Newhaven: Week Nine - The Chang/Sibly Family
Previously for the Chang/Sibly Family: Mei Chang and her daughter Jia moved in with Mei's vampire boyfriend Maurice Sibly. Maurice came into Mei's life shortly after she lost her boyfriend, and Jia's father, Matthew Passang. She still doesn't know it was Maurice who unintentionally killed Matthew in a fit of blood lust.
Despite choosing to close Chang's Collectables, the business her parents begun, to focus on raising her daughter, Mei couldn't help but see an opportunity when she and Maurice moved in together.
Maurice had begun painting upon arrival in Newhaven, mostly creating copies of well known masterpieces to sell on simBay, as a way to make money. Over the years he had refined his technique and Mei believed there was a market to open a gallery to sell his works.
As such, the ground floor of their newly built home featured a gallery space, and the attic space featured a studio for Maurice.
Which also doubled as Marice's sleeping space during the daylight hours.
This left the first floor as a living space for Mei and her daughter Jia. Although it was unintentional , Mei appreciated that it meant she and her daughter had their own space. After all, her first stipulation of moving in with Maurice was that Jia would always be her first priority.
That certainly didn't mean Maurice wasn't a regular visitor to the first floor though.
And he purposely, with Mei's blessing, spent time with Jia. He never imposed himself as a father figure, which Jia was okay with, and soon she just took it for granted that she had a vampire for a step-father.
Soon it was time for Jia to celebrate her birthday.
Jia grew into a young woman who wanted a family of her own, although that didn't mean she wanted to settle down straight away (family/romance). She would have loved to have had a career in sports, but knew in a town as small as Newhaven that was unlikely to happen.
So, in the meantime, she was happy to help out cashiering in her mother's gallery.
It wasn't long before it was time for Mei too to celebrate her birthday.
Maurice made sure Mei knew he found her just as beautiful as ever despite her recent birthday.
Mei had been clear from the start that she would never join him in being a vampire. Maurice could only assume it was his punishment for ending the life of Matthew Passang that he would have to watch the woman he had grown to love die of old age.