by Maggie Marr
Cami had texted me the good news that her mom was still in. Elizabeth Montgomery would cash flow the film. We were still missing our star. Jennifer Laredo had accepted Worldwide’s offer to star alongside my dad in The Legend Kills and they had begun soft prep. How were they doing this? No producer, other than Dad, had stepped up to take over the film. Dad couldn’t star in the film and produce. My father could do a lot of things, but he didn’t have the ability to troubleshoot and remain calm. Which was primarily what a producer did on set, plus keep the entire cast and crew on time and hopefully happy.
My phone rang in the car. “This is Sterling.”
“I have Kiley Kepner for Sterling Legend,” a light and airy voice chirped into my car. I grimaced. This was not a call I was keen to take, but curiosity got the better of me. The divorce between my father and Kiley had been finalized two months ago. She was no longer a part of my family, but the memories of how awful she’d been to my sister, my dad, and my friends were still fresh in my mind.
“Put her through,” I said. I didn’t like Kiley but she was, as of this moment, one of the world’s biggest female stars.
“Sterling.” Her voice would feel like a soft caress if I weren’t aware of the cruel shallow person to whom it belonged.
“Hey, Kiley.” I put my Hollywood film producer nonchalance and I-love-everyone game face into high gear. Kiley couldn’t be trusted. She was a deceitful, vile creature in a fantastic-looking package. Filmmaking was just like any other business—you didn’t always have the luxury of working with people you liked. “How are you?”
“I hear you’re making The Lady’s Regret, with Cami Montgomery directing.” Kiley got straight to the point.
“That’s the plan. We still need put some pieces together.”
“I heard you went out to Jennifer Laredo.”
I took a long slow breath. “We did but she recently got offered The—”
“Legend Kills. I know,” Kiley said.
Of course she knew. She was a big star with eyes and ears everywhere.
“Steve loathes The Lady’s Regret,” Kiley said. Glee trickled through her voice.
“We’re not working together on the project,” I said, cutting her off. “How can I help you, Kiley?”
“I want to play the lead in The Lady’s Regret, and I’ll do it for SAG scale plus ten percent and a producer’s credit.”
My teeth clamped together. Fuck! I broke into a sweat. This was one of the world’s biggest stars offering to play the role in my film. I should be ecstatic. With Kiley in the lead all my problems were solved. As an A-List star, she would attract a great male co-star, we would get all our necessary foreign pre-sales, we could go into prep immediately, we would even have an excellent shot of recouping all the money we’d laid out. Kiley’s motivation to do this film was transparent—it was due entirely to sheer meanness. Working with her would create a chasm between my father and me as big as the Grand Canyon. He hated the script and he’d just divorced Kiley. Plus what would I tell Amanda?
“Amanda is a producer on the film. I need to speak with her before I can give you an answer …” I said. “I also need to run it by Cami.”
“And don’t forget Elizabeth Montgomery,” Kiley said. “I hear she’s the one bankrolling the entire production.”
“Right. Give me today. I’ll get back to you quickly.”
“Talk to Amanda and Cami and let me know,” Kiley said. “I’ve always loved the script and, to be honest, Sterling, I love the idea of making my ex-husband mad even more.” I could see her evil smile over the phone. I pressed the off button. I wanted to be able to tell her no, to say go to hell, but with the deadline approaching for the option there was little that I could do but say yes. Kiley Kepner, the woman every member of the family loathed, might be the only way to make The Lady’s Regret.
I pulled into Amanda’s driveway. I couldn’t wait to tell her about Kiley.
*
Having a nearly married sister meant there was always a stocked refrigerator. Mine always had booze, but I wasn’t so great at keeping food at my place. I pulled a beer from the refrigerator and walked toward the backyard. I heard female voices but couldn’t make out the words. I looked through the sliding doors. Amanda drifted on a raft along the bright blue surface of her pool. Maeve sat on the second step in the shallow end and Rhiannon lay on a chaise in the shade by the pool. My eyes roamed over her bare skin. Her head turned toward me as though she’d felt my gaze.
