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Life's Illusions - Book Five - Prologue
There were many requests during the previous Book 4, for a sort of family tree of who's who, where they come from, who is related to whom.
I hope this prologue goes some way towards providing a reference point when characters pop up.
I will now continue with posting a new chapter each week of Life's Illusions - Book 5.
Enjoy!
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Ten years on and life in the wider Thorn family had changed somewhat, though not always for the better.
Once fragmented sections of the family had restored relationships, grown back to a peaceful, happy coexistence.
Equally, as is often the case, once happy and loving parts of the family had suffered seemingly insurmountable problems, serious enough at times to drive a wedge between them.
Australia.
In Sydney, Milo and Piers still headed up Guardian's Australasia Division, though they now had several offices throughout the region and worked as senior supervisory managers, with the titles of Joint CEO Australasia Division, still referred to within Guardian as Aus One (Milo) and Aus Two (Piers)
They'd moved house, not because they were at all unhappy with the house Milo had originally settled in when he'd first arrived in Sydney, the house where they'd raised their now grown up family, but the children had all flown the coop.
Vinny was now based in Torremolinos, at The Nest, with his wife Paulette, their son Andrew or Andy, and Paulette's parents, Josef and Cary.
Baz was President of Artist Management for TF Management, still living in Sydney, but in a spacious apartment nearer to the city, he'd married an Australian Pop Star, Annie, a beautiful girl whom the whole family loved, they'd tried just about everything over several years to have children, but it just didn't happen.
Jez now controlled all aspects of Artists Revenue/Royalty Streams for TF Management, as President of Revenue/Royalties, he was still single despite his attempts to find a mate, but had bought his own apartment in Sydney, preferring the faster paced city life to the quieter life out in the suburbs.
Gracie had left for London, taking up a Senior Management position in Human Resource, at a leading Financial company, against her parents and brothers wishes.
The position was seen as being gained as a result of the affair Gracie had been publicly embroiled in with a very prominent married man.
There had been much gentle urging for her to decline the position, which turned to outright arguments in the days and weeks before Gracie, now of age, eventually left without saying goodbye to any of her brothers, and shared only a frosty farewell with her parents.
Even Aly and Bo (Piers parents in Montclair) had gotten into a heated verbal exchange with Piers and Milo, accusing them of not trying hard enough to stop her from leaving, now even they were not speaking to Piers and Milo.
Milo was mixed between being incensed that she couldn't, or wouldn't, see that she was making a big mistake, heading for trouble, and a terrible sense of foreboding.
Piers was more upset that they were at odds, he was visibly hurt on the day she left with no hugs, just that frosty goodbye, telling Milo it felt like she had divorced them, dismissed them, as if they were no longer important to her, after all the love they had shared over the years.
Since her early teens Gracie had seemed to have a knack of finding the wrong crowd to hang out with.
There had been numerous calls for Piers and Milo to collect her from the local police station, relying on only Piers and Milos upstanding reputations, and connections, so far they'd managed to save her from gaining a seriously flawed criminal history, but they knew, alone in London, it was only a matter of time before she got herself into something where no damage control on earth would contain the fallout.
JJ and Jem's Financial Business had grown significantly in Europe, much more so than their businesses in Australasia, prompting them to consider a move back to Montclair.
It had been that decision which had caused Piers and Milo to move house, when JJ told them he was putting the Harbourside Mansion he'd inherited from Grant all those years ago onto the market.
They'd been sat in the garden on a warm evening, sipping a well deserved glass of wine with JJ and Jem.
As they were chatting, Milo, quite out of the blue said to Piers.
"Why don't we buy the Harbourside house?, I've always loved it, so have you".
JJ and Jem were taken aback, but still surprised that Piers hadn't said anything, in fact, he had a dreamy far away look on his face, until Milo followed up his earlier question with.
"Does that dreamy look mean you're seriously considering it?"
And he'd nodded.
"Yes I am, if you're serious I agree, but only if you want to".
And so, in around ten minutes it was a done deal.
A month after Gracie left for England, JJ and Jem left for France, and Piers and Milo moved into the Harbourside house.
They'd also bought JJ's house which was a few doors away from theirs, placing both properties into their slowly expanding rental portfolio, though they'd agreed, it was doubtful if they'd ever let out their first family home, with its rose garden where they'd felt so many strong connections to Pierre over the years.
Pil was now an established International recording star, it would be wrong to label him as rock, pop, or anything else for that matter, he flitted about wherever his fancy took him, and his fans revelled in whatever became his next venture, he'd excelled in everything to date, he was currently coming to the end of a twelve month stint in Las Vegas, four nights each week for a contract worth millions of dollars, though he'd confided to his Poppa Piers, he was still searching for the perfect gig.
In Orange, around a hundred miles from Sydney, Dale had bought out Roslyn and Cecile (at their insistence) he and Fleur now jointly owned Montclair-Thorn-Mulroney Wines, and were building year on year a strong reputation.
France.
Jaque and Pete, along with Roslyn's brother Paul on occasions, had been, until JJ and Jem's return, the only inhabitants of Chateau Montclair, now they were thrilled to see the house start to come alive again.
Since their return Roslyn and Cecile had lived in the house they owned on Avenue Montclair, close to Berto and Maria.
Jaque and Pete had declined to be involved in the day to day running of the Montclair Wines business, opting instead to be silent partners, because as Pete put it.
