Previously…

Miranda found a picture in David’s cabin of a young blonde girl with pigtails nicknamed Babydoll.  David told Brooke that she reminded him of Babydoll, a girl that he met in Big Bear some twenty years earlier.  Brooke wondered how her mother was able to afford the expensive clothes and furs she wore.  Roz tried to convince Brooke to go back to James. David and Brooke shared a tender moment reflecting on his father’s passing. Brooke learned that her father had passed away of a heart attack.  On the way to Phoenix, Roz asked Brooke if she and David had slept together.  Benji and Sierra met at a polo match. Immediately drawn to her, Benji asked her to accompany him to lunch the following day. Later, Renee cautioned her daughter against being friends with Benji.  Alex tried to buy Kelly off, who became angry with Stormy for not standing up to his mother.  Kelly ran off and bumped into Brett at the marina, causing Stormy to become jealous.  Miranda continued to tell herself she was not interested in Eddie romantically.  Renee remembered that she’d seen Roz Taylor with Royce Jennings while on a business trip with her father.

---

The infant cried for the majority of the five hour drive.  Her mother stopped only when necessary, filling the tank on her beat up old Cadillac, feeding the baby her formula, and stretching her cramped legs.  By the time she reached the mountains, it was nightfall.  A shroud of trees enveloped the road on all sides.  The headlights cut through the darkness, illuminating a giant wooden sign emblazoned with the greeting Welcome to Big Bear Lake, CA.

She drove around for an extra half hour trying to find the remote cabin.  The winding roads that circled the lake seemed to lengthen the further she traveled, her baby’s cries growing louder and more heart-wrenching.

Finally, she arrived, pausing only long enough to take in the opulent house nestled on the edge of the lake.  This man had it all, she thought to herself.  He had a string of houses and buckets of money at his disposal. Meanwhile, she was twenty-five years old and struggled to get by on a daily basis, living on the salary of a salesman and raising a six-month-old baby. It wasn’t fair.  But she’d finally decided to do something about it.  She deserved something for herself and for her child.

Taking the baby in her arms, she made her way to the front door and took a deep breath before knocking.  Moments later, the door opened and the man stood in bewilderment.

“Roz….” he stammered, glancing nervously behind.  “What are you doing here?”

“We need help,” she said, shifting the baby in her arms.

Royce Jennings stood in the doorway, his worst nightmare about to come true….

---

By the time they arrived in Phoenix, Brooke was ready to get on with things.  She needed to have the opportunity to say goodbye to her father.  She needed closure and she also needed time away from her mother.  After the seemingly endless plane ride, she’d had enough.  So when her father’s dowdy sister, Margot St. Claire picked them up at the airport, she asked to be dropped off at home, deciding to forgo the funeral home until the viewing that evening.

Once inside her childhood home, she was flooded with feelings of nostalgia.  The holidays, the birthday parties, the school dances, even the day she came home and told her parents she was marrying Philip Whitacre, all seemed like only yesterday. 

She made her way through the house, running her hands over surfaces and picking up photographs and smiling at happier times when they were a family.  It was hard to believe that her father was gone.  In the kitchen, she saw dishes still stacked neatly in the sink, probably from the last meal he’d eaten before the heart attack that mercilessly took him from her. 

Tears welled up in her eyes and she turned, jumping with a start when she realized someone was standing directly behind her.  A shriek escaped her throat and she attempted to move back but he clasped his arms around her and looked comfortingly into her eyes.

“David,” she said, struggling to catch her breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a gentle smile.  “I didn’t mean to scare you.” 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, alarmed by his sudden appearance.

“I didn’t want you to be alone,” David replied, pushing a strand of blond hair from her eyes.  “You were so upset last night about your father, and I know things with you and your mother have been strained so I wanted to volunteer myself to be your personal savior.  I took my jet.”

Brooke managed a smile and wiped her eyes.  “Thank you,” she said.  “I do need someone to mediate between my mother and me.  She drove me crazy the entire way here.  She won’t quit meddling in my life.  She actually had the nerve to ask me if you and I had slept together.”

“She definitely isn’t my biggest fan,” David said and looked around the living room.  He picked up a photo and stared briefly at it.  “I’m sure she’ll love the fact that I showed up here.  Is this your father?”

Brooke nodded and looked over his shoulder.  Tears came again and she quickly wiped them away.  “Yes,” she said. “Mick Taylor, insurance salesman.”  She waked away, nodding to a line of fishing trophies on the fireplace mantle.  “These were all he had.  Well, besides my mother and me.”

“That’s more than a lot of people have,” David reminded her.  “He loved you.  Just take a look around at all the photographs.  I’ve counted ten already and I’ve only been in two rooms.”

“Yeah, it just seems like all he’s done for his entire life is work himself into the grave,” she said with an apologetic shrug.  “Work to support me and to support my mother.  My mother especially.  I mean look around this place.  This furniture, her clothes, it’s probably all he could do to afford these things for her.  And she of course never worked a day in her life.”

“Fathers make sacrifices,” David said, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Brooke turned and nodded.  “Yes.  They do.”