“Sterling!” Amanda called. A near-empty pitcher of margaritas sat on the pool deck. Maeve waved to me. I hadn’t known that she’d returned home. Amanda’s wobbly grin indicated that they’d been there for quite a while.
“We were just talking about you,” Amanda said.
“Maeve!” I said and walked over to Rhiannon’s sister. “Is that you? All grown up!” I kissed both her cheeks. She looked like her sister except with a darker complexion and dark red hair. Plus, with Maeve, her rebellious spirit always shone through.
“Sterling! How the heck are you?” She wrapped an arm around my neck and leaned in next to my ear. Her words were a whisper for only me to hear. “Would you two please stop torturing each other and just admit you’re meant to be together?”
There was tequila on Maeve’s breath and we both wore sunglasses. I couldn’t read her expression but she wore a smile on her lips.
“I’ve loved her my whole life,” I said.
“And she you.”
Maeve released her grasp around my neck and bent down to the pool where Amanda stood refilling margaritas.
I walked to Rhiannon and sat down on the end of her lounger. She seemed to be the most sober of the three. “How long have you ladies been drinking and sunning?”
“Since ten a.m.,” Amanda called.
“We spent the night,” Maeve said. “Lots to catch up on.”
“Gayle’s housekeeper stayed at the ranch so I’ve got these two for a couple of days.” Amanda was beaming. Having her two best friends with her made her happy. “Lane would have come but she already signed on to help at a charity event in San Francisco. She might be able to come by later this afternoon.”
“Wow, you’ve got a regular girls’ weekend going on here.”
“The masseuse arrives this afternoon,” Amanda said.
“When does Ryan get home?” I asked.
“They’re on set in New Mexico for a week,” she said and waved her hand. “That’s why I broke out the blender!” While Ryan didn’t mind when others drank, I knew that Amanda often didn’t imbibe when he was around as a show of solidarity for her sober husband. His fight to remain sober wasn’t always easy. Her respect for the choice Ryan made each day to remain sober was deeply etched into their relationship.
“Shhh,” Amanda said and pressed her finger to her mouth, “we won’t tell him we got a little boozy by the pool.” Amanda held out a glass of margaritas to Rhiannon. I leaned forward, took it from Amanda and handed it to Rhiannon. Heat spiraled through me when her fingers touched mine. Cast back into the role of adolescent schoolboy, when Rhiannon was near my body tensed with her touch. I released the glass into Rhiannon’s hand and turned back toward the pool.
Amanda hopped back onto her pool float without spilling a drop of her drink. “Not that you need a reason, big brother, but why are you here? You seem too serious for just a drop-by.”
“I wanted to talk to you about the film,” I said.
“Jennifer Laredo?” Amanda asked with a hopeful smile on her face.
“Accepted The Legend Kills.”
“Dammit. Daddy!” Amanda said and splashed her hand into the pool. “Why does he hate this project so much? Why doesn’t he understand we need to make it for Mom?”
I glanced toward Maeve and wished those sunglasses weren’t on her face. Why did both Maeve and Rhiannon’s father and my dad hate this project so much? Was there something that the Bliss sisters knew that Amanda and I didn’t?
“Who’s next?” A
manda asked. “We’re running out of time.”
“I got a call on the way over here,” I said. “You won’t like it, but it will get The Lady’s Regret made.”
Amanda’s jaw dropped open and she tilted her head to the side. “You’re kidding me, right?”
I didn’t even have to say the name and already Amanda knew which female star I’d spoken to.
“Seriously? Seriously you want me to be a producer on a film and let Kiley-fucking-Kepner play a role that was written for our mother? Sterling? Come on! You seriously expect me to say yes to this?”
“Kiley playing the role gets The Lady’s Regret made.” Amanda was tipsy. Now wasn’t the best time to discuss Kiley with my sister. Amanda was good at the Legend facade until she got drunk. Drunk Amanda was much more emotional and verbal than sober Amanda. I knew this from experience.
