With age brought restlessness and Hiroko wasn't immune to the "seven year itch". Satoshi was a long-haired big party animal and Hiroko was interested. Haruo and River had noticed Hiroko's eyes wandering to her brother-in-law in Shang Sim La, but she had said that it was only a misunderstanding and that it wouldn't happen again. Haruo hoped so, but Haruo and River's trust level of Hiroko dropped considerably and River kept a watchful eye on her former friend and her husband's step-mother. Yasunobu spent a lot of time playing the piano because he wasn't sure if he wanted to reconcile the fact that his wife had wandering eyes.
To try to forget about Hiroko's indiscretions, they flew to France and spent time there but it was a tense and trying trip and neither Hiroko nor Yasunobu's hearts were in it. But River and Haruo tried to make the most of this trip because until the kids were grown and had jobs of their own, they wouldn't be able to make it back here again, At least not for a few years yet.
Everything came to a head when Hiroko and Yasunobu came home. She turned around and asked Satoshi if he wanted to go out and "watch the stars" and Yasunobu was betrayed yet again. Yasunobu turned around and decked Satoshi which made them enemies. That was it for Yasunobu. He turned around and told Hiroko that he wasn't going to take this sitting down. She turned around and insulted him back again saying that she felt like nothing more than an occasional roll in the hay for Yasunobu and that if he was a virile man, that she wouldn't feel the need to wander. Frankly that did it and they slept in separate rooms from that night forward.
Hiroko hadn't been feeling very well for the past few days and she felt a little off so she went to the ER to find out what was the problem.
The doctor mentioned that her blood pressure was high and recommended a CAT scan to be done the following day at around four in the afternoon - scheduling the appointment. Hiroko went home and went to sleep, but decided in the morning that she was going to go down to city hall to get her name changed in preparation for moving out. She also used §57500 of the Chikamoris' money to buy herself a new house to live in because she felt that she couldn't stay under the roof with Yasunobu in the home. But after she went to get the title for the new home, she felt a sharp pain in her head. At first she thought that she was hungry because she had gone to Hogan's and wasn't able to eat but then that pain in the head became a blinding one...causing her vision to go red and she collapsed to the ground.
...and Grim took her. Satoshi came down to get her at the city hall and found the marker that Grim had left.
Feeling betrayed herself by Satoshi, Constance grew angrier and angrier as the days went by. She finally turned around and went down to the city hall to get her last name changed back to Shelley and then called Satoshi down to the Gazebo Park in the center of town, after buying her home back again in preparation to move out. When he came down she told him that it was over; that she'd had enough of the way she was being treated with Satoshi's penchant for wandering and that he was a no-good louse for breaking up Yasunobu's marriage and that she'd seen him working at River...but River was too smart for his machinations; that Haruo would have kicked his tail-end if he'd seen it and that his pining for his dead romantic interest was the final straw. It was OVER...if he hadn't gotten the message loud and clearly.
When it rained; it poured and it deluged on Satoshi's head when he got home from work that night. Yasunobu was up and he was not happy at all. He started in on Satoshi, telling him that he was a no-good piece of dirt that wasn't fit to be trod on by Yasunobu's boot nor any of Yasunobu's offspring. He accused Satoshi of making passes at River when Haruo was not around and that it was only the deep faith that River had in her marriage that prevented her from even giving Satoshi even a bit of consideration. Satoshi tried to deny it, but he was found out and Yasunobu told him he could find another home...but he would not suffer Satoshi living under his roof and to be gone by sunrise.
With all the heartbreak going on, Yasunobu told his son. "I do not have long for this world. I want to see my grandchildren. Bring them home..." Haruo nodded...and told his father that he could bring them home. And Yasunobu did so. Greeting his granddaughter with a big hug, it was all that he could do to keep from breaking down in front of his daughter-in-law...who leaned in to hug her daughter welcoming Alanna home..
"Where's Grandma..." Alanna asked wondering where Grandma Fiona was. It was all that River could do to keep her composure. There was limited communication between Camp Starch and home basically due to the strict military protocol instituted in that boarding school. "I'll take you to see her." Alanna was puzzled, but acquiesced. Aidann and Brayden as well as Bella McIrish-Bachelor followed along. Alanna's heart dropped into her feet as her mother walked into the graveyard and past the pond to a gravestone upon which was engraved her grandmother's name. With blurring vision Alanna broke down as did her brothers. And Bella buried her face in her hands as she wept for Simis, her father.
It was a sad homecoming for the oldest teens who still had six months left of school. To find their beloved Grandma Fiona interred in the ground and their Grandfather feeling so lost after his betrayal by his wife. They resolved to stick together; the seven of them and do what was necessary to make Grandpa Yasunobu's last days as pleasant as possible, surrounded by love and the only family that mattered, his son, his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren.
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