---

Miranda made her way down the stairs at the Blackthorne mansion, stopping on the landing when she spotted Kelly coming down the hall from the gym dressed in her workout clothes.

“What are you doing?” Miranda asked, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder and glaring at the young woman.

“I’m going upstairs to take a shower.  I just finished a workout.  Do you mind?”

“Yes, I do,” Miranda spat, blocking her path to the stairs.  “The gym is for members of this family.  It is not for the help.  Ask next time.”

Kelly rolled her eyes and glared defiantly at her.  “I’ll use the gym whenever I feel like it,” she said.  “And I am not the help.  I’m here as a guest of my mother, and I happen to be sleeping with your brother, and starring in your father’s new movie.  If that doesn’t give me the keys to the family gym, then I don’t know what does.”

With that, she pushed her way past her and started up the stairs.  Miranda clenched her teeth and grabbed her arm. 

“Just don’t get too comfortable here, sweetie,” she said.

“Why’s that?”

“Because once my brother gets tired of you, you’ll be out of his bed, and your career in Hollywood will blow up as fast as it started.   Do yourself a favor and go back to Hawaii.  Why did you leave, anyway?  I hear your fiancé was loaded.  That arrangement seems like it would be right up your alley.”

“What’s wrong, Miranda?” Kelly asked.  “Afraid that Stormy and I will beat you to the punch in giving your father a grandchild?   Maybe that foxy ex-husband of yours will knock you up again.  He seems to be quite the baby maker.  First you, then Heather, then—” A pause while she covered her mouth in an exaggerated apology.  “Oh wait, you lost your baby.  I’m so sorry.  I forgot.”

Miranda bit her lip, restraining herself from attacking the woman.  The doorbell ringing broke the tension and Kelly offered a smile before flitting up the stairs to her bedroom.   Once she was out of sight, Miranda turned and stalked angrily to the front door.

“Hi Miranda,” Eddie said and walked into the foyer.  “Wow, you look amaz—”

“Stop right there,” she cut him off, raking her fingers through her hair and placing a hand on her hip.  “Eddie, you’ve got to stop coming around all the time.  If it’s not here at home then it’s at the hotel or Heather’s or wherever.  You’ve got to get it through your head.  I don’t want to go out with you.  Our sleeping together was a mistake.  I was lonely and trying to get over someone, and you filled a void.  No pun intended.”

A moment of silence followed while Eddie registered her tirade.  Effectively hiding his disappointment, he pointed across the hall to the study.

“Actually, I was here to see your father,” he finally said.

Miranda frowned and threw her hand up in resignation.  “Oh, okay.  Well, sorry about all that.  I just…you know—”

An in an instant she was gone, barreling out the front door and as far away from the awkward situation as she could.  

Inside the house, James emerged from his study and saw Eddie standing by the door.  “Ah, Eddie, good, you’re here,” he said and gestured into the room.  “Come in.  I trust you’ve found something.”

“I think so,” Eddie replied and handed him a red folder.  “I couldn’t find any direct connection between Roz Taylor and Royce Jennings, but I did find some other interesting facts about her.”

“Bank statements?” James asked when he skimmed through the pages inside the folder.  “This can’t be right.  These numbers don’t make sense.”

“You said yourself that Roz Taylor didn’t dress like a lower middle-class broad,” Eddie said.  “This would be why.”

“But all this money…” James said in bewilderment.  “Thousands of dollars a month for years.  No way did Mick Taylor make this kind of money.”

“He didn’t,” Eddie confirmed.  “They were electronic deposits from a bank in New York.”

“Whose account?” James asked.

Eddie shook his head.  “I don’t know yet, but I’m working on it.  The monthly payments stopped about two years ago, followed by one large sum.  Two million dollars worth.”

“Two years ago?” James asked.  “That was right about the time Royce Jennings died.”  He rubbed his hand over his face and racked his brain for a theory that made sense.  Renee said that she and her father had run into Royce Jennings with Roz Taylor over twenty years ago.  Royce Jennings was dead, so the only person who knew the true connection was Roz.  

“Where are you going?” Eddie asked when James started out of the study.

“I’ve got a funeral to get to,” he said, darting out to the foyer and up the stairs.

---

Kelly stepped out of the shower in her bedroom, wrapped herself in a towel and walked out to her dresser.  When a knock at the door sounded she barely acknowledged the interruption, fully aware of who it would be.

“Kelly, I know you’re in there.  Can we talk?” Stormy asked from outside the door.

“Go away,” she said with a roll of her eyes as she sat down at her vanity and began towel drying her mane of black hair.

Choosing to ignore her foul disposition, Stormy pushed the door open and walked in anyway.  “Look, I know you’re upset with me but—”

“You can’t just walk in here whenever you feel like it,” she said angrily, her wet hair snapping through the air as she turned her head in his direction.  “I may just be the maid’s daughter, but I do have a right to some privacy, you know.”

“I know that,” he said and approached cautiously for fear of upsetting her further.  “I just need you to listen to me.”

“Fine,” she said with a sigh and turned back to the mirror where she ran a brush through her hair.  “But if the next words out of your mouth aren’t I told my mother to go screw herself, then you might as well turn around and leave.”

