The next day as Kristine and Kassandra and their girlfriends look at the apartment
"I must say this is nicer than when we lived down the hall with mom, the apartments looks way bigger now" says Kristine
"I'm sorting out another apartment but your mother is excited to see you guys and she doesn't mind that you're gay, just don't make out in front of her, apparently PDA freaks her out big time" says Cat
"I'll take this one if you're willing to let me and my girlfriend Bianca live here" says Kristine
"absolutely, just make sure to check out the entire apartment first, it comes with everything, everything has been replaced, I have thirty days to swap anything with the store if you'd like something different, here's the rental agreement" says Cat handing them the rental agreement
"Bianca and I smoke weed and my sister and her girlfriend takes edibles, we all have medical weed cards, is this going to be a problem" asks Kristine
"so long as it's medicinal and kept inside the apartment, which includes the balcony I don't have a problem with it, the halls are out of bounds for smoking though, it was all just freshly reexpanded two days ago after the city demanded I restructure the main floor apartments before doing any more work" says Cat
"so we should expect noise daily, any soundproofing" asks Bianca
"for another three weeks yes, the bedroom has soundproofing insulation and drywall and the bathroom has the insulation but the rest of the apartment isn't sound proofed but sound leak resistant, I can't do more without significantly raising the rent" says Cat
"my sister is just shy and a tad paranoid, the last apartment she had leaked sound like hell and people recorded her a lot then sold the recordings, the bedroom being sound proofed is enough" says Hailey Kassandra's girlfriend
"the new rental agreement I have set to start when the construction is done states that 'any intentional recording of other tenants without their consent and distribution of the recording will result in termination of your rental agreement and eviction effective immediately upon my notification of such actions', I have zero tolerance for creeps, even low income creeps, any recording of tenants without consent is a crime" says Cat
"how's our sister, we heard she has memory issues because of a crash but uncle Richie says she's on edibles now, we know she lives here" says Kristine
"she's doing pretty good, up to a solid seven hours at a time, up from a max of five and a low of four, she's in a relationship now so she's likely going to be unavailable until the relationship strengthens enough to where she's comfortable" says Cat
"how's our mom" asks Kassandra
"ok but in financial ruin thanks to several disability aid malfunctions, her wheelchair is broken beyond repair and her prosthetics no longer fit right, she can't afford either so I'm helping her get replacements and Jade is paying her medical debt" says Cat
"mom doesn't exactly like handouts" says Kristine
"it's not a handout, all tenants here get benefits, if they're absolutely struggling to make ends meet I'm willing to help out, however I draw the line when someone buys something for entertainment before their medication gets paid for, lotto is entertainment first, its not a necessity, the girl across from your sister got hooked on lottery tickets and had started neglecting her health, she'd won a few thousand dollars once and believed that she would win it big, I told her I'd only help her pay her medication bill if she agreed to go to addiction counseling, she's gone every day and thanks me for helping her get back on track" says Cat
"when does buying lottery tickets cross the line, I'm a gambler of sorts myself" asks Hailey
"when you buy so many you can't pay your bills, if you can maintain your habit while paying bills on time I don't consider you an addict however a person's health will always come first" says Cat
"my sister once lost a hundred dollars on a coin flip because she's a statistics nerd and thought she understood the sheer randomness of coins flips, granted most of the time she is right but she's lost half her savings and is a recovering seriously addicted gamer, she's been clean for six months, my advice, don't help her if she falters" says Bianca
"I'll always offer to help the first time however if it becomes a recurring problem then I'll demand addiction counseling and rent up front, that goes for all tenants, even Maddison, she's a gamer at heart and that stuff gets expensive" says Cat
"do you game" asks Bianca
"I dabble in gaming when I feel a need to but I'm mostly a lounger and sun tanner kinda girl" says Cat
"ok we're ready to see our mom" says Kassandra as Kristine nods in agreement
"just remember, no kissing each other in public and if she needs space give it to her" says Cat
