Chapter 3.11

Though Esmerelda was the official head of the family, and in charge of the Thief branch of the family business, it was her brother Tristan who was ominously known as “The Leader” within their organization of criminals. He now bore the title that once belonged to his mother: The Emperor of Evil.

In fact he was so involved in his work running their underground crime network that he forgot it was his birthday!

He had now entered the last stage of his life, though still with so much to do! His niece and successor, Aurora was getting close to completing her training to step into his shoes, but she wasn’t there yet and Tristan was determined to see her as prepared as possible to take command before he drew his last breath.

The next generation of criminals were growing fast. Aurora’s youngest child, Ebony, was now a toddler.

She was very cute and mischievous, and she loved her big brother Jet.

He was very patient with her, playing endless games of peek-a-boo.

It wouldn’t be long until the children of the family, first Isla and then Jet, would be teenagers. Despite his obsessive working hours, Tristan still took time each day to spend with his daughter. Being a genius, Isla was always able give her father a challenge when they played chess or dominoes together.

Even though they all lived in the same house, the adults of the family were all so busy with working and skill building that it was rare for the majority of the family to be able to spend time together. The Sunday morning of Aurora’s birthday, however, found a good portion of the family enjoying the lovely warm weather out on the deck.

Israel was out that morning down at the theatre signing autographs. He had become very successful in his career and a music composer and he had written the soundtracks to several major motion pictures.

When he came home though, they decided to move the domino table and add two more chairs so that he and Jet could join in to play a 4-way game with Tristan and Isla.

They played all afternoon until the guests began to arrive for Aurora’s birthday party.

Since none of them had any friends outside of the family, the guests were the usual crowd of Aurora’s younger sister Celeste and her boyfriend Tyree, and Aurora’s twin Alec and his wife Ann.

Ann was now working as a magician and had come to the party straight after work in rather unusual attire!

Israel was always glad for a chance to catch up with his daughter. Although Celeste had originally planned to only move out of home temporarily, it had now been several years that she had been living with Tyree, and she certainly had no plans of moving back into the family home.

Everybody gathered in the kitchen as Aurora brought out the cake.

This is it, she thought as she blew out the candles, time to say goodbye to my youth and beauty forever…

But of course, she aged up into an Adult as beautiful as ever.

The extended family left shortly after finishing their cake.

Luckily Aurora’s partner Derek lived in the house and didn’t have to drive anywhere that evening – he may have drunk a little more than he should have.

Just one more…

A mess of plates and glasses were left scattered around the dining room after the party.

After her birthday, Aurora splurged and spend a good portion of the family’s funds in purchasing not one, but two cars! Luckily most of the adults in the family were working in high paying jobs, so she knew they would be able to earn the money back again quickly.

The double garage had been added to the house many, many years earlier when Aurora had only been a toddler, and the family had always talked about buying a car “one day”.

Well that day had come, and Aurora was the proud owner of a blood red Infiniti Coupe.

She also bought a glossy black Chevy Corvette for Jet and Isla to learn to drive in when they became teenagers.

Aurora, Tristan and Esmerelda spent much of their time at home working in the secret room off Tristan’s study that Jet and Isla had discovered a few months back.

They had added the room, building into the roof of the house, shortly after Tristan and Aurora had foiled Jade Racket’s attempt to take over the Organization and  murdered her for her betrayal. The secret room, and the vast arsenal of weaponry they had hidden in there, was their back-up in case of another attempted coup or any other attack against their family. Should they find themselves unable to access the criminal warehouse for any reason, their crime network could still be run from this very room.

Tristan, who had a very high mechanical skill level, was working on a device that the others jokingly referred to as his the “brain machine”.

Tristan theorized that, once working, his machine could force the person sitting in it to tell the truth. If the person in the chair lied then the device could tell and the person would experience a blast of intense pain. However it was still a work in progress, and Aurora was rather leery of it. Even if her uncle did get it working properly, she hoped they would never have to use it!

They often spent many hours at a time in the dim, stuffy room, with only one tiny window set high up in the wall. There was always more heists to plan and orders to be given. It often became stifling for Aurora as she plotted and schemed with her mother and uncle until she felt like her head would explode. She couldn’t wait until her children were old enough to assist with the running of the Organization.

When she had to get out and get some fresh air, she’d drag Tristan out with her. Left to his own devices he’d work himself to death.

Their criminal empire was growing at a rapid rate thanks to Tristan’s efforts, but Aurora only hoped, as it expanded and clawed its way into every corner of Twinbrook and beyond, that it wouldn’t grow into something so vast that it was beyond their ability to control…