my terrible mistake giving you up. It was the worst thing I ever did. Nothing could ever make up for it. I thought I could undo it later, but I never could. Your father would never let me, and the court supported him. I have regretted it and missed you and loved you every single day of my life since. You were never forgotten,” she said, as she stood up and went to hug each one of them. Caroline sobbed as they embraced, and she had been the one who hadn’t wanted to meet her.
Gemma wiped the tears from her cheeks. “How could he not back down and let you see us, and how could he not tell us when we grew up? Who cared if he looked like a liar? It was always about him, how he looked, what people thought of him. What if you had died before we met you?” Gemma said, horrified at the thought. “We thought we had no mother all our lives, but we did. We had a right to know that.” But they all knew that was how their father functioned. He made the rules, and this was an extreme example of it.
All things considered, Scarlett was very fair about him, and willing to admit her own mistakes. He never had. He never did. And they had been cheated of a mother as a result, in order to punish her, and so he could be the only star in his daughters’ lives. It was a devastating revelation for them all. None of them could imagine her ever going to jail, or being on drugs for ten years. They realized she was a strong person if she had survived all of it and turned her life around. She looked proper and respectable and wholesome, and seemed like an honest, open, very loving person, even if she’d been foolish in her youth. And how could anyone guess what they would do, faced with that kind of poverty and despair?
“It’s ironic,” she said quietly, “that he died first, and you found me as a result. I’m surprised he never destroyed the paperwork, so there was no evidence.” It surprised her daughters too.
“He probably forgot,” Kate said in response, “or meant to do it later. He died very suddenly of a heart attack, and he was quite young, at sixty-four. I’m sure he expected to live much longer and thought he had time to destroy the papers.”
“Did he ever remarry? Did you have a woman in your life?” she asked gently.
“No, he didn’t. He’s been with the same woman for twenty-four years, almost as long as you’ve been with your Italian friend,” Gemma answered. “She’s very discreet, and treated us more as friends. Dad never wanted anyone too involved with us. They didn’t move in together until Caroline left for college. He was pretty proper about things like that.”
“Are you all married? Do you have children?” Scarlett wanted to know everything about them, and Kate laughed.
“I’m not. I run the ranch, and have worked for Dad for twenty years. Gemma’s not married either. She’s been too busy being a star.” They all laughed. “Caroline is married and has two kids, a son, eleven, and a daughter, fifteen.”
“My daughter looks a lot like you,” Caroline said softly. Her sisters had noticed it too.
They were all shocked to realize they had spent two hours with her, while she told her story. It had been a heavy emotional experience for all of them. Her partner, Roberto Puccinelli, let himself in as they were chatting at the end. She introduced him to all of her daughters, and he looked deeply moved.
“Your mother speaks of you almost every day.” He smiled at Gemma. He was a handsome, distinguished-looking man with lively blue eyes and white hair. “And we watch your show every week.”
“You’ll have to watch reruns now,” she said sadly. “We just went off the air.”
“Oh no!” he exclaimed, and Scarlett smiled at them.
“May I see you again?” she asked cautiously, afraid of what they’d say. Maybe they only wanted to satisfy their curiosity, but didn’t want her in their lives now. Anything was possible. Jimmy had successfully gouged her out of their lives for nearly forty years.
“Of course,” Caroline was the first to say, and Gemma and Kate were quick to respond positively.
“Will you come to the ranch to visit us?” Kate asked her. “We’re all staying there right now, which is very unusual for us.”