“I told her to back off,” Stormy insisted.  “I told her that I loved you and that nothing was going to change that.”

“Then why did she try to buy me off?” Kelly asked and turned angrily toward him.  “Besides, she said that the two of you hadn’t spoken.”

“She lied,” he insisted.  “Look, my mother is just going through a difficult time right now.  She was very excited about this role.  It was going to be her big return to acting.”

“Yeah, well that’s not my fault,” Kelly said firmly and stormed across the room to her closet where she selected an outfit.  “You and your father put me in this film and she is trying to make me out to be some kind of scam artist.  And don’t even get me started on your bratty sister.  She’s positively horrible to me.  I try to be so nice and all I get is slapped in the face.  Literally. I’m sick of it, Stormy.”

“I’ll talk to Miranda,” he said and placed a hand on her bare shoulder.  “And I’ll talk to my mother again.  I promise things are going to change.  You’ll see.”

“I don’t know,” she said with a deep sigh, trying to appear unaffected by the feel of his hand on her bare skin.  “Maybe we should just cool it for a while.  It’s obvious the women in your family aren’t going to let up anytime soon, no matter what you do or say to them.”

“No, I don’t want that,” he insisted, running his hand down her arm.  All he could think about was driving up and seeing Brett lifting her out of her car after her spin out at the marina.  Images of Lauren Spencer and the deceitful affair Brett had coerced her into came flooding back to him, not to mention the way he swept in and married Heather after their divorce.  Sharing women had been a trend and he refused to let it happen with Kelly.

“Well, I don’t see any other way,” Kelly said, choosing her words carefully.  She no more wanted to break up than he did, but a well-executed manipulation of the situation couldn’t hurt to advance things to her benefit.  “I mean, this living arrangement is bizarre enough.  I live in your father’s house where my mother’s the maid and I’m sleeping with his son.  I guess if we were married it would be a different story.  At least then I wouldn’t let your mother and your sister make me feel like such an outsider.”

Stormy pulled her close and kissed her warmly.  “You are not an outsider.  I’m so sorry that you’ve felt that way.  I really do love you, Kelly.  I promise things are going to change.”

She managed a faint smile, wondering if her hint would sink in and he’d pop the question.  It was really the only way to cement herself into the world she’d entered into so quickly.  The wife of a studio executive wouldn’t suffer the same career lows that other actresses did.  Alex Reynolds had starred in dozens of movies mostly due to the fact that her husband at the time owned the studio.  Her career was etched in stone.  All she wanted was to be afforded the same thing.  Not that she was looking for a handout.  She would work as hard as ever.  But the in she’d have would make things all the more simple, and sticking it to Stormy’s meddling mother and sister was only gravy.

---

The viewing was scheduled for that evening at six, with the funeral services the next morning at ten.  Margot handled the majority of the arrangements herself as Roz had taken to a bottle of chardonnay and mood stabilizers in an effort to get through the ordeal.  Brooke decided she had to give her mother some credit.  She only resorted to pills and booze during the most adverse times.  When her grandmother died it was a bottle of White Zin and some yellow pills that her doctor had prescribed.  When Brooke announced she was marrying Philip Whitacre it was Pinot and Valium.  At least she knew her mother was genuinely heartsick.  Of course her drug-induced anesthesia could have also been prompted by David’s sudden appearance at their house.

“I don’t know why he’s here,” Roz said to Brooke in her bedroom upstairs as Margot flitted about, pulling suits from the closet and holding them up to inspect with her cat-eye glasses.  “He’s not even family, Brooke.  He didn’t even know your father.”

“He’s here as a friend to me,” Brooke said, arms crossed as she watched her mother tread across the high pile carpet in a pair of off-white Jimmy Choo’s.  “In case you’ve forgotten, I don’t exactly have a lot of friends in Phoenix anymore.”

“Well, you have me and your Aunt Margot,” Roz said and sat down on the edge of her bed, legs crossed.  “And that’s really all you need, sweetheart.  Not some rich high society snob like David Jennings.”

“I get it,” Brooke said adamantly.  “You don’t like David.  But he’s here and he’s staying so you’re just going to have to get used to it.  If he’s not welcome then I’m leaving.”

“All right, don’t get excited,” Roz said, her words slurring slightly.  She felt numb but still had her wits about her.  “Margot, what are you working on over there?”

“Where is Mick’s gray suit?” Margot asked.

“I don’t know.  He can wear the blue one,” Roz said indifferently and took a sip of chardonnay.

“We can’t bury him in a blue suit, Roz,” Margot said primly.  “Now I know I saw him wear it just last week.  Maybe it’s at the dry cleaners.  I’ll go call.”

“Aunt Margot, that’s okay,” Brooke said with a polite smile as she took the blue suit from her.  “We don’t have time.  The funeral homes needs us to bring this to them by four o’clock.  It’ll be fine.  Daddy loved this suit.”

Margot’s eyes teared up and she buried her face in Brooke’s shoulder.  “My big brother,” she sobbed.  “I can’t bare the thought of him not being here.  He was such a good man.  You know that, don’t you, Brooke?  You know that your father was a good man?”

“She knows, Margot,” Roz said with a roll of her eyes.  “Now would you please be a gem and take the blue suit to the funeral home for me?”

