Sims 2 Tales

On Christmas morning Adelaide called William and Mrs Jones into the dining room for breakfast and took a deep breath.

Barely able to keep the excitement from her voice, Adelaide began: "William, Mrs Jones, you may have noticed that for a number of weeks I’ve been not quite myself. I didn’t mention anything to either of you as I hoped that I would feel better again shortly, but when I started to feel worse I decided that I should visit the doctor."

Pausing for a few moments, Adelaide noticed the worried looks passing between her husband and Mrs Jones.

"Oh dear, I can see that I’m going to have to get to the point!" she laughed, "Dr Mortimer told me that I’m perfectly well, and that I’ve been feeling off-colour because I’m expecting our first child - he or she should arrive towards the end of June."

The look of joy - and relief - on William’s face was just what Adelaide had been hoping for.

"I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present!" he exclaimed as he rushed over to his wife.

The remainder of Adelaide’s pregnancy was trouble-free and in mid-June - slightly earlier than expected - she gave birth to a son, Nicholas.

William was very proud to be a father, and adored his son. Every time Nicholas whimpered - even if he was just dreaming - William rushed to his cradle to make sure that he was not in any bother. He spent hours reading to him and just watching over him, and Adelaide couldn’t have been happier when she saw how much their son was loved by his father.

Unfortunately things were set to change for the family later that summer. William went to work as normal one morning in late August, but due to his office’s increasing workload he was required to stay behind and work for an extra hour or two that evening.

Everyone else had gone home by 5pm, leaving William alone to finish the accounts he had been working on that week. All of a sudden he was startled by a noise outside, and he thought he’d seen someone run past his window. "What can that be?" he thought to himself as he closed the ledger and went to investigate.

William had expected to find some of the local street urchins playing tag, but the sight that greeted him was much less friendly. A tall, blonde-haired man with a badly scarred face was standing outside the office, and scowled menacingly at William as he opened the door.

"Is there something I can help you with?" William asked nervously as the man approached him.

"You help me? That’s rich, considering it’s because of you that I’m out of work and forced to live on the streets!" bellowed the man.

Terrified, William backed towards the office.

"I’m very sorry for your situation, but I don’t understand how I am the cause," he replied, hoping that he could find a way of calming the man."

"Oh, he doesn’t understand, so of course it’s not his fault!" spat the man, "I suppose you forgot that you were responsible for my employer having to shut down and stand us workers off. Most of us have young families and had to work all the hours going to feed the little ‘uns, but you found something in the boss’ paperwork that you just had to report didn’t you! Now we have to scrounge for food and a few bob just to keep a roof over our heads, while the likes of you sit pretty and feast every night. Well I’m going to teach you a lesson you won’t forget in a hurry!"

For over half an hour William tried to reason with the man, who stubbornly refused to name his former employer and the nature of his work. Although he was generally a very patient man, William soon became exasperated with the man’s ravings and realised that the problem would not easily be resolved.

"I’m very sorry, but until I know who you were employed by I cannot possibly help you. The office has been very busy these past few weeks, but if you could come back tomorrow morning when the senior partner will be available, perhaps we can find a way of settling any dispute you have. Now I must bid you good evening," William said more politely than he was feeling.

After locking the office door for the night, William began to walk back to his carriage. "Adelaide will be getting worried, and Nicholas will be asleep by the time I get home," he thought to himself angrily as he walked past the man.

Unfortunately the man was not satisfied with William’s suggestion to call back in the morning, and started to drag him back towards the office.

"Think you can trick me into accepting a sweetened up apology from your boss do you? Words mean nothing when you’ve got no way to feed and clothe yourself. I want this settled now, do you hear me!"

Before William knew what was happening, the man was shoving and punching him, swearing to make him pay for his suffering. All William could do was take the blows and hope that the man would give up once he realised that his current actions would do no good - he was much stronger than William, so attempting to fight back would be fruitless.

As the scuffle continued, William lost his balance and staggered backwards toward the flower beds.

"This is a waste of time!" cursed the man, who quickly fled into the now dark alleyways.

Falling to the ground, William put a hand out in an attempt to save himself but he was too late. There was a loud, sickening crack as he slumped to the ground, his body twisted awkwardly on the path. William was dead, his neck broken from striking the fence around the flower bed as he fell.