Chapter 15
That evening, Hilary returned home, showered, dressed, and did her makeup, then drove over to Rose’s place. Like most of the Salt Sisters, Rose lived in a beachside home these days, one with big bay windows that swallowed gorgeous, sweeping views. Rose had cultivated a gorgeous rose garden up her walkway, one bursting with reds and pinks and yellows and whites. On her way to the front door, Hilary paused to drop her nose into a flower, close her eyes, and inhale. It wasn’t so very long ago that she’d met Rose in the divorce lawyer’s office. She still remembered how wild Rose had been—alternating between weeping and laughter in a way that nearly gave Hilary whiplash. She’d thought: “This woman should have been an actress. But I’m so glad she isn’t.”
Rose opened the door before Hilary had a chance to ring the bell. She beamed and threw her arms around Hilary, overjoyed to see her. As they stood in an embrace, Hilary listened to the whispered voices coming from the back porch. It sounded serious.
“Did something happen?” Hilary asked, bracing herself as their hug broke.
Rose grimaced and folded her lips. “That’s complicated. Can I get you something to drink? I have orange wine. Rosé. White.”
Hilary followed Rose to the back porch, where she poured her a glass of wine. Stella stood to hug Hilary, as did Katrina and Robby, all of whom sat on the side of the table closest to the door. Some of the others blew her kisses, their eyes enormous. Hilary felt put on the spot. They were probably angry with her for ignoring their text messages for so long.
“Hi, everyone.” Hilary raised a hand and then dropped it. “I think I owe you all an apology.”
“No,” Robby insisted, her hand on Hilary’s shoulder. “We’ve been talking. And we owe you an apology, actually.”
Hilary softened.
“We had no idea what was going on, Hilary,” Nora said sheepishly.
“And if you didn’t feel like you could come to us? That means you didn’t trust us,” Ada said.
Hilary’s stomach tightened. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you. I just felt I don’t know.” She wrung her hands. “I haven’t felt like myself.”
“When I saw what was going on, I wanted to call you immediately,” Rose went on. “But gosh, it’s huge, isn’t it? I didn’t know what to make of it.”
“I can’t imagine,” Robby agreed, puffing out her cheeks. She touched Hilary’s elbow. “You should sit down, Hilary.” She said it as though Hilary were on the verge of collapsing.
Hilary arched her eyebrow. What were they talking about? She had the sudden sensation of having walked into a film scene without knowing her lines.
Stella looked her in the eye and set her jaw. “You haven’t seen the tabloids yet, have you?”
Hilary gaped at her. All she could remember right now was having learned of her mother’s death via the newspaper on the front stoop. She hadn’t subscribed to any magazine or newspaper in twenty years. She’d wanted to protect herself.
She tried to laugh it off. “You know I hate the tabloids, Stella.”
The other Salt Sisters exchanged nervous glances. Hilary’s heart thudded.
“I guess someone will have to tell me,” Hilary said, her voice cracking. “Don’t leave me in the dark.”
Rose made a soft noise in her throat and then disappeared inside. When she returned, she carried a People magazine—the very same magazine that had informed Hilary that Rodrick was having an affair twenty years ago. Rose spread the magazine out in front of her on the porch table.
Hilary almost fell to the floor.
The headline read: “The True Story of Why A Nantucket Family Film Halted Production. Ingrid Salt Speaks Out.”
And there she was on the glossy pages of the magazine, looking so beautiful, her long hair shining, her eyes catlike and regal, her dress sophisticated, probably Dior or Valentino. In the photograph, she looked so remarkably like her grandmother that Hilary had to do a double take. But no. This was Ingrid. This was her daughter.
Why would Ingrid have anything to say about the film?
Someone made space for Hilary at the table, and she collapsed into a chair and read. It was an exclusive interview with Ingrid Salt. Probably, the magazines had flown off the shelves.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: I want our readers to understand that you contacted us rather than the other way around. That’s a rarity. You’re two-time Oscar-winner Ingrid Salt, the granddaughter of one of the most iconic actresses of all time. You don’t need to give interviews like this. Why the change of heart?
INGRID SALT: Hollywood is a tiny place, sometimes. Gossip flies. And I want people to understand the truth about what happened with the A Nantucket Family. If you have control over what people believe, as I do, then it’s your duty to speak out.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Well said.