“That’s a good idea,” Brooke agreed and shot a look of warning at her mother.  “I think I’ll put on some coffee.”

“Fine,” Margot said and headed to the door.  “Maybe I’ll stop by the cleaners on the way just in case.”

Distracted by her mother’s obvious inebriation, Brooke had nearly forgotten another crucial item.  “Aunt Margot, wait,” she called after her.  “We need shoes.”

“Oh, silly me,” Margot said and followed Brooke to the closet.

“There’s a pair of brown wing tips on the top shelf,” Roz said, waiving her hand in an exaggerated gesture.

Brooke stood on her tip toes, peering onto the closet shelf and rustling around with her hand.  Once she had the shoes in sight, she handed them down to Margot.

“Those were his favorite shoes,” Roz said, barely looking away from her glass of wine.  “They went so well with his blue suit.”

Brooke shook her head in irritation over her mother’s behavior.  She turned back to the closet shelf, her eyes landing on a box that struck a familiar chord in her mind.  Upon further investigation, she realized it was the box of old photographs that she’d taken from her grandmother after her passing.  They stayed in storage in L.A. virtually untouched for years until Roz came to visit last year and took them home with her.

Roz looked up at that instant and grew into a panic when she spotted Brooke lifting the box from the shelf.   “Brooke, wait,” she said, jumping to her feet, her glass toppling over and spilling the sticky liquid onto the floor.

“I just want to see if there are any pictures of Daddy,” Brooke said, struggling with the weight of the box.

“There aren’t!” Roz exclaimed, rushing across the room and trying to push the box back onto the shelf.

In her struggle, Brooke lost her balance and the box tipped to its side, its contents spilling out onto the floor.  Pictures and old clippings landed in a pile at their feet and Roz wasted no time in bending down to collect them.

“Mom, what is wrong with you?” Brooke demanded and sunk to her knees.  “I’ll get it.  I think you need to go lay down for a while.  I’ve got it.”

“No, I need to clean this mess up,” Roz said, grasping at stacks of photographs and throwing them haphazardly into the box.  In her haste, she began to feel light-headed, the effects from the pills and the wine hitting her like a ton of bricks.  She placed a hand on her forehead and felt the room spinning before it went black.

“She’s fainted,” Margot said in a frenzy and knelt down beside her. 

“Come on, let’s get her to the bed,” Brooke said with an irritated groan.

They lifted her to her feet and helped her across the room where she laid perfectly still for several seconds.

“I’ll get a cold cloth,” Margot said and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Brooke…” Roz muttered weakly as she regained consciousness.  “I’m sorry.  Your father loved you so much.”

By the time Margot had returned with the cold compress, Roz had passed out cold.

“She’ll be fine,” Brooke said.  “She just needs to sleep it off for an hour or so.  I’ll make sure she’s up and around in time to leave for the funeral home.  You go ahead, Aunt Margot.”

“First let me help you with this,” Margot said and walked to the cluster of photographs on the floor.  “She’s dealing in her own way, Brooke.  Just so you know that.”

“I know, Aunt Margot,” Brooke said with a meek smile.  She sunk to her knees and began placing the photos back into the box, glancing at every other one to see if it was worthy of keeping for herself.   Most were of family vacations in Flagstaff or visiting family in Scottsdale.  She placed a few aside and continued looking.  She came to one of her as a young girl standing on the dock somewhere.  The surroundings didn’t look anything like Arizona.  Too many trees and greenery. 

“Do you know where this was taken?” Brooke asked and flashed the photo to Margot.

“Probably Big Bear,” the woman replied and continued organizing the mess.

“Big Bear?” Brooke asked with a frown.  She hesitated and shook he head in confusion.  “We never went to Big Bear.”

Margot nodded, distracted.  “Well, not since you were a little girl.  Your mother and father took you there every summer since you were a year old.”

“I don’t remember that,” Brooke said, wondering if this was some sort of strange coincidence.   She was suddenly reminded of a conversation she’d had with David some time ago about Big Bear…

“I thought you were someone else,” David said.  “Someone that I knew a long time ago.  That’s why when I saw you again that day at the police station I remembered the makeup counter.”

“Who did you think I was?”

“A girl I knew,” David replied.  “She was a local girl up in Big Bear.  Every summer my family would go there and she would always come around.  She was young, just a little girl, probably ten years younger than me.  Everyone called her Babydoll.  And before you go there, there wasn’t anything sick going on, so don’t even think it.  She was just a sweet, vibrant little girl who was full of life and laughter.  Blond hair and pigtails and blue eyes.  When I saw you you reminded me so much of her.  It took me back, that’s all.”

“It’s strange,” Brooke muttered to herself.

“What, Dear?”

Running her fingers through her hair, Brooke tried to wrap her head around the odd turn of events.  “It’s strange hat I wouldn’t remember.  I mean, I remember going on vacations as a little girl, but—”

“I think that picture was taken when you were six,” Margot said and smiled adoringly at her niece in the photo.  “That might have been the last year in Big Bear.”

Brooke pawed through more photos, discarding the usual birthday parties and Christmases until she came to another photograph with similar surroundings.

