Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

“Do you want to go upstairs and lie down?” Meredith asked her.

“No, I’m so relieved that I don’t have to go through a trial, Andrew isn’t walking around free, and he won’t get out of jail for a long time.” In twelve years, Daphne would be nineteen and Will twenty-three. They had a chance to grow up in peace now, and no one was going to beat her again. But all three of them were shocked about the woman who had died.

It was a terrible story, for Tyla, for her children, for the woman he had killed. But it was over now. They never had to see him again. She, Daphne, and Will would feel the effects of what they’d been through for years. But they could start over now and begin to heal. And miraculously, Tyla and her children had lived through it, unlike the schoolteacher. They were free of him forever. It was all she wanted, and felt like justice enough to her.

Chapter 16

The producers had sent a private jet to pick up Meredith and Charles in San Francisco. It was a G500, and they had a hairdresser and makeup artist on the plane with her. Meredith had brought a long black Dior evening gown with her, and high heels, and she was going to dress on the plane, and go straight from the airport to the premiere. Charles was already wearing his tuxedo. There would be both red carpet and a press conference at the premiere. Julia was planning to attend with an actor she knew. Her father had flown out from New York, and Kendall had sent her regrets, and said she had the flu. Julia said she was sure her mother had never intended to come, but maybe it was just as well. She would have been like the evil witch in a fairy tale, given how she felt about Hollywood. Julia was the fairy princess. Meredith was so proud of her.

She got her hair and makeup done on the short flight. It was in a sleek bun, and the dress was very flattering. The heels made her almost as tall as Charles. There was a black Rolls with a driver waiting for them on the runway, to whisk them to the theater. It reminded Meredith of the old days.

“You look beautiful,” Charles whispered to her in the car. Their bags were being taken to a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where they would spend the night, and go home on the same plane in the morning after a press breakfast Meredith had to attend with her granddaughter. The press had been playing up the multigenerational aspect, which had been the whole point of her doing it.

Meredith headed down the red carpet on Charles’s arm as soon as they arrived, stopping to pose for photographers. There were easily two hundred of them, and the flashes were blinding, but Meredith never stopped smiling. It was like a long forgotten déjà vu for her. When her vision cleared, she saw her granddaughter coming toward her, with her red hair piled on top of her head with a diamond clip, her perfect body poured into a white satin Chanel haute couture evening gown, and a handsome young man at her side. The four of them posed for more pictures, and then several of Meredith and Julia together without the men, and then, waving and smiling, they made their way into the theater, where more photographers were waiting for them.

When they finally took their seats in the theater, Charles whispered to her, “Is it always like this?”

“If it’s a major film, it is.” He was enjoying it. Meredith looked radiant. She had been born to be a star. She really was movie royalty, and so was Julia now.

Charles had seen a screening of the movie with her, but he enjoyed seeing it again. They were inching out of the theater into the lobby with fans and gawkers waiting outside, photographers pushing and shoving them, while Meredith remained gracious and poised with Julia next to her, and her date at her side.

They were slowly making their way to the door, to get to the dinner and after-party when a man stepped in front of her. He had with him a blousy, heavyset woman, with a bad dye job. She was overflowing out of her dress, and the man was looking straight at Meredith as though he knew her. For an instant she didn’t recognize him, and then she knew who he was. It was her ex-husband, Scott Price, and his wife, Silvana. She hadn’t seen Scott since their son’s funeral, and now she was face-to-face with him. Charles guessed instantly who he was from Meredith’s expression, and he almost laughed when he saw Silvana. Talk about betting on the wrong horse for the long haul. Meredith was as slim and beautiful and elegant and graceful as ever. Silvana looked like a cheap waitress in a borrowed dress. It clung to her like a second skin that belonged to someone else. Scott paid no attention to her.

“You were wonderful in the movie,” he complimented her. “You always were. I knew the part was for you the minute I read it. I’m glad you agreed to do it.”

“Julia is our star,” she deflected the praise as she always did, and then turned it on him. “I saw your last two movies. They were excellent. Oscar material.” And she meant it. But what felt so odd was seeing him, meeting his eyes, the man who had broken her heart with another woman, risked their son, and had haunted her for fourteen years. He had caused her years of torment, and now he stood there, making small talk as though they were friends. Talking to him, she realized that he was nothing to her now, neither lover nor friend. They were barely acquaintances and didn’t know each other anymore. He could no longer hurt her or cause her pain. He had no power over her. He gently touched her arm and she instinctively pulled away, and then the crowd separated them and he was gone.

“Are you okay?” Charles whispered to her as they were carried on the tide to the lobby.

“I’m fine. It was like we never knew each other.” She had loved him so much for a long time. After that, in her heart, he was the man who had killed her son. Now he was nothing. “We’re strangers now,” she said about Scott, and Charles nodded, and held tight to her arm to remind her that he was there in all the ways that mattered and he would let no harm come to her.

—

It was a long night. The party went on forever, the meal was elaborate. The press stayed longer than usual, and it was entertainment headlines that Meredith White had come out of retirement to appear in a movie with her granddaughter, and they had both been fabulous. Meredith looked better than ever. She was almost more beautiful now.

Funnily enough, it was as though everyone had forgotten she’d ever been married to Scott. The years had taken a toll on him. He had aged badly. No one wanted pictures of him with Silvana. They photographed him alone. They left the party early, without saying goodbye to Julia. Meredith felt as though she had broken another spell that night. Scott no longer mattered to her. It was good to know.

Meredith and Charles had arrived at the premiere at six for the red carpet, and it was after one when they left the after-party, still crawling with press. This was a major Hollywood milestone. Meredith claimed it was a one-off she had done for her granddaughter, but everyone wanted to know if she was going to make another movie, if she was back.

Charles asked her the same question in the car on the way to the hotel.

“I don’t know,” she said in a soft voice, sitting regally next to him in the Rolls, and then she melted against him. “I’m not sure it matters. I have everything I want, Julia…you…friends…” She had Will and Daphne as her adopted grandchildren…Tyla had just moved to her own apartment a few blocks away, and had sold the house the court had given to her in full. She and the children were financially secure and safe at last. Andrew was in San Quentin prison, where he belonged. Peter and Ava were getting married. They were all going to a concert of Arthur’s in New York soon, at Carnegie Hall. The two people who had hurt her the most, Scott and Kendall, had lost their power over her. She was happy with Charles. It was hard to imagine anything more. “I don’t know if I need another movie. I had fun with this one,” she said to Charles. But she wasn’t afraid of that either. If she found another movie she wanted to do, she would. She could do whatever she wanted now, and it was amazing to think that an earthquake had started it all.