Bettencourt Family - Robert, wife Maxine, and daughters Maleena (right) and Veronica (left) Bettencourt Manor, Orion Bay
Having come into their money 100 years after their neighbors, the Bettencourts are considered nouveau riche and lack the finesse, experience and taste necessary to pass in Old Money society, though their wealth has bought them invitations to even the most exclusive soirees. Their home, newly renamed Bettencourt Manor, was once owned by the publishing magnus Bennet Cerf, co-founder of Random House Publishing and founder of the local newspaper, The Current Dispatch.
Robert, who grew up in a small nondescript town named Rigel Heights and married his high school sweetheart, cashed in during the Technology Revolution of the 1990s by selling his small start up to a major company at the first offer, then starting a second company to sell off and so on until he had amassed the fortune he had always dreamed of. Now, with money to burn and his wife and children safely ensconced in a mansion he can hardly find his way around, outgoing, active Robert has determined to pursue the pleasures of the idle rich and shower his family with luxuries.
Update! Robert has taken on a job as an investigator and he and Maxine opened Court’s Cafe, a small restaurant in Rigel Heights which he later gifted to Jay Gibson when it became too much like work. Robert is now attempting to identify the Voice, a gossip columnist who is laying bare the secrets of Bay society.
Update! Unable to determine the identity of the nefarious gossip columnist, Robert has descended into a state of delusional dementia in which he thinks himself to be a 1940s era private dick.
Maxine (Carter) Bettencourt began to pour her money into etiquette classes the moment she read a rather scathing remark about her in a society column written by a rather catty matron. Formerly, Maxine would have socked the old biddy one, but with a newly polished veneer covering her wrong-side of the tracks upbringing, she merely retaliated by mounting a campaign to oust the crone from her circle’s invite lists. Success achieved, Maxine has found new power in her husband’s wealth and has not even a twinge of misgiving about flashing money to achieve her desired ends. Luckily her desired ends are primarily altruistic in nature.
Update! Having reached old age with few scratches, Maxine now finds herself caring for a husband whose mind is going and wishing that stories of alien abduction or teleportation were true.
Veronica, with her fresh faced California surfer girl looks, has found that the only difficulty in being popular is being too popular. Too solve her dilemma, she has determined to weight her friends by a wealth grading system she created, so as not to confuse herself she has only two grades. Those whose bank balances equal her own are rated A for Affluent and warrant a place in her fav 5, invitations to parties and immediate call backs. Those who rank B for Beggarly often fall below her social radar, if not the poverty line. Veronica has gone to college
Update! Veronica returned to Bettencourt Manor after graduating from Hunter College with a degree in Political Science, but rather than go into boring old politics, Veronica has embarked on a career in show business in the hopes of bringing joy to millions.
Maleena inherited her mother’s dark good looks and has already discovered how this genetic happenstance can help her avoid the tedious chores associated with daily life though she does enjoy cooking, which she considers an art rather than a mundane duty, as long as she isn’t asked to do it too often. Despite her predisposition toward laziness, Veronica has managed to pull the grades necessary to join her sister at Hunter College next semester. Maleena has gone to college.
Update! Maleena fell in love with a poor man while at Hunter and after graduation moved to a tiny adobe home in Rigel Heights.