Page 90 of We Thought We Were Invincible
“California.” She stood up slowly. “Come on.”
I followed her into her room. She stepped into her closet, returning a moment later with a small box. Setting it on the bed, she gestured for me to take a seat.
“Callie, you have to promise me you won't judge your mom too harshly.”
“Why?”
“Promise me.”
“It won't make me stop loving her if that's what you mean.”
She sighed. “I guess that'll have to be good enough.”
She lifted the lid off the box and took out a stack of news clippings and pictures. Sliding the first one across to me, she said, “To start, this was your mom.”
The headline readEmma Bay Lands the Role of a Lifetime.
“Emma Bay?” My heart pounded in my ears as I recognized the young girl in the picture.
“That was her Hollywood name.” Kat sat next to me. “I was so proud when she was cast in her first role. I told everyone my sister was going to be a big star.”
“Was she?”
A tear leaked from the corner of her eye as she nodded. I picked up the next few press clippings, each about a girl named Emma Bay who was the darling of Hollywood.
My mom? A movie star?
“She met Asher Hendrick during a movie when she was playing a surf whiz. Her favorite kind of role.”
Asher Hendrick.A name for the face. A niggling sense of recognition bit at me.
“Asher was the son of a studio owner.”
“Wait a second,” I stopped her, my head spinning. “The Asher Hendrick. Hendrick's Productions. Everyone knows him.”
Kat nodded, watching me warily. “That's him. Cal, I need to get this story out before my better judgment stops me.”
“No more interruptions. Got it.”
“Asher was wild. Irresponsible. And your mother loved him completely. He took her down a dark path that is so easy to find in that town. The drinking. The drugs. Then one night they were out at a club. A man was quite aggressive with your mom. Asher was the jealous type, the angry type.”
“The fight didn't last long because Asher was on something, crazed. The man almost died and Asher was arrested.”
“Oh my God.” I covered my mouth.
Kat continued. “Asher's father was a dangerous man. He controlled much of what went on in that town, but this was something he couldn't fix. Asher only got a few months, but his father blamed your mom, the great Emma Bay. He started working against her to ruin her career, spreading nasty things around Hollywood and putting pressure on the studios who were producing her current movies. She was a determined woman and took everything he threw at her. Then he tried to force her out another way; to scare her, make her run.”
“So, he had his thugs show up at her place, smashing a window to break in. They held her at gunpoint. It worked. Emma Bay disappeared from Hollywood and Allison McCoy showed back up in Gulf City, a new look, old name, and newly pregnant.”
“When Asher got out of prison a few months later, he tried to use the media to find her, but she was gone.”
She grew quiet. I blew out a long breath, trying to calm myself as I watched the tears roll freely down Kat's face. Had I even known my mother at all? She was this whole other person that had nothing to do with Allison McCoy.
“So, he didn't even know we existed? She didn't tell him? You didn't?”
“Oh, honey.” Kat pulled me into a hug. “It was your mother's wish. That was a life she didn't want you anywhere near. She loved him desperately, but she loved you more.”
I sat up, rubbing at my eyes furiously. “He doesn't know.” I was repeating myself, but it was the only thing I could think of to say as everything I thought I knew about my life was put into question. He hadn't left us.
