River Hits Pay Dirt and Parker Has Regrets

Things were a lot quieter after Aidan left for military school. Haruo and River ate breakfast and proceeded on to their daily tasks of keeping the roof over their heads. And Allan and Brianna went out for a skate on the pond.

River stopped by city hall to discuss a few matters of necessity regarding the implementation of some zoning regulations for working out of home. The Mayor was quite happy to hear her point of view as a businesswoman who was working out of the home.

She then received a call from Victoria Andrews who wanted to purchase a large painting from her. It just so happened that she was carrying one extra one with her right then and there...so she headed up to the salon and met with Victoria.

Victoria only remembered her as the mousy young teen in a green t-shirt and grey sweatshirt that used to go to school; the frumpy mouse as she recalled River. She was surprised to see the glamorous young redheaded woman standing in front of her. Noticing the wedding ring on River's finger, she concluded that love must have really done a number to River in turning on her gorgeousness. She was only dimly aware of the fact that River had married and had kids.

"River, my goodness, you've certainly grown up. I haven't seen you in so long..." Victoria commented looking River up and down as River smiled wryly gazing back at her. There was no small amount of self-satisfaction at showing up the women that had thought of her as nothing more than a little waif who didn't have any fashion sense. And it was true...that she was in love with her husband more than ever because frankly through hard-work and luck, the both of them had become worth more financially than anyone else in Sunset Valley, up to and including the Landgraabs who were now wondering if and when their property was going to be the subject of a hostile take-over. For now, Haruo was keen on letting by-gones be by-gones and if Dorothy Landgraab was always thinking of coming over to meet up with Allan, the Chikamoris just might end up getting the Landgraab's property anyways.

Cutting to the chase, River said, "Yes, you wished to talk to me about a painting, well I have one in my possession right now. Would you like to see it?"

"Well...definitely..." Victoria stated. When River produced the painting, Victoria was awestruck, speechless?

Sensing the buyer's weakness in terms of letting the shark smell the sight of blood, River struck, "So how much is this worth to you?" she smiled.

"Would §30K be a good starting point for negotiation?" Victoria inquired.

§35K. River said.

"32,995" Victoria countered.

"Done" River agreed. No need to get greedy and well... frankly...the price was definitely worth more than River had thought that she would get for this painting.

River exited the salon a very happy young woman having netted a substantial amount of money for a painting that took maybe about half a day to complete.

One the way out, she ran into Parker Langerak, who greeted her with a "Oh, hey, River...How are you."

Her response was a brief but friendly, "Hi, Parker. Good to see you."

Treating River so shabbily was one of Parker's biggest regrets because she was now someone else's wife. And he thought regretfully that River was one beautiful woman and that Haruo was an incredibly lucky guy to have her as his wife. His eyes widened when he saw River get into that Margarite Vaguester. That car was over §105K. Just how much money did Haruo and River possess anyways? He sighed regretfully and continued on his way into the salon.

One of the main reasons for Haruo and River's wealth were as a result of these radioactive rocks that seemed to pop out of the ground with quite a bit of regularity. And that was the main reason why Vita and Nick were wanting to get their hands on that property through any means possible. Unfortunately when the worm turned, it bit them to their detriment. And now, Haruo and River were set to keep their property and profit for generations to come.