“Me too. You made sure of it. What I don’t know is why you’re with them or why you didn’t tell me any of this. You were Miss Georgia runner-up? A model?”
“It didn’t seem important. I was focused on you.”
“Our trips to New York, the networking, the pushing and shoving is finally making sense. You knew all the right people, didn’t you?” Harlow held up the picture of Mom sitting in the office. “But here’s my real question. What are you doing with Devier Cole, now one of the most powerful men in Hollywood and theuncleof my former fiancé?”
“Anne, Harlow?” Dad appeared at the door. “What’s going on?”
“Harlow snooped through my things.” Mom shot Dad a pointed look.
He glanced down at the photos and yearbook. “She found your trunk.”
“I asked you to throw it out,” Mom said. “But you insisted on keeping it.”
“I thought you might want the contents someday.”
“I don’t, and now Harlow is in my business.”
“Mom, why the big secret? So you modeled. Why didn’t you tell me? It would’ve helped me make sense of my life. Dad, what’s your part in all of this?”
“You.”
“Me? What do you—” Harlow fell against the desk with a glance at her mother. “You got pregnant with me.” More shadows peeled away.
“Well, now she knows, Cookie. All the years of hiding it were for nothing.”
“I never wanted to hide it, Anne.”
“Oh my gosh . . . wait. I don’t understand. I thought you married right after college. Mom, what’s the look you’re giving Devier?” Harlow examined the photo again. “Were you in love with him?”
“Very much, but he wasn’t in love with me.” Mom tugged offher golf gloves. “Fell for him the moment I met him. Sort of like you did Xander. But it wasn’t two-sided. After my year as a Miss Georgia runner-up ended, I took a semester off, went to New York, and signed with Icon. Annis wanted me to meet him. Dev was older, charming, and the most marvelous man I’d ever seen. We had a few dates—probably for publicity’s sake—but there was no spark for him. He left for Hollywood right after that picture was taken. I came home to finish school the fall of ’57. I ran into your dad at a football game and—”
“Eventually made me,” Harlow said. “You wanted a career in modeling and acting, but you got me instead. Which you didn’t want. So I became your puppet, the kid who fulfilled your lost dream. Do you know when I was seven, I sat on the stairs one night, listening to you cry, telling Dad how you grew up poor and never had anything of your own. How you just wanted a chance. You were crying so much it scared me. Mom, I thought something had happened to you, or that Grandma pulled her tricks again. Little did I know it was because of me. From that moment on, all I ever wanted was for younotto be sad.”
“That’s ridiculous. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I was seven. I didn’t know to say anything.”
“So because you eavesdropped, misunderstood a complicated conversation, and made some childish assumptions, I’m the bad guy here?”
“No, Mom, that’s not—I mean . . . From that day on, I made a promise to myself to make you happy. Didn’t it seem weird to you I never rebelled, never said no, loved everything you loved?”
“I just thought—”
“Did it ever occur to you to askmewhat I wanted? Man, it all makes sense now. I grow up with an ambition to make you happy, but you had no intention of makingmehappy.”
“Harlow, that’s not fair,” Dad said. “Your mother loves you. She—”
“Saw an opportunity with her above-average-looking little girl?Made some calls to all the right people? Entered me in fashion shows here and there? Enrolled me in charm school.” Harlow tucked the photos in the envelope and returned them to the yearbook. “I was with Xander for two years and you never once told me about Devier. Is he the reason I got the part inTalk to Me Sweetly? He is the studio head.”
“Your mom was only trying to help you get into acting.”
“Did I want to be in acting? Not really. But, Mom, you did, didn’t you? Star of the school play.”
“Harlow, I understand you are angry,” Dad said. “But watch your tone.”
“You’re darn right I am angry. Why didn’t you stick up for me, Dad? Why did you let her do it? You say I have a head for business, but you never stepped in, never let me work at the cookie plant.”
“Your mom didn’t want you around all the cookies.”
