don't mess with Bryson Riley (unless you're his daughter or his wife)

July 2077, Bryson and Madison Riley are 54, Mariah is 18, Keri is 16.

Madison's brother, Cody coming over for dinner is just a cover. While Madison is in the kitchen making baked salmon and rice pilaf, they have business to discuss.

They talk in whispers as they pass each other. Does Cody look unsure of himself, because he's trying not to be? After all, no matter what the dirt he has on Bryson Riley, Bryson is the most powerful man in Lakeside Heights. Cody knows that if not for the fact that Bryson did actually love his sister very much, he wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

"I want Business Tycoon," Cody says, "And we won't be paying you for that apartment anymore." He looks Bryson straight in the eyes. "I'm not bluffing."

Bryson says, "I'll take care of it."

Madison serves dinner and she doesn't seem to have any idea. Bryson wants it to stay that way.

Claire and Andy have stopped by for dinner too. Andy talks politics, and nobody suspects a thing - or at least, nobody seems to suspect a thing, though Madison is strangely quiet.

***

Keri is turning seventeen soon, and it never mattered when they were younger that her good friend Summer was four years younger, but now she just finds it annoying. Any time she's in town, all she ever wants to do is see if Tyler can hang out. They're like, in love, or something. Keri invited Summer to come out for the night, but she said, "No, I think I'm gonna hang out here with Tyler." Of course she is...

Keri is kind of dating Mariah's friend Chandler now, not because she really likes him or anything, but just because he happens to be around. That might sound snobbish, but there's really slim pickings in the teen dating market these days. She's actually been messing around with Chandler for a couple of years now, but always thought Mariah would be mad about it. Funny enough, Mariah doesn't even care.

Finally it is the night before Mariah leaves for college. Keri hasn't always been close with her sister, but she suddenly thinks it's going to be awful without her around. Tensions are high in the house lately and they don't know why.

Mariah has always been the prettier and more fashionable sister, and she helps Keri pick out the new dress - nothing too prissy though, you know she's got to be able to move in this thing. And Mariah said, "You should put your hair down, and you could stand to wear a little mascara, you know."

The girls were out during dinner, and come down later to have leftovers and Madison sits with them, and goes into weepy mom mode. "Oh look at my baby girls, so grown up!" Madison is feeling emotional lately, and has noticed the tension in the house lately, even if she doesn't know why.

Madison says, "You would tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn't you?"

"Of course," Bryson says. Well, part of this is true - there's nothing wrong anymore...

And little Miss Keri is grown up indeed! She doesn't waste any time while her parents are giving Mariah their goodbye lectures, and worrying about all the things they aren't telling each other. Everyone seems too busy with their own dramas to pay any attention to what she's doing these days.

***

Bryson retires from Business Tycoon the next morning, and hands the position over to Cody. He has enough to handle with the Riley business empire anyway. And maybe, due to the circumstances, he should be spending some more time with his wife. His father was always the type to sneak around, and he never wanted to turn out like that.

Keri overhears her dad talking on the phone to Cody as they finalize the deal. The door was wide open and he must have thought she was still outside in the pool. She heard everything!

The family always assumed Keri would take over the family businesses some day when she is older, since her sister (even if pretty) lacked necessary brainpower sometimes. But Keri had no idea this was how business was run. Her parents had always taught them to be good, nice girls.

"I know what I heard," Keri says. "You have to tell Mom, or I will!"

Bryson is worried for a minute - the most powerful man in Lakeside Heights reduced to a sniveling fool by his teenage daughter! But then he realizes who he is. "Don't you dare say a word of this," Bryson says.

"Or what?" Keri says.

Bryson says, "You have some mouth on you, for not even knowing anything about this. You have a lot of growing up to do still, young lady!"

So Keri keeps quiet. Her father is a snake, and her mother has no clue what's going on. Keri doesn't know what to do. It's not really her place to tell her father's secrets, if he's not going to on his own.

She can't sleep. She doesn't even know what to think anymore!

It's the middle of the night, and her parents are sleeping, and she's got to go... she doesn't even know where.

Poor sad, troubled, little rich girl!

But I guess her parents heard the door slam as she left, because they both woke up. Madison looks at her husband and says,"You tell me right now! What is going on in this house?"

So he tells her everything! The game of darts, and too many beers, and the drunken mistake of a kiss. He didn't even sleep with the woman! Not that that made Madison feel any better about it. He even told her about Cody. He had to be honest because he wasn't about to let this garbage tear apart his whole family and everything he worked so hard to build up!

...Much crying ensues.

But their daughter has run away, and they have a phone call to make!

Keri didn't get very far. With all the connections Bryson has, she must have forgotten who she was running away from! She is brought home within a couple of hours.

Keri doesn't want anything to do with her father, but she sits down and has a talk with her mother about it over coffee. "Are you guys going to get divorced?" Keri asks.

Madison says, "It's too soon to be talking about that." All Madison knows right now is that Bryson is going to be keeping the couch warm for a little while.

As for Cody's blackmail proposal - he doesn't really have much to blackmail with anymore, does he?

Bryson isn't sure what to do about Cody yet. Bryson has already stepped down as Business Tycoon, and publicly announced Cody as his successor. Anything they did right now would just draw attention to the matter. As for the penthouse apartment, Bryson thinks Cody might have to find somewhere else to live. And as furious as Madison is with both of them, she's even madder at her brother.

And so the Riley family empire is left intact, and they are still the most powerful family in Lakeside Heights, like they've always been. Who did Cody think he was messing with???

And Keri, maybe she was overreacting, just a little... The next day, she's already back to being an ordinary almost-seventeen-year-old girl - you know, hanging out in her bathing suit with Stephanie Nova, talking about sex, lol!

***

It was Keri who drew this round's teenage runaway random event ;) And until all that blackmail stuff came up recently with Cody and Bryson, I had no idea why on earth she could possibly be mad enough to run away. Talk about lucky timing!

And I actually thought Cody might even get away with it, until I threw Keri into the mix. Funny how things work out!

I have no idea what Cody is going to do... That household has been played twice this round already, but I may have to sneak back in there, at least briefly, to find out ;)