INGRID SALT: What spurned this on was my friendship with Marty Zhang, of course. I was so excited for her to direct the film. Women are under-represented as directors, and I had a hunch this would be the breakout she needed. But the funding was cut, seemingly out of nowhere. I had to get to the bottom of it. And what I found at the bottom was very personal.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Fascinating. Please explain.
INGRID SALT: Of course, I knew that my father, Rodrick Salt, initially wrote the script and funded A Nantucket Family. Marty Zhang talked to me about it beforehand. She knew I was estranged from my father and asked if it was all right for her to go ahead with the film. I told her to go for it. My relationship with my father has nothing to do with Marty’s career. And when I read the script, I understood why she had to do it. It was sensational. Truly some of my father’s best work.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Your father, Rodrick Salt, is one of the top producers in Hollywood. He’s been the fire behind some very important productions over the years. Has he never produced one of your films?
INGRID SALT: Not since I was a teenager.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Can you explain why you fell out with your father? When did it happen?
INGRID SALT: I’m getting to that. As soon as filming began in Nantucket, I got a call from Marty. She told me something that genuinely surprised me. Apparently, my mother was helping the costume department.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Hilary Helin, Isabella Helin’s daughter?
INGRID SALT: She’s the only mother I have. But I haven’t seen her in many, many years. She lives in Nantucket. And when Marty called, I finally put two and two together. My father wrote a script set in Nantucket, presumably to see my mother again. And he must have wanted her to do the costumes from the very beginning. It floored me. More than that, I was terrified.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Most children would want their parents to get back together. Why not you?
INGRID SALT: After the divorce, my father did everything he could to destroy my mother. Any time her name was mentioned for a gig in costuming, he shot the idea down. When I mentioned that I missed her or said her name at all, he reminded me of something horrible she’d done or why we were better off without her. He spent years putting her down.
But something happened in my father’s life recently. He got divorced again. Very publicly. And I had this horrible hunch that nostalgia had gotten the better of him. Like so many do, he was fondly thinking about his first wife. And he wanted to go back and get her.
I could feel the wheels turning in Rodrick Salt’s head all the way here in Los Angeles. And I hated it. I know very little about my mother’s life in Nantucket, but I know she’s carried on without him just fine. I couldn’t imagine what would happen next. Would he destroy her all over again? My father has a dark heart. He grew up outside of Hollywood, but he did everything he could to marry Isabella Helin’s daughter and secure his career. It turns my stomach.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: You’re suggesting your father married your mother to boost his career?
INGRID SALT: I think they were in love once. But there’s no question that Rodrick Salt knew my mother and grandmother would help me. He’s conniving.As A Nantucket Family filmed, I was busy with things here in LA, and Marty and I lost touch for a little while. I tried not to think about my mother and father. It gave me nightmares. And then, I got a call from Marty Zhang. She was sobbing. Apparently, Rodrick had stopped their funding out of the blue and left Nantucket. I wasn’t entirely surprised. My father is very petty. But when I probed deeper, asking Marty questions about what might have happened, I learned that my mother was having an on-set romance with a cinematographer. This must have really killed my father’s ego. He thought he could sweep back onto Nantucket and pick back up where he left off. He thought he could have his cake and eat it, too.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: You’re saying an entire film production shut down because your mother fell in love with someone else?
INGRID SALT: Hundreds of people lost their jobs because my father can’t sit with what he did twenty years ago.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Have you considered reaching out to your mother about all this?
Here, Hilary stopped reading. Her eyes were filled with tears, and the words were blurry on the page. She closed the magazine and sat with her hands on the glossy pages, focusing on her breathing. She felt outside of time.
All at once, the Salt Sisters wrapped their arms around her. Hilary shook violently as tears spilled down her cheeks. Someone left to get her a glass of water. Someone else asked if she wanted to take a bath. All the while, Hilary’s throat echoed with her sobs.
Her daughter. Her beautiful, wonderful, world-famous daughter. Hilary had allowed herself to think that Ingrid didn’t care about her at all. Yet here she was, in the pages of a magazine, explaining Hilary’s truth.
It was the single greatest act of love Hilary had ever witnessed. And she wasn’t sure if she would ever see Ingrid again to tell her that.