your wife would hurt your family.”

“I….” He just stopped, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.”

Fabian was exhausted from a hard day of work followed by a harder evening, and he fell asleep immediately. Zahra just stood there staring at him, unable to face being so physically close to the man she had trusted absolutely.

She went downstairs to find Ada.

What would become of them now? What kind of future could she possibly have with her beloved daughter’s father?

After a while, she couldn’t think anymore.

The big decisions would have to wait until tomorrow.

(Oooookay. So the way this runs out on the other side of the computer screen is like this:

Aww. Fabian and Zahra are so cute together. And it’s sweet that he’s been waiting for her all this time! Let’s look in his relationship bar. Oh, I guess he wasn’t just pining away. There’s a heart under Agnes Crumplebottom. Sly dog. I guess they had a thing before he got hitched.

Hmmm. Didn’t I read something about the Generations patch doing something with romantic reputation? Those leftover romantic interests can really screw up your PC characters’ marriage. I’m supposed to do something about it then. How do you get rid of a romantic interest? Things seem to be going fine, so I’ll just have him call her up one day and…

OH CRAP.)

0 thoughts on “3.26 Trust

  1. Oh wow! That was unexpected. Poor Zahara.

    Oh an unrelated note, I love the picture of Ada's birthday. Fabian and Kate are going crazy and Zahara's like 'It's just a baby…' I always find birthdays in the game hilarious.

  2. This really freaked me out when it happened. Fabian hadn't actually seen or spoken to Agnes since he joined the household, and I had no idea that it would trigger an "Accuse of Cheating" interaction. You can't cancel these things, and they're hard to recover from. Basically, their relationship drops through the floor, and Zahra gets a -50 Betrayal moodlet. Fabian's has to talk to her over the five days and raise their relationship, but she gets mad if he tries any romantic interactions and bored if he does many high-level Friendly interactions. If he doesn't succeed, she'll divorce him, and that's not an interaction the player can cancel either.

    But I'll just keep on with the story and let you see how it works out.

  3. Oh.That's something nobody would have thought of…. poor Zahra. I hope that they make it through that phase! Her and Fabian are such a cute couple, really.
    To get rid of a romantic interest, you have to make your sim talk to that person(so here to Agnes Crumplebottom) and then choose one of the "mean" options, which should be something like "ask to be just friends". (Sorry, just translated that, so it might be called something different, but it should have that meaning!) Then your previous romantic interest usually gets mad at you, but the interest is over.

  4. I did figure out how to end the relationship with Agnes later, but Zahra still had the Betrayal moodlet, and Fabian was still on a 5-day probation to save his marriage. It made for interesting story anyway.

  5. Just catching up on reading this (love your story!) and I had to comment… when this happened to my Trixi and VJ I was completely caught off guard! I had no idea that could happen. And everyone hated him for what seemed like forever. I'm not sure they would have recovered, but his untimely death at least made them think more kindly of him.

    I love Zahra and Fabian together! I hope they work it out.

  6. Welcome! I'm so glad you came by to read!

    Did you ever find out who VJ was supposed to be having an affair WITH? Did he have any leftover romantic interests? It seems like yours hit a long time after Fabian and Zahra's cheating incident, since your characters had already made three babies.

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