“Who is this that I’m with?” she asked and showed the picture to Margot.

“I don’t know,” Margot said and shook her head.  “Probably a friend of your mothers or fathers.  I got the feeling that they had friends they saw every summer when you were there.”

Brooke nodded, staring at the photograph of her posing on a dock with a man about her father’s age.  Only he wasn’t her father.

Slowly, she turned the photograph over and stared with wide eyes at the scribbled writing on back.  Babydoll, Big Bear Lake, 1985

---

Benji pulled his BMW beneath the porte-cochere at Hotel Terranova.  Loud music blared from the stereo as he jumped out and handed the valet his keys.  Moments later, he was riding the elevator to the penthouse floor. He knocked and dug his hands into his pockets while he waited for an answer.  After a few short seconds, Sierra appeared in the doorway.

“Did you forget our date?” he asked with a frown.

Sierra immediately knew what he was referring to.  Yesterday she’d said she would meet him at The Ivy for lunch, which she blew off hoping he’d forget.   Still, she played ignorant.

“Date?” she asked.  “Oh, right.  Yeah, I’m sorry about that but something came up and I totally forgot all about it.  Maybe next time I’m in town, okay?”

He stopped her from closing the door on him, stepping forward into the foyer of the lavish hotel suite.   “Next time you’re in town?” he asked.  “Did I miss something?”

“No, like I said I just forgot.”

“I see,” he said smugly and watched her flit around the room.  “Is your mom home?”

Sierra nodded.  “Yes, she’s in the bedroom getting ready.  We’re going shopping.”

“Oh, well maybe I can tag along.  I know some killer stores.”

“I don’t think so, Benji,” she said with an apologetic smile.

“Oh, okay.”  He turned and started back to the door, pausing before grabbing the knob.  “Are you sure you just forgot?  Cause it seems like maybe you just changed your mind.  What’s wrong?  Am I not as cool as your friends in New York?”

She shook her head uncomfortably.

“Is it that I’m younger than you?” he asked.  “Because there’s less than two years difference, and at our age what’s the difference anyway?”

Sierra felt herself growing impatient with having to explain herself.  “Look, I just don’t want to go out with you, okay?”

A knowing smile formed on his face and he stepped forward again.  “Let me guess,” he began.  “Your mom said something about me, didn’t she?”

“No, she didn’t,” she replied, not very convincingly.

Benji saw right through her lame excuses.  “Hey, I get it.  My dad probably filled her in on some of the stuff that’s been going on since I got back from school, and she told you to stay away from me.”

Sierra realized there was no use in lying to him.  He was smart.  Smarter than she gave him credit for.  “I just don’t need that kind of drama in my life right now.  I mean, did you really rape that girl back at Beau Soleil?”

“Is that what she told you?” he asked.  “That’s a little rude.”

“Well did you?”

“No, she lied.  She was the Dean’s daughter and she wanted to start trouble.”

Sierra regarded him suspiciously and crossed her arms.  “Okay, well what about that business at the Viper Room?  My mom said you shot someone.”

“Accidentally,” he corrected her.

“Is that supposed to make it okay?”

“It doesn’t make me a bad person, that’s for sure,” Benji insisted.  He put on his most charming smile and flashed her a set of puppydog eyes that no one had ever been able to resist.  “Look, just give me a chance.  If you don’t have a good time, you never have to see me again.  You’re going back to New York in a couple of days and I’m going to be busy working for my father.”

“That’s another thing,” Sierra cut him off.  “My mom said you don’t work for your father.  Just how much of what you told me at the polo game was the truth?”

He grinned devilishly and shrugged his shoulders.  “I told you that I thought you were beautiful.  That’s the truth.”

She couldn’t help but crack a smile.  “Well, it just so happens that there’s someone else who thinks I’m beautiful too,” she said.  “And he’s back in New York and we’re going to be spending a lot of time together this summer.”

“Okay, so who is this guy?”

“Just a guy,” she said.  “His name is Malcolm.  He has a bright future ahead of him and he doesn’t hang around seedy clubs with guns.”

“That’s a pretty tacky thing to say,” he said, feigning hurt feelings.  “Well, okay, great.  Go back to New York and have fun with Malcolm.  Maybe next time you’re in town you can bring him with and I can see what my competition is like.”

“He’s not your competition,” Sierra said.  “The most we can be is friends, Benji, and that’s pushing it.”

He shrugged and walked back to the door, turning back one final time before leaving.  “We’ll see,” he said with a wink, then walked out into the hall.

After he’d gone, Sierra shook her head indifferently just as Renee emerged from the bedroom.

“Did I hear voices, sweetheart?” she asked, fastening a pair of earrings.

“No,” Sierra replied and smiled sweetly.  Something about Benji Rydell interested her, but her head told her she needed to stay as far away from him as possible.

---

Brooke stood in the kitchen with David, him in a suit and her in a simple black dress.  They hovered in the corner by the kitchen table waiting for Roz and Margot to come down so they could leave for the funeral home.   Brooke decided to share with David what she’d found in the box of photographs.  She still couldn’t believe it herself.  Once she revealed to him that she was the young girl he’d met so many years ago in Big Bear, his expression turned to one of disbelief.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

She nodded evenly and handed him the photo of her on the dock.  “Aunt Margot said my parents took me there every year until I was six.”