“Sterling! It was written for our mother! How can you even consider that bitch for this role?”
“I’m not considering Kiley! She called me.” I stood from the chaise lounge and put my hands on my hips. “Dad doesn't want this movie made and he is doing everything he can to sink the film. Tom informed us that if we’re not in production when the option lapses he is scrapping the entire script and shredding the whole damn thing because he doesn't want to see The Lady’s Regret made either. Dad took my foreign distribution, stole my lead, and tried to take my director. I’ve lost my job at Legend Films and the only way I can make this movie is if we say yes to Kiley Kepner. It’s a complete load of shit. Believe me, I know.” My voice had grown louder with each word. My features were stern. A tightness clamped my chest. “I don’t want Kiley in the role that was written for Mom, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Maybe find another actress?” Amanda said.
“Cute,” I countered. “As though I haven’t reached out to every actress who has any value in the marketplace.” My lungs filled with air and I sat back down at the end of Rhiannon’s chaise. “Please believe me when I tell you, Kiley Kepner is our only hope.”
“Those words are terrifying,” Amanda said. “You’re pinning the film’s success on that evil, calculating bitch. How do we know she doesn’t totally screw us once we get into production?”
“Because, sister dear, the only person that Kiley Kepner hates more than you and me is her ex-husband, who absolutely doesn’t want this film made. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and right now, you and me with The Lady’s Regret are definitely in opposition to Dad.”
“Kiley is using our film and this role to mete out her revenge on Dad,” Amanda said. She pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “This is a Shakespearean tragedy waiting to happen.” She turned her gaze toward me. “I’ve always pictured Mom in that role and if the choice is between the film never getting made and Kiley playing the role written for Mom, then Sterling, I have to say let Tom destroy the script. I won’t even be able to watch the film with Kiley in Mom’s role.” Amanda rubbed water up and down her arms. “Plus, if we let Kiley play that role? Daddy is already pissed that we’re pursuing the film; he’d blow a gasket if we put Kiley in Mom’s role. The ink on the divorce decree is barely dry.”
“They were married for, like, three months.”
“Right, and in those three months do you recall all the things she did to me and to Daddy, not to mention Lane and even you? This is not the woman I want in the role that I’ve always pictured Mom playing. We both own half of the option and I don’t want Kiley to play this role.”
Dread thickened in my chest. We were running out of time and actresses. “If Tom would give us more time.” My gaze drifted over my shoulder to Rhiannon who sat silently behind me. “Would you ask your father?”
“I will,” Rhiannon said. “I’ll call him in the morning.”
“It’s after noon in Dublin,” Maeve said. “He’ll already be three pints in and you want a sober Tom Bliss for this conversation.”
“I can tell you both from the way Papa talks about The Lady’s Regret, he’s not inclined to give you more time,” Rhiannon said. “He blames The Lady’s Regret for most of the bad things that have happened in his life.” Rhiannon’s lips were pulled down at the corners. “He thinks the script is cursed.”
I frowned. “Why does everyone think this script is cursed?” I looked from Rhiannon to Maeve and back to Rhiannon. “Don’t tell me you believe it, too? That The Lady’s Regret is never meant to be made?”
“I don’t know about cursed, Sterling, but I do know that some bad things have happened to people involved with the project. I mean, just look at our two families.”
Unlike everyone else, I’d disconnected the script from the events of that summer. The Lady’s Regret was actually finished before Mom had been diagnosed. The fighting had escalated and the separation of our parents had happened immediately after the script was completed. Tom and Gayle separated soon after Mom and Tom returned from Montecito, and Dad moved out of the house until we found out Mom was sick.
My gaze flashed up and I caught Rhiannon’s eyes. A shadow slipped across her face. Did she know why Gayle and Tom and Dad hated this script so much? A question formed in my mind—a question that I didn’t want to ask.