"The last time we worked together it almost destroyed our family relationship, we would prefer to have a harmonious family rather than wield managerial power".
It had taken a lot of hard work over several years, to reestablish/restore client confidence in the Montclair Wine brand, but they'd finally been successful.
Aly and Bo Bowles-Cruz (parents of Piers and the late Pierre) still owned and operated very successfully, The Inn at Montclair, an upmarket hotel and restaurant venue.
Berto and Maria resided in the house on Avenue Montclair (which Pierre had bought and lovingly renovated during the years long before his death, when he and Juan had been estranged) their two boys, Eduardo (their biological son) and Carlo (the son of Berto and Juniors sister Gabby, or Gabriela, and her war veteran husband Carlo) lived with them, Juan now lived in Madrid.
Dave and Beth (Sister of Billy, Pete, Pauly and Woody, the later two long ago deceased) still lived at Chateau Beauchene, from where their children, twins Rob and Elly, along with their younger brother Pauly, (the driving force) ran their Salad growing business.
Junior (Juan's eldest son, brother of Berto and the long deceased Gabby) lived in a cottage with Daniel his husband (son of Maxwell Spence and Chris Farley of NYC, now both in their late eighties)
The cottage they lived in had been owned by Gabby and Carlo senior, it was held in trust for young Carlo when he came of age, it sat adjacent to the entrance gates of the Maison de Due estate which Daniel Worthington had bought as a derelict mansion and restored to it's former glory, to be used as the headquarters of his Financial business.
Spain
Josef (son of Reece and the long deceased Pauly Caswel-Thorn, brother of Juan and Sofia) along with his wife Carry, (matriarch to the family) their daughter Paulette and her husband Vinny, (son of Piers and Milo) and their son Andrew (Andy) lived at The Nest, a spacious penthouse apartment atop of Thorn Plaza on The Promenade at Torremolinos, the apartment building completed by PJ and Lenny Thorn (founders of the Thorn family).
Rick and Sofia (sister of Josef and Juan) lived with their boys Joseph and John at the sprawling Villa which had originally been the home of Reece and Pauly Caswell-Thorn when their children had been growing up, before the family lost Pauly to an aggressive, untreatable strain of cancer many years earlier.
London
Gracie Grant-Alonso-Bowles-Cruz occupied the Thorn family's London house in Kensington. Daughter of Piers and Milo, sister to Vinny, Baz, Jez, and Pil, she'd moved to London against her family's wishes after being promoted to a senior management position in HR with a leading Financial company.
Madrid
Juan Caswel-Thorn (widower of Pierre, brother of Josef) had married Ralph Esse and between them they'd built a multi million euro property development/management business.
Juan was also one of three majority shareholder/owners of the world renowned Guardian Security Services business, (along with his brother Josef, and Josef's wife Carry) and one minor shareholder, (Milo, who owned ten percent of shares, gifted to him years earlier as a show of gratitude for his efforts in adding serious value to the company),
Rome Italy
Reece (father of Josef, Juan, and Sofia, widower of Pauly) and Van (Van Gregous, International Rock and Recording Star) lived at Gregous, a sprawling estate outside Rome which had been in Van's family for generations, and it had been his life's mission to restore the house and its lands to their former glory.
New York
Danny Montclair-Thorn (youngest son of Woody and Jacqueline Montclair-Thorn, brother of Roslyn and Paul) along with his now husband Petre Epine (Epine in French translates to English as Thorn) live in the Thorn family penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park.
Danny's time was divided, he could be painting new works for sale in any one of his Galleries, he now had Showroom/Galleries in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, London, Paris, Rome and Berlin, or attending one of the frequent events he and Petre staged to showcase new artists.
Petre managed Danny's affairs, in fact he managed everything to do with their busy lives.
Chicago
The Thorn Family, in the majority, still resided at Thorn House in Barrington Hills.
The older members, Billy, Jolly, and Jay still occupied the main central house.
Jace and Mel occupied one complete wing with their remaining children (the gremlins - Marty, Becky, Lily, Gary, Stevie.) though the youngsters were now in College, some close, some further away who only came home for weekends and holidays.
Ary (Jace's son before he and Mel married) now had his own house in Barrington Hills where he lived alone.
Trevor lived with Dillon in Philadelphia
Bobby (Mel's son before she and Jace married) had died tragically a few years earlier in a helicopter crash, it had been the catalyst for the end of 'None Missing', as a Pop Group.
Ary and Trevor had struggled to cope with the loss of Bobby and never appeared in public again.
Philadelphia
Dillon and Trevor resided at Strelloe House.
Albert, in his early eighties, had passed away suddenly in his sleep, sending Dillon into a spiralling depression, only to be saved by Trevor who was devoted to him, so when Trevor suffered the same bodyblow at the loss of Bobby, despite mourning the joint losses of his beloved Albert, and his brother Bobby, it was Dillon who rose to the task of saving Trevor.
Over the years, around the world, they'd experienced the everyday occurrences all families have to cope with, money, however much, can't always guard against the things we wish wouldn't happen, it doesn't, can't always, protect loved ones when fate, or Life's Illusions, decide to serve a cruel blow.
Enjoy
Comments are welcome to cfgw2000@aol.com.
Thank you for giving me your time, enjoy.