“This is unbelievable,” David said, looking at the picture and confirming with a nod of his head that Brooke and Babydoll were one in the same.  “When I saw you working at the makeup counter a few years ago I thought I was going crazy.  Then again last year when we ran into each other at the police station.  All this time it was you.”

“I’m just a shocked as you are.  I never remember going to Big Bear.  But I guess I was so young I never really had a reason to remember.”  She handed him the other photograph.  “Just like I don’t remember this man standing beside me.  Aunt Margot thinks he was a friend of my parents.”

David took the photograph from her and fixed his eyes on the man standing with Brooke.

“Do you recognize him?” she asked.  “I thought maybe you would remember seeing him around there during that time.”

He looked up at her with a stunned expression.  “Brooke, this man in the picture is Royce Jennings,” he said.  “This man is my father.”

She grabbed the picture from him again and stared closely at it.  “This is your father?” she asked.  “I don’t believe it.”

“I don’t either.”  He rubbed the back of his head and struggled to remember details of their summers in Big Bear.  “I mean, I guess it’s possible that my mother and father met you and your family during one of those summers.  Did you ask your mother?”

“Not yet, but you better believe I’m going to.”  She turned just as Margot entered the kitchen with a look of frustration. 

“She’s still out cold,” she said, slapping her hands to her sides in resignation.  “I guess those pills really knocked her out.  Brooke, I don’t think she’s going to be able to make it to the viewing.”

Brooke looked at David with annoyance.  It figures that her mother would become incapacitated on the day they were going to say goodbye to her father.  Now on top of that, there were all these unanswered questions about those summers when she was a child.

---

Brooke, David, and Margot drove to the viewing in David’s rented town car.  As they walked to the front entrance, Brooke’s eyes traveled to a familiar face standing beside a car.  Squinting in the late-afternoon sun, she shielded her eyes and walked purposefully toward him.

“James, what on earth—” she began.

James managed a faint smile, his hands dug deep in the pockets of his black trousers.  “I hope I’m not intruding.  I just wanted to be here for you.  I know how much you loved your father.”

“I don’t know what to say,” she began.  The fact that she and her ex-husband had grew to be friends over the past few months was of great relief to her.  His coming to her father’s funeral went above and beyond.  It made her heart soar.  “James, thank you.”

A few moments of awkward silence followed, finally resulting in a warm embrace between them.  “How are you doing?”

She shrugged.  She actually wasn’t sure herself.  So much seemed to be happening that didn’t even have anything to do with her father’s passing.  And her mother seemed to be in the center of it all.

James looked up and extended his hand to David.  “David, good to see you,” he said, not too surprised to see him there.  He knew they had been close, although was never quite sure how close.  Maybe Kenny had been right in something he’d said to him a while back.  Maybe he was fine with Brooke being with anyone, as long as it wasn’t Ethan.

Brooke introduced him to her Aunt Margot and went on to explain her mother’s incapacitated state as the reason for her absence.  The mention of Roz gave him reason to consider his true intentions for traveling to Phoenix.  Yes, he wanted to be there for Brooke, but also to get to the bottom of Roz’s connection to Royce Jennings.   Maybe now wasn’t the right time.  Brooke was emotional enough.  Possibly later he’d have a chance to talk to Roz himself.

---

When Stormy suggested they go to an early dinner at Cut, Kelly wondered if maybe he’d considered the hints she’d dropped earlier about marriage.  When he told her to dress, then showed up at her bedroom in a suit, she became positive he was going to propose.

As they sat at their private, candlelit table, she gazed into his eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like to be his wife.  They would be the most envied couple in Hollywood, him as a dashing producer and her as a beautiful starlet.   They would move out of his father’s house, buy their own luxurious palace in Beverly Hills, and throw lavish parties every night of the week.  Premiere’s, screenings, movie openings…  She could barely contain herself.  This was the life she dreamed of. 

“You look beautiful tonight,” Stormy said sheepishly as he looked across the table at her.  “I mean it.”

“You’re so sweet,” she said and took a sip of champagne. 

“There’s something I want to ask you,” Stormy began, downing his own champagne in one gulp.   “It’s kind of the reason I asked you to dinner tonight.”

Jackpot, Kelly thought to herself.  He was going to propose.  All her dreams were going to come true.  She’d have the career, the gorgeous husband, and the respect of his family.

“Go ahead,” she replied nervously.  “You can ask me anything.”

He smiled and poured them each more champagne.  “Kelly, I want you to be mine and only mine.”

“Me too,” she said.

“Really?” he asked, then laughed with relief.  “I’m so glad.  I just can’t imagine the thought of you doing it with anyone else.”

“Oh….yeah,” she said, less than floored by his tactics.  But however he said it it still meant the same thing.  “No, me either.”

“Good, I’m glad you feel that way, because contracting with Sunset Studios is going to be a win win for both of us.”

Her smile faded and she set her glass down quickly.  “Contracting with Sunset Studios?” she asked in confusion.  “What are you talking about?”