Chapter 14
Rhiannon
“You’re leaving your family, for her?” Mama stood in the hallway just outside her and Papa’s bedroom. She hugged her torso. While there were no tears, a horrible sadness claimed her face. Maeve and I had been banished down the hall to our room, but the house carried sound. We both sat in the hall and listened as our parent’s marriage came to an end.
“I’m not choosing Joanne over them, or even over you.”
“That’s a laugh.” Bitterness wove through Mama’s voice. “You know she won’t love you. She can’t love anyone. She’s much too damaged to love.”
Papa’s shadow flashed backward and forward across the white wall as he packed his bag.
“She may be damaged, but at least she needs me.”
“Needs you? What the hell does that mean? We’ve been married for nearly twenty years. How can you think…? We need you. The girls need you. Even I…” Her voice trailed off into nothingness.
“You can’t even say it, can you, Gayle? You’ve not needed me for years now. You see me as another child to feed and clothe and take care of. When did I stop being the man you married and loved and, instead, became the boy you took care of?”
“I guess when you stopped being a husband. How many years has that been?”
“Far too many,” Papa said. His footsteps thudded through their room and we heard the slam of a drawer in their bathroom. The soft sounds of Mama’s crying filtered down the halls. Maeve scooted closer to me and pressed her face to my shoulder. Her hot tears soaked through my shirt.
“Gayle.” His voice was softer. His anger gone. “I can’t stay. I can’t be here with you any longer. It’s not that I want Joanne more, or even love her; it’s simply that I no longer love you. At least not the way you deserve to be loved.”
Thwapp.
The sound of a hand striking a cheek came down the hall. I jumped and Maeve pressed her face harder into my shoulder. A mewling sound like a scared kitten came from Maeve. I rested my hand on her head.
“You fucked her. You fucked my best friend. How? How could you do that to me, to us, to this family? You’ve destroyed everything because of your own midlife crisis. Because some lovely little bauble of Steve Legend’s felt alone and abused. You know what you are to her, don’t you? You are nothing but a mechanism for revenge. Revenge for the public affair, revenge for all the bastard children she’s discovered. Do you think you’re the first one? The only one? I am her best friend. I know about all of her dalliances.”
The snap of a suitcase being closed. My father’s steps thundering toward the hall.
“You’re not the only one, Thomas,” Mama called. She stood in the hall, her face a mask of sadness and tears. “You’ll never be the only one for Joanne. Don’t even dare to think tha
t you can be.”
He paused in the front room. His gaze wandered down the hall and caught with mine. His anger slid to pain. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Maeve sobbed on my shoulder. I turned to her and put my arm round her. Papa had ruined our family. He had destroyed what we thought to be ours—a family with a mother and a father and happiness and joy. Amanda’s mother had taken Papa from us. I clutched Maeve as she cried.
“Make them stop, Rhiannon, oh please make them stop,” she begged through choked sobs and tears.
I turned back to where Papa stood, but he was already gone.
“Rhiannon!” My shoulder shook. “Rhiannon, wake up.”
My eyes fluttered open. Maeve stood bent over me as I lay in my bed.
“You were crying and thrashing. You were having a bad dream.”
In the darkness my eyes focused. The moon cast a silver light into our shared childhood room.
“Are you okay?”
“I was dreaming about when Papa left.”
Maeve sat on my bed. “I remember that night. It sucked.”
A smile crept across my face. I adored my little sister. She was so honest and so in the moment. She did not ruminate or worry, she simply rushed through life with a joy-filled speed collecting new experiences. Sometimes I wished I could be more like her.
“I don’t think what happened between Papa and Joanne is what frightens me,” I said. “I think it’s also Steve, and what he did and what he continues to do. He’s been married four times since Joanne died.” I turned my head and looked at Maeve as she slid back into her own bed and cuddled up under her sheets. “And I know Sterling and Amanda have no idea about Sophia, Ellen, and Rhett.”