"absolutely" says Kristine
4 hours later with Maddison and Anne
"I'm not ready for Anne to move in with me" says Maddison
"why, what's worrying you" asks Cat as Anne seems nervous
"I'm just not ready" says Maddison
"your sister's are moving in, Kristine's in Markus's old apartment that I had completely renovated, they have girlfriends, the apartment may be the biggest but it's not big enough for all four of them, besides Anne loves spending time with you and Kassandra and her girlfriend need an apartment, they've finally recovered enough for the doctors at the facility in Thousand Oaks to let them back into the world on their own" says Cat
"I don't like that you're paying her to take care of me, make her the super here or something but don't pay her to take care of me, that won't make her my girlfriend, that would make her my caretaker" says Maddison clearly very upset about it
"the other tenants do seem to like working with her on issues they have but she specifically declined my offer for just that because she didn't want to make a ton more money than you, that guy can only pay so much, that's why I offered to pay her to make sure you eat, sleep and shower regularly, she cares so deeply for you Maddison" says Cat
"how much different is the income if she's the super" asks Maddison really adamant that Anne not be paid to take care of her
"you only get a grand, that pays for your rent and the tv and internet, that's about it and I had to work out deals with the internet and tv company to get you that deal, making Anne the super would mean she gets at least three grand a month, your uncle pays for your phone plans but Anne cleaning up both this floor of the apartment and trash on the street doesn't pay for food, not when the grocery store is a ten minute walk and she can't walk home with frozen food, it's just too hot these days, that's why I offered to pay her, she offered to do it for free but her making sure you eat, sleep and shower is literally keeping you out of the facility in Thousand Oaks, many people think the guy paying your rent, tv and internet has long ago paid you enough to make good on causing the crash that caused the memory issues and killed Franny and her family and they think you're just stealing his money now, for the record so long as you have memory issues he still believes in paying you so he will continue whether the judge tells him to stop or not and the judge is inclined to keep helping you make ends meet but you'll never qualify for any job as most, if not all are eight hour jobs and your memory isn't there yet and frankly I don't know if it ever will be fully, your mental health and brain chemistry was seriously affected, you should know that you only survived that crash because of a miracle clot, if you got in a crash today you'd never survive" says Cat
"what's a miracle clot" asks Maddison
"it's a clot with no known origin or known cause and it disappears on its own leaving little evidence it was even there, some last minutes but yours lasted three hours, it was there when you arrived at the hospital, the nurse noticed your face was flush, very red, like your entire head was full of blood, ten minutes later when they finally convinced a doctor to help the clot disappeared, that clot is also unfortunately the root cause of your recurring memory loss" says Cat
"so what you're saying is that God intervened to save my life and made me this way so I could be with Anne" asks Maddison
"I personally don't believe in any one God, I believe it's possible for God or Gods to exist but I've never had evidence outright proving they do, many doctors attribute miracle clots as the hand of God interfering with one's life" says Cat as Maddison's memory resets
"I want Anne to be the super here in your place and I won't take no for an answer" says Maddison, holding her head
"there's a pay gap Maddison, she doesn't want you to get upset about it" says Cat
"yeah I remember you said that" says Maddison as Cat looks shocked
"wait you do, this is new" says Cat
"last night she got way better, mind you if I were to leave for ten minutes and come back she'd likely forget but during an active ongoing conversation she can keep information through resets, luckily it also includes consent, however we were talking about wearing dresses this morning but I had to inform the tenants about when power would be returning in full force, which took about fifteen minutes and I came back and it was like she was talking in pig Latin, letters were all swapped around, good morning became mood groning, it took ten minutes for it to sort itself out" says Anne
"have you talked to her uncle about it" asks Cat as Maddison shakes her head no quite violently
