Даниэла Стил - Finding Ashley [calibre]

Melissa wore a somber black dress that night for the reception of Marla’s hundred closest friends. Every famous face in Hollywood was there, and Melissa recognized every one of them. Michaela introduced her to the first arrivals, and after that their living room was jammed. They arrived at seven and left at midnight, and drank rivers of champagne.

The next day looked like a Cecil B. DeMille production, with three hundred invited guests at the funeral, and thousands of fans outside behind police lines, with a police officer every few feet to keep them behind the barricades.

The ceremony was touching, but Melissa felt like she was in a movie, not at the funeral of anyone’s mother. It was pure Marla with the flowers Michaela had wanted. Michaela wore a black Chanel suit, and a small black hat, and looked like Jackie Kennedy again. Marla would have approved. Melissa stood behind Michaela and no one had any idea who she was. She thought she looked like a nanny, and Norm laughed when she said it to him later on the phone.

There were thousands of people outside the church. And the highway was closed for them so the funeral procession could get to the cemetery, and back again. Marla got as much fanfare and respect as any president.

And then finally, it was over. Melissa had cold chicken in the kitchen that night with David, Michaela, and the children, and she sent them back to school the next day.

It was so different from Robbie’s funeral, and her parents’, that it was hard to relate to it, and yet it had seemed so perfect for the huge star Melissa had met only once. It made Melissa realize again how different Michaela’s life had been with Marla than it would have been as the illegitimate child of a sixteen-year-old girl from a much simpler background. In the end, maybe the nuns at Saint Blaise’s hadn’t been so wrong.

“She would have loved it,” Michaela said again after the children left for school. David had gone to his office, and life seemed almost normal, although Marla’s assistants and housekeeper had reported that there were still about a thousand people standing outside Marla’s house. The crowd had dispersed outside Michaela’s.

“It must have been exciting growing up with all that,” Melissa said, still overwhelmed by it.

“Sometimes. But I didn’t really like it. I dreamed of having someone like you as my mother. It’s not easy being a star or the daughter of one, and Marla loved to feed the frenzy. She said it was good for the box office. She never lost sight of that. But she had a good heart.”

“I really liked her when I met her,” Melissa said, smiling at the memory.

“She liked you too.”

They sat there quietly, thinking about her for a few minutes. Melissa had said goodbye to the children at breakfast. She was flying back to Boston that afternoon, and Norm had offered to pick her up. She had tried to describe the whole scene to him, and he had watched some of it on TV, the crowds in the streets, and outside the church, many of them crying.

When she left, she promised to come and visit again soon. She hadn’t planned to intrude on them too often, but with Marla gone, Michaela was hungry to see more of Melissa, and might need her for a while. She was going back to work herself that afternoon.

Melissa hugged her tight when she left her, and told her she loved her. Then she got into the Uber, and waved as they drove away. It had been an extraordinary experience being there. It was an odd feeling knowing that she had handed her baby over to this woman moments after she was born, and Marla had taken care of her for thirty-three years. And now, when the helicopter crashed in Scotland, Marla had handed their daughter back to her. It was Melissa’s turn now. She had waited years for this, and Melissa smiled as they drove away. She had the odd feeling that Marla was smiling at her, and wished her well. She could imagine her saying “Take good care of our girl.” And Melissa promised her silently she would.

Chapter 17

Norm picked Melissa up at the Boston airport and drove her home. She tried to describe all of the past few days to him in the car on the way back. It sounded more like a movie now than real life. Marla had been larger than life, and she had left behind a daughter who loved her, and had all the right values and was a good mother herself. It was the only legacy that mattered in Melissa’s eyes. More than all her movies and the fact that she was a star. Michaela was her best legacy. And it was Melissa who had given her the gift in the beginning. And now Marla had given her back.

She said something to Norm about it the next day when he got home from work. She’d been thinking about it all day.

“It’s funny how people come and go, isn’t it? Michaela disappeared out of my life. Then Robbie came, and he left, and now Michaela is back again. Marla left, and now I’m here for Michaela and her kids. Carson walked out, and now here you are. Your wife left, and I came along. One person leaves and another one shows up. It’s as though we always have what we need, in different forms, at the right time, and not the way we expected.

“Life takes people away, so cruelly at times, and then gives someone else back. And nothing happens the way we plan it. Robbie should have lived a long life, but he didn’t. My marriage to Carson seemed so solid, but it wasn’t. It collapsed like a house of cards. And then Jane came along, and seemed like such a bore, but she’s perfect for him. And you were completely unexpected in my life. You thought you were married forever, but you weren’t. I finally accepted that Hattie would be a nun forever, and now she’s not. Michaela was gone forever, and now she’s back. We actually have no idea what’s going to happen, or how it’s going to turn out.” He thought about it and agreed with her, and he liked the way she put it.

“We’re not supposed to know,” he said, thinking about it. “It would take all the fun out of living. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said, looking nervous. “Now that you’re a respectable grandmother and a mother again, and they’ll come to visit, do we need to get married?” He was hoping she’d say yes, but didn’t know how else to put it without scaring her off.

“ ‘Need to’? No, I don’t think so. It’s not a guarantee of anything, and we’ve both learned that it won’t protect us. If one of us goes rogue, the whole thing falls apart.”

“I’m not planning to go rogue, are you?” he asked her, and she shook her head.

“I kind of like it like this,” she admitted. “A little naughty, a lot of fun. It’s very sexy. I don’t want more kids. I’m almost too old anyway, and you don’t want them either. I kind of love it the way it is.” He was a little disappointed, but didn’t want to sound weak, or “wet,” and admit it to her. “You could move in though. That would be nice.” She smiled and moved closer to him, and he liked the sound of that.

“I like that idea. It sounds manly, ‘she’s the woman I live with,’ ” he said, deepening his voice, and she laughed.

“Just sinful enough, but not too much so,” she teased him, and got the desired result. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, and didn’t want to.

“And if we live together, we can make love anytime we want,” he said happily.

“Sounds like a plan,” she said, and followed him up to bed.

—

He moved in that weekend. Hattie drove up for the day to tell Melissa about her plans for Africa, working with the UN team. They were sending her reams of information, and she was leaving in five weeks. She had just signed her papers for the Vatican and the archdiocese, requesting to be released from her vows. Her hand shook as she signed them, but she still knew it was right.