I may as well wrap this up, in case anyone out there is still hoping for an update. As you may have guessed, I pretty much burned myself out on this story. The style I was using was very time-consuming, and it got to feel too much like work and too little like fun. Thus, I haven't even touched this story in months, and was unsure of whether or not I would ever update it. That decision was recently made for me, however - my computer died, so all my neighborhood data and whatnot were lost. So, we've all seen the last of Melissa's story.
However, I still have all the old chapters, so gradually I'd like to keep uploading those to my website and posting them here to replace the missing images that
imageshack deleted. For that reason, I'd like for this thread to stay open for a while longer. If anyone wants to do a "fan fiction" type of thing, I give full permission for anyone to use the characters from this story and write a story of their own.
For those that would like to know how Melissa's story would have proceeded, I'll write what I had planned in the paragraphs below. I'd like to thank everyone that read this story and offered feedback. It brought me great joy to have this story enjoyed by others. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
******************SPOILERS (kind of) **********************************
Melissa proceeded with her college years in much the same way that she had at first - drinking heavily, hooking up, occasionally squeezing in a brilliant work of art. She had an identity crisis when she discovered she had romantic feelings for another girl (not Rebecca), and sank into a heavy depression for a while. During this time, she had a major falling out with Rebecca, and never spoke to her again for the rest of her life. She was featured numerous times in art magazines, and became a celebrity in the art world before even graduating college.
In accordance with the art dealer's advice, she went to Paris for two years, doing post-graduate studies and experimenting with her art. She stayed out of the public eye, and did not sell or exhibit any of the art pieces she was working on. As she was fluent in French, she fit right in to French culture. However, her drinking problem became a bit worse, and she was caught in a stream of one-night stands for a while. She then became involved with a young French woman named Jacqueline, and they developed a serious romantic relationship. After they'd been seeing each other for several months, a man entered their relationship, and it became a "triad", with all three people romantically involved with the other two. By the time she left France, however, this relationship had ended.
Upon her return to the United States, she released a LOT of art. Her popularity soared, and she became somewhat of an icon, even making her way into mainstream pop culture. She made enough money to open her own art gallery, and became an art dealer in her own right. She also started publishing an erotic art and photography magazine, which gained popularity in both the art world and with mainstream audiences. Her father gave her plenty of business advice, and it was due in part to this advice that Melissa's business ventures became wildly successful. Melissa opened more art galleries throughout the country, many of them focusing on erotic art and even catering to lay audiences. She also bought one of the more established art magazines and incorporated it into her own little empire. By the age of 27, Melissa was a dominant, albeit controversial, figure in the art world. She had even branched into the music industry by starting a record label, which she used to launch her sister's career in rock music. Following her father's advice, she lived VERY frugally, reinvesting the vast majority of her profits back into her business to make it grow. She lived off of a small salary that she paid herself, living in a modest apartment in New York City and taking only occasional vacations.
At the same time, her personal life was a mess. Her ability to maintain a stable relationship had all but disappeared. Her love life was a series of one-night-stands and no-string relationships with people of both genders. Her drinking problem became worse than ever, and she even experimented with heroin. She actually attempted suicide several times. After becoming pregnant with his child, Melissa married a black man - something for which she was rather looked down upon at the time (this was 1977). Charles died, and left his entire fortune to Melissa. Angela, having been completely left out of Charles' will, felt extremely bitter, and never talked to Melissa again despite Melissa's attempts to provide for her and reach out to her. Angela - having had problems of her own with depression and drug abuse - committed suicide at the age of 22. Melissa sank into a deep depression, and left the operations of her father's empire in the hands of capable trustees.
Now, in 1977, an old friend re-entered Melissa's life. Nathan approached Melissa at an art exhibition. He was a decorated war hero, having been the lone survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong and surviving on his own behind enemy lines for several months. He didn't like to talk about the war, but he had been honorably discharged from the Army recently and was going to business school. Melissa, pregnant as she was with another man's child, fell in love with him all over again. The two of them openly had an affair, which resulted in the breakup of her marriage. Melissa and Nathan moved to California, where Melissa gave birth to her first child, Laura. Melissa felt more passionate and intimate with Nathan than she ever had with anyone else, and their love became more and more intense over the next year.
Then, things suddenly fell apart. Melissa began sleeping around behind Nathan's back, purposely letting him catch her in the act. After struggling for a month or so to maintain the relationship, Nathan left. Melissa hit rock bottom with her depression and drug abuse, and finally sought help. She was diagnosed with "borderline personality disorder", and began treatment. Over the next two years, she got her life back under control. She began taking a much more active role in running "Hancroft Industries" (hadn't come up with a name for it) and returned to the helm of her own business ventures. As her mental state became more stable, Melissa's creativity ebbed. She painted and photographed less often, and what she did produce was nowhere near as brilliant as her earlier work.
A couple of years later, Nathan came back into Melissa's life, wanting to give their relationship one more chance. Now that Melissa was much more mentally stable, it worked. They were married in the year 1981, on September 11, when they were both 31 years old. Once Nathan finished his MBA, Melissa gave him an executive job at Hancroft Industries. Melissa eventually promoted him to President of the company, and he was enormously successful. Under Nathan's supervision, Hancroft Industries grew even more.
They proceeded to have two children together: a girl named Katie, and a boy named Christian. Their marriage had its ups and downs throughout the years - Melissa occasionally lapsed back into mental illness and fell back into her old behaviors of drug abuse and casual sex. Each time, Nathan was there to help her return to normalcy. It was during these periods of depression and subsequent mania that she produced her best artwork. These times took their toll on Melissa and Nathan's marriage, but they survived, and their relationship only grew stronger. At one point, Nathan had a breakdown of his own, and finally confided in Melissa that he had committed war crimes while behind enemy lines in Vietnam - crimes that had been covered up by the military. Through all this, they stayed together.
On Melissa and Nathan's twentieth anniversary, Nathan left the house and went to the corporate office at the World Trade Center. That was the last time Melissa ever saw Nathan. On September 11, 2001, Melissa watched on television as the Twin Towers came crashing to the ground. Her husband was on one of the floors that were directly hit, and he likely died instantly. This final tragedy in her life broke Melissa. She woke up the next day and was confused to find that Nathan wasn't there. The events of the previous day had to be explained to her. Then they had to be explained again. Melissa seemed unable to remember anything about what happened, regardless of how many times she was told.
Doctors diagnosed Melissa with anterograde amnesia - she had become completely unable to form new memories. They speculated that this was caused by a combination of her pre-existing mental illness, and the accute emotional trauma of losing her husband in such a dramatic fashion on their 20th anniversary. Melissa's oldest daughter, who was a corporate lawyer, took control of Hancroft Industries and the majority of the family fortune. Melissa's second daughter, Katie, moved in with Melissa at the family estate in order to help provide the full-time care that she needed. Melissa's youngest child, Christian, joined the Navy, became a SEAL, and went off to fight in the Middle East.
Melissa's life became a sort of living hell. Every day, multiple times a day, she learned of her husband's death. She felt that same initial shock and grief every time she heard the "news", and her condition became compounded by her depression. Shortly after learning that her son had been killed in action in Afghanistan, Melissa took her own life on February 12, 2004.
And that... is Melissa's story.