"she's afraid the verbal mixups are a sign of mental decline, she's worried that if any doctor, even her uncle finds out about it that she'll be locked away at the facility in Thousand Oaks" says Anne
"oh sweetie, you won't be going away for verbal mixups, the transition from a few hours of continuous memory to several hours of continuous memory, it plays tricks on the brain and your brain chemistry isn't exactly robust enough yet to tell the difference between errant memories and real ones, even if you remember consenting to making love you have to sign another consent form if the sex continues over a memory reset, even if the signing happens after it has to be time stamped at the reset" says Cat
"so I'll always mess up words, I don't know if I'd consider that living" says Maddison upset
"these things always get worse before they get better, remembering things at all across memory resets is a good thing even if the information gets garbled, sometimes I've found when you can't say something that writing it down allows the information to sort itself out" says Cat
"you've dealt with this kind of thing" asks Maddison
"let's just say things between Tori and I haven't always been good, around high school graduation Tori and I had a big fight, I'm talking yelling and screaming and threatening to hurt each other bad, we didn't talk for two months then she set a date for a planned movie outing to talk things out and she cancelled last minute, I fled to Sicily and started getting paranoid, changing my phone number just about every week because I felt Tori had sent people to kidnap me, I was wrong but still, I'd believed it, I was even suicidal at times, living in Italy was actually my darkest time, admittedly it was awesome living there but sometimes my thoughts got dark, Jade was the only person I kept in contact with because I knew I could trust her" says Cat
"what's the beef with Tori and Lola, everyone's talking about it" asks Anne
"conspiracy and I'm not talking about it, I'm luckily Zoey even talks to me about anything, Lola wants absolutely nothing to do with her relatives, especially Tori's family, end of story, I'm trying to fix things and telling anyone specifics won't do me any good" says Cat
"ok, Anne can live with me, so long as you make her the super" says Maddison
"I can write up a contract tomorrow but you have to sign it too, Anne's worried about the pay imbalance and she's not willing to take the job if you don't like it" says Cat
"as long as she keeps buying the food she's been buying I don't really care, I've gained weight for the first time in seven years, so long as the contract doesn't make her a slave to some man I'll sign it" says Maddison
"that's never happening Mads, if she wants to be with you then that's what's happening, I don't believe in slaves, I never have and never will" says Cat
"don't mind her she's a bit paranoid, she had nightmares last night about me being enslaved my Markus, the nightmare has been toying with her all day, make it clear in the contract that I serve nobody but her and I only work for you" says Anne
"I'm not writing that you'll serve her, that's slavery talk and I won't have it" says Cat
"I'm sorry but if I could I'd marry her right now, I can't afford it though" says Anne
"that could be arranged but Maddison won't do a wedding, and given her mental health, the government wouldn't sign off on it without Richards consent" says Cat
"I don't need his consent" says Maddison
"legally speaking you do, in a surprise move Judge Jasper approved your request to make him your legal guardian, people are already worried that Anne's manipulating you, luckily nobody in this building but its getting around, having an outside moderator on your life at the moment is important" says Cat
"if it makes a difference I proposed with a gummy bear this morning and she said no" says Anne
"it's not a sign of unwillingness Anne, you'll find that the shape of the object matters more to Mads than the value of said item, besides being a ballerina, which if her memory gets good enough she can be one again, her favorite hobby was collecting rings, it didn't matter how cheap, as long a sit fit on her finger" says Cat
"how do you know this, I've never told anyone about my ring collection" says Maddison upset
"let's just say Franny's keeping an eye on you, has since the day she died and ever since I bought this place my friend who can speak to spirits says Francine been exceedingly active, asking a tone of questions and giving out information to prove she is who she says she is" says Cat
"is she sad that I've moved on" asks Maddison
"no, she's quite glad actually, she'd been afraid that you'd die alone with a million cats, I can get you in touch with my friend but she charges for video calls" says Cat
