Name: Jack Harlow Age: 35 Sexuality: Heterosexual Gender: Male Portrayed By: Michael Ealy Availability: Closed
“Yeah, my wife’s family are here. Seems like a crazy place.”
Jack was born in Manchester, to a single mother who did the best she could to provide for her only son. He never found out until he was much older but she was a dancer at a local strip club, the only job she found herself able to get, and worked long shifts just to keep food on the table. Jack was grateful for that at least. He and his mother were pretty close, though sometimes it was difficult not having a father around for various reasons but Jack never really wanted for much or missed out on too much just because he didn’t have a dad. He missed out on more because of money troubles and he grew up knowing the true value of money and became determined to make something of himself so that he wouldn’t have to live that way again.
He met his future wife, Nicola Hayes, when they were in high school. She was fourteen and he was seventeen and maybe he shouldn’t have gone after her but he did. She had a huge family and started to spend a fair bit of time with him to get away from them/get some peace and quiet. Jack liked spending time with Nicola, she was beautiful and could be funny. Her father never seemed to like him though. Nicola was sixteen when they moved in together. Jack was nineteen and her dad thought he was no good or only wanted one thing from her. He wasn’t happy with her moving in with Jack anyway but he soon enough realised that he needed to relax a little when it became apparent that nothing would change and Jack wasn’t going anywhere. Jack had Nicola and he wasn’t letting her go. She was loyal and pretty and actually easy to control, though this side of Jack came out very subtly.
The murder of Nicola’s parents years later, came as a great shock and Jack made sure that he was there for her every step of the way. Through her sister Lauren’s near death not even months later, through the funeral, through family events without the parents… Jack made sure he was there for Nicola, to cover up the hole their deaths had left in her and he grew to like the way she relied on him, needed him.
Nicola’s sister Lauren, a police office like her father, was transferred to a town called Baberton to deal with their serial killer problem. Nicola’s other sister Alice, and her brother Trevor, soon followed suit. Then Aria later on. Jack was curious to say the least and thought it would be a good opportunity to smooth things over between the siblings if Nicola were to go to Baberton too. They’d drifted apart over the years, though it was Jack’s doing - he liked having Nicola dependent on him. Nicola had been spending more time isolating herself from her family and with Baberton being so dangerous he managed to convince her that she’d never forgive herself if something happened and she never saw them again. He played on her fears of losing loved ones. Jack agreed to go with Nicola, for support, and he can work from the town well enough, sending things back via email and using skype for interviews or meetings. He works for a newspaper in Manchester and he’s convinced his boss that this is where the stories are. He’s heard of other reporters coming here to get their scoop and is keen to get his name out there, make it really big. Baberton doesn’t seem like the best town and Jack is unsure whether he will end up being able to actually get along with anybody here but he’s just hoping to get something on the cops to write about, maybe some scandal about Lauren, or one of the murders. His work is his main priority. And Nicola… of course.
Most of Jack’s eagerness to come to Baberton with Nicola, however, was because of the game he wants to play. He enjoys knowing that he, Alice, and Lauren all have these secrets from Nicola without even knowing it and he likes the feeling that gives him. It makes him feel powerful, in control, in charge. Like he could get them to do anything. Trouble is, recently, Lauren opened her big mouth and told Nicola everything. She was devastated and she sent him away. Jack left the house but he didn’t go back to Manchester. He checked himself into the local motel and is laying low. Nicola is his and he’s going to get her back one way or another. He never should have let her come to this town and he wants to drag her back home.
Slept with his sister-in-law, Alice. On the anniversary of her parents’ death, he’d taken advantage of her sadness and her drunkenness to get her into bed. Jack has always loved Nicola and her loyalty, but he always had some weird fantasy in his head of bedding all of her other sisters too, making some kind of game out of it.
Also made a pass at his other sister-in-law Lauren, propositioning her very crudely for a threesome with a prostitute after discovering she was bisexual. He then went on to sleep with that prostitute when Lauren said no.