“Signing a contract with the studio,” he explained.  “So that you work exclusively for us.  We’re talking a three-picture deal.”

“That’s what you wanted to ask me?” she demanded in a huff.  Her rosy outlook on the evening suddenly turned dark and gloomy.  She felt like an idiot for thinking he was going to propose.  All he wanted to do was make her studio property. 

“You said yourself that you feel like an outsider and that you don’t belong,” Stormy said, reaching across the table for her hand.  “This way you will belong.  You’ll have a place in three more movies.  My mother and my sister will have to accept you.”

“Perfect,” she said through gritted teeth.  She slid out her chair, tossed her napkin on the table and rose to her feet.  “I can’t tell you how romantic this gesture is, Stormy.  Tell me, do you take all your stars out to fancy restaurants when you ask them to sign a contract?  Or just the ones you’re sleeping with?”

His brow furrowed together, confused by her reaction.  Standing up, he called after her as she stormed through the restaurant and out the front door.

---

Brooke had never been more frustrated in her life.  Her mother was out of it for the rest of the night, slept through the viewing, and was extremely unresponsive upon their return home.  David and James checked into nearby hotels and returned the following morning in preparation for the funeral service at the cemetery.  They paced the living room while Brooke went up to check on Roz.

“I need to talk to you,” she said upon entering the bedroom.

“You’re disappointed in me,” Roz said as she sat at the vanity and clipped on a pair of earrings.  “I have no excuse for my behavior last night, Brooke, or for missing the viewing.  I hate the thought of you going through that alone.  But I just didn’t know how I was going to cope with everything, and before I knew it, I was passed out on the bed.  Can you forgive me?”

“It’s not me you have to apologize to.  It’s Dad.”  She walked across the room and watched her mother in the reflection.  “I guess we should be lucky that you’re lucid today.  You’re not planning on missing the funeral too, are you?”

“No, of course not,” Roz said, refreshed as she stood up and embraced her daughter warmly.   “Now tell me, how are you holding up?”

“Just stop it, mother,” Brooke said and pushed her away.  She withdrew the photos of Big Bear from her purse and shoved them in her direction.  “Why did you never tell me that we spent summers in California?”

Roz looked at the pictures and swallowed hard.  Her eyes narrowed on the image of Royce Jennings and she quickly handed them back.  “It slipped my mind,” she said.  “It was one year.  Your father got a bonus at work and we decided to splurge so we took you to the mountains.  I don’t see why that should upset you.”

“This man in the picture,” Brooke said.  “This is David’s father.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Roz said with a scoff, running a brush through her hair and reapplying a coat of jammy red lipstick.  “That’s an old fisherman we met that summer.  He owned the campground.”

“This is Royce Jennings,” Brooke insisted and thrust the picture back at her.  “Aunt Margot told me we went there every year until I was six.  Why are you lying?”

“I’m not lying.  Honestly, I don’t know why you’re getting so upset about a couple of snapshots.  Is it a crime to take your family on summer vacation?”

Brooke didn’t have the energy to play her games.  She knew her mother was lying about something, but the fact that they were about to bury her father took her attention away from the matter.  When James appeared in the doorway, they both turned in his direction.

“James, what on earth are you doing here?” Roz asked, lighting up with excitement.  Perhaps all her pushing to get them back together had finally paid off.  Maybe David was on his way back to L.A. with his tail between his legs.

“It’s time to go to the cemetery,” he said.

Brooke nodded and glanced back at her mother briefly before rushing out of the room, the pictures dropping to the floor.  James saw them fall and quickly went to retrieve them. 

“She’s just having a hard time with all of this,” Roz said, then smiled hopefully. “But now you’re here so things are bound to improve.  Brooke is so lucky to have you.”

James stared at the photographs, her voice trailing to the background while he pieced together the information.  Realization began slowly dawning.  He shuddered at the scope of the deceit.

“Why is Brooke with Royce Jennings in this picture, Roz?” he asked, then finally looked up and made eye contact with her. 

“Not you too,” she said with an unaffected laugh.  “That’s not who you say it is.”

“This is Royce Jennings,” James responded quickly.  “I was well acquainted with the man.”

She realized she couldn’t deny it so she played ignorant.  “Okay, so maybe it is, but James, that name means nothing to me.  That picture was taken in Big Bear on a summer vacation.  He was a man we met there.  Nothing more.”

“Why are you lying?” he demanded.  “Why are you pretending that you don’t know him?  He deposited money into your bank account every month for nearly thirty years.  Business associates of his saw you together.  Please, Roz, tell me the truth.  Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

She wiped a tear from her eye.  “Whatever you think, it isn’t the truth.”

“Then what is the truth?” asked a voice from across the room.

They both turned and saw Brooke enter the room again.  David followed close behind.  Her eyes burned into her mother’s, desperate for answers even though she knew in her heart she didn’t want to hear it.

“How did you know my father, Roz?” David asked, eying her with eyes as dark as coal.

Tears flooded her eyes and she turned to the dresser where she fumbled with a bottle of pills, swallowing one dry and throwing her head back in agony.

“We met in the late seventies,” she began.  “Mick was on the road five days a week back then.  I was lonely.”