"I feel like she's lying then, the psychics I know don't charge anything" says Maddison
"she's struggling financially, you're only paying for the length of time you slot, not for the information she provides, the spirits take over when they're delivering the message and she retains none of it, her daughters filter everything, they're the ones who receive the emails, they filter out private information like names, addresses and anything else they deem to be private information, all my friend gets to know is the email address to send the video chat link to and that they paid for a certain amount of time, even then since I bought the building the moment I connect to the video chat Franny immediately takes over, anyway I have to go, I have an appointment" says Cat
"will there be any construction work today, I've been expecting them all day so far and nothing" asks Anne
"the crane operator was pretty badly injured in that crane fire, they're currently looking for a temporary replacement, the replacement they have can only operate up to the second floor as the main crane worker was training him so only the first two floors will be worked on this week, it might speed the timeline up" says Cat as she leaves
45 minutes later as Cat visits Zoey and Lola
"ugh I told you not to invite her Zoey, geez can you make a worse mistake" says Lola
"your assumptions about Tori and her family are based on the evils of one person on her side of the family" says Cat quite firmly
"what, proof do you have exactly" asks Lola
"Jade had a private investigator talk to yours and Tori's common uncle in prison, he specifically said that Tori, Trina and David are not like him in any way and shouldn't be penalized for his own perversions, Holly however he said was quite bad" says Cat
"and you expect me to believe him" asks Lola
"the state attorney was there and told him he'd get better meals for a week if he put this to rest, he was more than willing to tell the truth, he recorded a message for you and I'm playing it now" says Cat as she hits play on the recording
Lola, hate me not them, my evil actions do not make the rest of the family evil, Tori's dad wanted to kill me when he found out from your mother about what I'd done, I persuaded him to give me a trial, I knew I was guilty, I made no effort to defend myself or my actions but that doesn't make David, Tori or Trina evil, Tori's borderline autistic and Trina's has ADHD and an anxiety disorder, don't tear the family apart because of my actions, I'm serving my time and I won't be getting out ever, they're not evil I am, none of them knew about my plans, none of them have any interest in anything like what I did, I ask again that your hate be directed at me not them
"I'm not sure I believe a word he said" says Lola
"Tori's favorite childhood memories are spending time with you, Trina and Shelby on the beach, your hatred is turning her sour to all her childhood memories, you fail to see how volatile your hatred is, she's begun fighting with Trina again, I literally have to lock all my doors so Tori's locked in my house so she doesn't leave and hurt Trina" says Cat
"wait Tori's doing what" asks Lola, her tone softening
"you heard me, Trina only just got out of the hospital after Tori suckered punched her in the back, Trina was nearly paralyzed, she wants to adopt but anytime she brings up kids she flies into a fury, that car accident because of the earthquake changed her, sometimes I barely recognize her" says Cat
"I'll admit I do miss spending time with her and Shelby but if she's changed for the worse aggression wise I'm not sure apologizing in person is such a good idea" says Lola
"it's the only way to fix this Lola, besides she won't attack you, she's pretty much convinced herself you want her dead, I have go ask though, I've only ever heard scant mentions of Shelby Marx being related to you guys but Tori won't talk about her, something about bad blood between them" says Cat
"oh yeah her and Shelby aren't exactly on good terms, Shelly likes Carly or Sam, I can't remember which but apparently Tori laughed at her however Shelby has been known to exaggerate so it might have simply been an interested chuckle, Tori's been known to stare at Carly a bit now and then" says Lola
"she's always looked at girls, Carly objectively is pretty hot so I can understand it" says Cat
"does she still look at girls and if so are you okay with it" asks Zoey
"we both look but then again we're open to polyamory so it's not entirely a bad thing, Carly, Sam and you Zoey are the ones we tend to gravitate to" says Cat
"you know I'm barely related to Tori right, that uncle is the only person we have in common" says Lola
"what are you suggesting exactly because Tori won't accept anything without proof and evidence" says Cat suspicious about Lola's sudden turn around
