Page 40 of Unspoken Tides

PEOPLE MAGAZINE: You’re saying an entire film production shut down because your mother fell in love with someone else?

INGRID SALT: Hundreds of people lost their jobs because my father can’t sit with what he did twenty years ago.

PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Have you considered reaching out to your mother about all this?

Here, Hilary stopped reading. Her eyes were filled with tears, and the words were blurry on the page. She closed the magazine and sat with her hands on the glossy pages, focusing on her breathing. She felt outside of time.

All at once, the Salt Sisters wrapped their arms around her. Hilary shook violently as tears spilled down her cheeks. Someone left to get her a glass of water. Someone else asked if she wanted to take a bath. All the while, Hilary’s throat echoed with her sobs.

Her daughter. Her beautiful, wonderful, world-famous daughter. Hilary had allowed herself to think that Ingrid didn’t care about her at all. Yet here she was, in the pages of a magazine, explaining Hilary’s truth.

It was the single greatest act of love Hilary had ever witnessed. And she wasn’t sure if she would ever see Ingrid again to tell her that.

Chapter Sixteen

May 2005 - Nantucket Island

It was two months after the finalization of Hilary and Rodrick’s divorce. For what felt like the twentieth time that month, Hilary was on the phone, listening to a horrible, jangly song that indicated she was meant to wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. Rose had come over for lunch, and from the veranda, Hilary could see Rose’s bun bobbing around the kitchen as she prepared a salad.

“Mrs. Salt?” A receptionist came back on the line. “I’m sorry to say that she can’t come to the phone right now.”

Hilary’s heart thudded. “Do you know when she’ll be able to come to the phone?” She was willing to wait all day if she had to.

“She said today isn’t good,” the receptionist said.

“But yesterday wasn’t good, and neither was the day before.”

“Ingrid is really quite busy these days,” the receptionist went on. “She’s our brightest star.”

Frustrated, Hilary hung up the phone without saying goodbye, then immediately regretted it. She had to get on the receptionist’s good side if she ever wanted to speak to Ingrid again.

Rose appeared on the veranda with the salad bowl in her hands and grimaced. “Nothing?”

“She’s busy,” Hilary said, trying to brighten her voice.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to be her,” Rose said, trying to soften the blow. “Curious Agent was everywhere this year. She’s suddenly very famous. Must be hard as a child star.”

Curious Agent was Ingrid Salt’s breakout role. In the film, she starred as a Harriet-the-Spy-type, a child detective in a suburban neighborhood in Ohio. Ingrid had never been to Ohio, and she still hadn’t, as they’d filmed the entire thing on a soundstage in Los Angeles. The filming had taken place in early 2004, which meant it was the final film Hilary had ever worked on. It had been remarkable to be in the background, watching her daughter flourish. She was already a brilliant actress, with all of the charm and light her grandmother had had. She was also truly kind to the rest of the cast, a rarity when it came to movie stars.

Hilary hadn’t known it would be her final film, nor the final period she was allowed to simply hang out with her daughter. She looked back on that time with aching nostalgia, remembering the card games they’d played, the snacks they’d eaten in Ingrid’s trailer, and the films they’d watched. She remembered Rodrick, Ingrid, and herself, falling asleep in one big bed, all cozied up as a family. She remembered watching Rodrick wake up and, in his haze, kiss Ingrid on the forehead. She’d surged with love.

Ingrid had been ten at the time of the filming of Curious Agent. Because she’d just had another birthday, she was already twelve.

Hilary had planned to celebrate Ingrid’s birthday with her in LA. She’d purchased a flight and packed her bags. But Ingrid’s agent had called to say that Ingrid and Rodrick would be out of town on the weekend of her birthday. Ingrid was doing a screen test for a new HBO series. Ingrid was wanted. The agent refused to tell Hilary where the screentest was, presumably because Rodrick had told her not to. Hilary had spent the weekend sobbing to Stella. “He can’t keep you from her forever,” Stella had said.

Last spring, after they wrapped Curious Agent, Ingrid returned to her boarding school for the children of Hollywood elite, where she studied acting with many top-tier coaches and teachers. Hilary hadn’t wanted to send her to boarding school, but Ingrid had begged to go—and sending her there had made it easier on Hilary’s and Rodrick’s film careers. They always knew where she was as they gallivanted from one set to another.

With Ingrid back at school, Hilary and Rodrick went to Nantucket to rest for a few months. They were preparing for their upcoming film, a Shakespeare retelling of All’s Well set in San Francisco. During May of Ingrid’s schoolyear, Hilary and Rodrick flew back to California briefly to watch her star in the school musical. She played little orphan Annie and brought down the house. After opening night, as Hilary, Ingrid, and Rodrick ate a mountain of Italian food at a restaurant nearby, they were approached by a Broadway headhunter, who invited Ingrid to an all-summer theater camp in the Catskills. Ingrid leaped at the chance. When Hilary asked if she could go with her, Ingrid wrinkled her nose and said, “I won’t get to be a kid that much longer. Let me go. Please.” It was like she knew she was destined for fame and wanted to cling to her childhood as long as she could.

Ingrid had been at that theater camp when Isabella Helin died. She’d joined her family for a week in California before returning to the Catskills. Even at age eleven, she couldn’t be taken from her work for long.

By August, Ingrid was back at the boarding school, Hilary was living in Nantucket full-time, and Rodrick was having an affair. Hilary had only seen her daughter a handful of times since then. And when she tried to arrange to spend Christmas with her, Ingrid’s agent called to say, “Ingrid has taken a film in December. She’ll be flying from JFK to Switzerland on November thirtieth. She can meet you in Manhattan for one night only.”

That was the last time Hilary had seen her daughter in the flesh. She still remembered it clear as day. They’d met at a cake shop in Midtown. Ingrid’s agent had been on a computer at the table directly next to them, typing furiously. Ingrid had hugged her for longer than Hilary expected her to. Hilary had convinced herself that her daughter didn’t miss her.

“How are you doing, honey?” Hilary asked. She wanted to buy her every cake on the menu. She wanted to steal her away.

Ingrid spoke like a little lady. Her mannerisms were all Isabella Helin. She ordered tea and nothing else, presumably because her agent had told her she had to uphold her figure. Hilary wanted to punch something.

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