“Oh my god,” Brooke whispered, closing her eyes.

“Royce was in Phoenix opening one of his hotels.”  She turned and looked at them through cloudy eyes.  “I knew he was married, and he knew that I was.  It was a mistake and it only lasted a few months.  I broke it off.  I told him I couldn’t see him anymore.  A few months went by and…”

“Roz….” he stammered, glancing nervously behind.  “What are you doing here?”

“We need help,” she said, shifting the baby in her arms standing outside the cabin.

Royce closed the door behind and stepped out onto the porch.  The moment he looked into the baby’s eyes he knew the truth.  They went for a walk around the lake and she told him about the money problems and the way Mick had accepted the baby as his own despite knowing the truth. 

“I know I told you I never wanted to see you again, but I didn’t know where else to go,” Roz explained when they stopped beneath a grove of trees under the moonlight.  “If you give me some money I promise I’ll go away and you’ll never see us again.  No one has to know that this is your daughter.”

He looked into the infant’s blue eyes and paused before replying.  “What if I don’t want you to?” he asked.

“What?”

“What if I want to see her?” Royce asked again.

“But your wife…” Roz said, shaking her head.  “And your son.  How will they react?”

“I’ll explain it to Jackie,” he said.  “In time she’ll understand.  Roz, I want to be a part of my daughter’s life.  Please, let me see her.  I’ll give you as much money as you want.  I’ll send it to you every month if that’s what you need.  Just don’t take her away.”

Stunned by his reaction, she grudgingly allowed him to take the baby in his arms.

“She’s beautiful,” he said, gazing adoringly at her.  “So perfect.  She’s like a little babydoll.”

“No!” Brooke cried, covering her mouth with her hands.  She stumbled back a step, cringing at David who stood behind her.  She saw the look on his face.  He turned white as a sheet, swallowing hard and glancing between her and Roz. 

“I’m sorry, baby,” Roz lamented.  “Your father….Mick and I decided it was best not to tell you the truth.  He was your father as far as he was concerned.  That doesn’t have to change.”

“Everything’s changed!” Brooke screamed.  “I’m half an hour away from burying my father and come to find out he isn’t my father at all!  Some man I never even met is my father!”

“What about the money, Roz?” James asked.  “The money kept coming for almost thirty years.  Why?”

She walked across the room, her arms wrapped around herself.  “Every summer we’d go to Big Bear so Royce could spend time with Brooke.  For a while it worked out nicely.  Then Jacqueline decided she’d had enough.  She forbad Royce from seeing Brooke again.  He kept sending the checks, but this time it was so we would keep the secret to ourselves.”

“All this time I thought that you were spending all of Daddy’s money on the furs and the jewelry and the fancy furniture!” Brooke screamed.  “But it was hush money you were spending!  It was money to keep lying to me!”

“We knew what it would do to you!” Roz cried.  “In time we just got so used to the money that we never questioned it or thought about it.  And then a couple of months went by and the money didn’t come.  Jacqueline showed up at the door and told us Royce had died in a car accident.  She gave us a check for two million dollars to continue keeping the secret about Brooke’s true paternity.”

David stood, frozen on his feet as he listened to the story of his mother and father’s betrayal.

“She said that it would tarnish Royce’s memory if word got out that he had an illegitimate daughter,” Roz went on, tears staining her cheeks.

“So you took the money and kept lying?” Brooke gasped.  “I had no idea you were so greedy and manipulative.”

Roz shook her head.  “No, it isn’t like that,” she said.

“Yes it is!  You lied to me for my entire life!  That’s why you showed up at my door last year after my divorce!  You said it was because you wanted to help me through a difficult time, but it wasn’t that, was it?”

“I had to!” Roz screamed.  “I had to protect you, Brooke!  That’s why I tried so hard to get you and James back together.  That’s why I cautioned you against David.  If you had gotten close to him and not known he was your brother—”

Brooke closed her eyes and David turned away in disgust.  When James saw the look on their faces he knew immediately what had happened.  Despite all of Roz’s attempts at keeping them apart, the inevitable had actually happened.

“Oh my god,” Roz whispered, covering her mouth with her trembling hands.  “No, tell me you didn’t…”

“The night before we left,” Brooke said, sobbing uncontrollably.  “When David came over and comforted me…”

“No,” Roz said, shaking her head in despair.  She flung herself onto the bed in a fit of hysterics.

“How could you do this to me?” Brooke screamed.   She turned to David and cringed in horror.  She couldn’t even look him in the eyes.  She felt dirty and disgusting.  Their night of passion now seemed tainted with perversion and filth.  Finally, she ran hastily from the room and down the stairs to the front door.

A few moments of silence followed as the others remained in the room, stunned and horrified by the turn of events.

“David, I’m so sorry,” James began.

“Don’t,” he said, holding his hands up and running from the room.

Numb, James turned to Roz and stared in disbelief.  Never did he imagine her secret would be so detrimental and would destroy so many lives.

“What have you done?” he whispered, burying his face in his hands.

---

Next time….

Kelly wonders if Stormy will ever pop the question.  Kelly’s ex-fiancé arrives from Hawaii to cause trouble.