"I'm like her ninth cousin, Shelby has more in common genetically with Tori than I do, part of my problem is I've always liked Tori, on and off in a romantic manner and its always bugged me until last year when my mom told me the Vega family adopted her and reintroduced her into the Spanish culture and we haven't been Vegas or Spanish genetically for at least eight generations, dad is the first in that length of time" says Lola
"Tori won't stand for a story, she'll want DNA proof oh and she won't believe this change of mind of yours, honestly I'm not sure I believe it myself" says Cat
"the anger is mostly towards Trina, her and I have never gotten along, she's the one that stopped Tori, Shelby and I from having those beach playdates as kids, Shelby and I both changed quite a bit because of it, we all took different paths, we'd planned to be a trio band deal if her sugar prince wish hadn't come true" says Lola
"so you don't actually hate Tori" asks Cat
"I mean not like I hate Trina or Holly, Holly's influence goes farther than you realize and she's quite the bad apple" says Lola
"what are you implying, that Holly's more than a cheater and a bad mother, because that we know" asks Tori
"she has zero interest in protecting children from pervs, it was a family reunion where uncle ick got a hold of me, she was supposed to be watching us, instead she was too busy trying to get my dad to cheat on my mom to notice I'd been taken to a bedroom by uncle ick, by the time she cared to check up on us uncle ick had already done what he wanted and returned me" says Lola
"did he rape you" asks Cat
"rape isn't the word I'd use but the doctors used it" says Lola
"then what would you call it" asks Cat
"I was molested, my therapist told me the difference" says Lola
"there's a problem with that, you told the court you were raped when your uncle ick was on trial" says Cat
"not if you read the original transcript of the trial, I said 'he molested me for fifteen minutes', the prosecutor then reworded it to say I meant he raped me for fifteen minutes to make it seem ten times worse for me than it was, it was still an extremely traumatic experience for me but he never pushed his stick inside me so legally it was never rape, traumatic none the less but not rape" says Lola
"I'm convinced you're telling the truth about all this but Tori won't even consider coming anywhere near you without a DNA test proving you're telling the truth, while you were in the hospital we'd come to visit Molly and Trina but the nurse at the nurses station said you were in the same room and Tori turned around and left basically dragging me out with her, she doesn't want to fight over anything" says Cat
"I already have the DNA test results, while I was in the hospital the doctors recommended it, mainly to see if I had any genetic disorders but I added the DNA comparison test to Tori because everyone says I look like her, her and I share less than one percent dna" says Lola showing Cat the results
"wait it says you could have a paranoia disorder" says Cat suddenly worried
"not confirmed for me but my mom has it so I know what it looks like and it's not me, it's only a risk not a sure thing" says Lola
"ok I'm calling Tori so she can see these for herself, I'll be right back" says Cat as she heads to the backyard to make a call
"I hate to say that I'm hopeful but I have my doubts Tori will agree to this" says Lola
"that's paranoia talking Babe, you may not show signs of the genetic paranoia disorder but you can be quite paranoid at times, Tori IS interested, I happen to know this for a fact, if anyone is going to pull Tori away from this it's Trina because of how hostile you were to her in the hospital, she was only concerned about you and you made her feel like crap, she won't let Tori be exposed to that so you better change real quick or our dreams will never happen" says Zoey
"I don't hate nor resent Tori, my mother made Tori and her family out to be criminals, I've always suspected that she was being paranoid about it but nobody ever confronted me about it to show me the truth so I had nothing to go on" says Lola
"your hostility to them is what kept them away" says Zoey
"I was trying to keep my mother in line, it wasn't until after the hospital fight with Trina that we got the go ahead to move out, I didn't really have a choice, my mom's quite protective of me because of uncle ick, she was actually quite hostile towards you until recently, I'm just glad we're currently renting a week at a time, the quakes alone scare me, I've never had so many big quakes in such a short time frame in my life" says Lola as a small tremor starts
