Chapter 1
“It’s just a small part darling, nothing too complicated. A few lines in an action flick that your father is directing.” Melissa Gilroy’s voice was persuasive as she stood in front of her son. “Think how fun it will be for us to be in the same movie again. Remember Fast Forward and Think Fast? Those movies sent the fans into a crazy spin! Mother and son in the same movies; with you playing the protagonist!” She sat next to him on the faded sofa and forced herself not to grimace. Chad Elijah Gilmore was the only offspring of famous parents and had spent his entire twenty-seven years trying to fight it and be as unobtrusive as possible which had not really worked, considering that he was famous in his own right. He had the creative genes and could not run away from it considering that his father was the world-renowned actor/director James Gilroy and his mother, one of the most outstanding actresses for two decades and counting.
“I am not interested.” Chad’s mouth twisted in a cynical smile. “You must be desperate to come slumming.” He waved a hand at the sparsely decorated living room with the shabby furniture. He had moved out of the opulent mansion when he turned twenty and had bummed around Europe for a couple of years as he tried to lose the image of being the son and heir of his parents. “Let me guess - Father sent you to come and try and talk me into taking the part. Obviously, the fact that I have ignored all of his calls and messages as well as the emails did not give him his answer.” He shook his tumble of wild dark hair, his green eyes hard as flint. Like most child actors growing up with famous parents, he had slid off the narrow path and had done it all. Drugs, alcohol and fast cars before he even turned twenty. He had had one sliver of happiness in his life and that had been when he was seventeen - he shied away from that. The pain was still there after ten years and each time his brain tried to focus on that part of his life, he would forcibly push it away. It was in the past and he could not go back there. He had spent years trying to forget her with countless women and it never worked so now he was embracing the pain and evolving. He had found his niche in life after all the pain and disillusionment. He had founded and was operating a shelter for neglected boys and was finding that it was very therapeutic indeed, a catharsis for his own painful childhood. A lot of people think that having loads of money meant that there was happiness there, but he had learned the hard way that was not the case. He was not happy in the true sense of the word but at least he had found some sort of peace.
“Darling we love you and we think that you are wasting your life- “
“By trying to do some good?” His thick dark brows lifted as he got to his feet and went to get another beer. “I am sorry Mother,” he said with a twisted smile. “I am fresh out of the good stuff. No Dom Perignon in the cooler, just plain old imported beers. I am on a budget.”
Melissa stiffened and refused to rise to the bait, her green eyes a mirror image of her only child assessing him. Her thick blond hair was still lustrous due to hundreds of dollars paid to her own personal stylist and her face was creamy and unmarked, belying the fact that she was fifty-two years old last September. Her plastic surgeon – the go-to discreet Dr. Laird was very good at his job and had told her with his charming smile that she did not need the work. But she was not taking any chances. She belonged to a vicious circle with younger and talented actresses coming up every day and she had to even the odds. “I did not come here to drink Chad and I have to tell you that you are being very difficult. Just one movie darling and I promise that I will never bother you about any such thing again. Not even to ask you to come back home for me!”
“Something I am never going to do!”
“What have we ever done to you?” Melissa asked him quietly. “All we ever did was to try to be the best parents we could be to our son…. “
His harsh laugh cut her off. “Let me see ….” He tapped the side of his head with the beer bottle. “There was Maria, the Hispanic nanny when I was about three or four and she lasted what? A year? Then after that there was Lola, the French girl with the big boobs who taught me the language. She lasted two years and I often wondered if it was because Father was screwing her.” He ignored the stiff look on his mother’s face and continued. “After the fifth one, I lost count. You and Father were so busy with your individual careers that I was ignored until you discovered that I had inherited your creative gene and then you paraded me in front of cameras and shoved me into the limelight. I was a prop, a toy to make you look good and pretend that you were good parents. You ignored me most of the time; that was until ….” He broke off and swallowed the beer, turning away to go and look out the window.
He stiffened when he felt her come up behind him.
“It’s about that - that horrible plus sized girl that came from the wrong side of town. That is why you are punishing us after all these years.”
He turned to look at her and she stepped back at the cold light in his green eyes that reminded her of frozen glass. “That horrible girl’ as you put it Mother was the best thing that ever happened to me and you and Father destroyed that.” He rubbed a hand over his forehead wearily. “Look, I don’t want to rehash anything, and I am telling you politely that I am not interested in acting. I have done that, and I am done with that part of my life. Please respect my decision and leave me the hell alone!”
*****
“Elena come on! You have been holed up in this crummy apartment for the past three days. You are beginning to look like the four walls and honey believe me when I say that is not a compliment. The walls are cream or some sort of horrible off-white. I am inviting you to a party of the millennium. There will be booze, drugs - and I know that you do not imbibe but there will also be men there - single men for you to choose from. I swear that I am beginning to think that all is lost for you when it comes to you getting laid.”
“Unlike you, I have a lot of work to do.” Elena said mildly, not in the least bit insulted by the slights. “You are gay - Joel and every day for you is a party. I am racing against the clock to get this book finished. I need the money.”
“And I told you that I can spot you rent for this month. I am loaded honey, at least my parents are, and I get to live off their money and do whatever the hell I please.”
“I don’t want handouts.”
“It’s called help from a friend and you need to get off that high horse of yours and accept it. Treat it as a gift.”
“You mean like that horribly expensive phone you forced on me? Or that laptop that I could never afford?” Elena walked into her tiny kitchen and put the kettle on. She was a ghostwriter and her genre was historical romance which meant that she had to do a lot of research whenever she was starting a novel.
“At least it helped you with your work. That laptop that you were using was so unpredictable that it kept losing your data. I don’t believe you thanked me enough.”