"the fault has been quite active I'll give you that but then again all natural events are up, we've gotten more rain in the past year than we have the ten years before that, at least we don't get Hurricanes here, where I grew up in Louisiana we would barely rebuild from the last one only to get another, my elementary school was destroyed twice, my roof ripped off half a dozen times, I'll take quakes over hurricanes any day" says Zoey as Cat returns
"Tori's agreed to a trial period, three weeks long and you'll be getting another DNA test to see if the shared DNA number stays the same, for her comfort mostly, she feels you look too much like her for it to be a coincidence" says Cat
"she'd be surprised how many of us girls in the Vega family tree look alike, I've been in four films since graduating from PCA and I've had ten stunt doubles that ended up being genetically related" says Lola
"that doesn't exactly bode well for you Lola, she's not exactly a fan of most of her relatives because of Shelby" says Cat
"I thought it was a simple misunderstanding" says Lola confused
"yeah no, last year Shelby lost her first fight in a long time, it was so bad she was in the hospital, her one phone call out of the hospital was to Tori, she wanted to quit the MMA and find a way to Carly because Carly had apparently promised her a date and she had nothing to lose, Tori laughed because she hasn't talked to Carly or her family in years, Carly had changed numbers and lives in Italy full time, even for me with all my connections only got a hold of her once, she's not very sociable" says Cat
"so you could theoretically get Shelby in contact with her" asks Lola
"she's protected, my aunt married the Italian prince and while the Italian royal family doesn't hold much power they have the ability to protect any citizen who hadn't committed a crime, I had to jump through a dozen hoops just to get in contact with Carly, she's gone total isolationist, as far as I know Carly isn't accepting any calls, I don't even know where she lives just that she has a pool" says Cat
"trust me it's dire, Shelby quit fighting last month and her medical debt has her in literal debt, she has nothing really keeping her alive except for the hope of a date with Carly, even if it's a one off date with no second date, girls genuinely scare her" says Lola
"I can make an effort but I don't make any promises, as for Tori, the sooner you get the second confirmed DNA test proving less than one percent DNA shared you can come over for an at home date" says Cat
"we don't know where you live, we just know you and Tori live together" says Zoey
"get the test then I'll give you the address, people not knowing where I live is kind of the point, I bought the house under an assumed name, my experience in Italy, while nice had its creepy moments, people would trespass just to get a picture of me, mind you WITHOUT my consent or knowledge, thirty times I had to file lawsuits against them, to the point where I rented my basement to the lawyer working for me because sometimes I'd get home to someone IN my pool, camera ready to snap me changing as most of the back wall of my house was glass as I tended to hold parties with my models after a big show, after the last lawsuit win I had a custom solar powered micro or mini yacht designed and made and I've lived in it until moving here, it's actually pretty fun" says Cat
"ok we have to see that" says Zoey
"not until the second DNA test results get here" says Cat
"ok I'm sure Tori's waiting for you to get home" says Lola
"actually she's a bit moody today and wanted some time alone, I guess if you guys want to go now we can go for a ride on the yacht" says Cat
"wait really" asks Zoey
"paid trip of course as you're not dating Tori and I yet" says Cat
"what about the apartment building, how's that going" asks Lola worried that accepting an invite to the yacht will cross a line with Tori
"it's going great but I'm not talking about it, half the tenants are kids who were put there by the government after being literally abandoned so their safety means a lot to me" says Cat
"word of advice on Anne, she can be very aggressive at times" says Zoey
"how do you know her" asks Cat
"she's family, whether her parents care about her or not she's still part of my family, while I don't agree with how her parents went about it she was putting her little sister in danger, granted her little sister was actually her little brother and is trans and Anne was actually trying to help her but her family didn't care about it and intentionally took her meds away from her so I don't know if Anne has them back yet or not, otherwise I'd have visited" says Zoey
"she knows her sister is looking for her but doesn't know how to get a hold of her and she can't afford to take care of her anyway" says Cat pulling them out to her car