“We had a grand romance and he filled the void of my father passing. That summer, Sterling was the best man ever. He loved me and showered me with affection. We went to party after party, even though he hated them. They were beneath him with the drinking, drugs and sex, and he threatened to leave me if I didn’t stop going. I was in love, so I stopped accepting invitations. My friends, who had once loved him, couldn’t wait for him to leave. I thought they just misunderstood him. He thought Hollywood was going to corrupt me and ruin his image.
“My mother thought he was ruining my career and we’d argue. She found him naked in my bed once and asked if we were being careful. He told her it was my responsibility to make sure a child wasn’t conceived. She was livid and forbade me from seeing him, but I didn’t stop.
“When the summer was ending and he was about to leave, he asked me to go to New York with him and I said yes. I was foolish, angry with my mother and hurt that my father had died. Sterling was my savior.
“I remember that night so clearly. It was pouring rain when he showed up at my house. My mother called the cops, and I made the decision right there and then. I was barely seventeen and being torn between my mother and this man that I was so in love with. I looked my mother in the face, told her I hated her and walked out.”
Bianca opens her purse and takes out a tissue and dabs her eyes. Everything is silent around us, as if people have stopped to hear the story of Sterling and Bianca Westbury. Honestly, I’m shocked her story hasn’t been made into a movie yet.
She clears her throat and continues. “Sterling knew I had money and was counting on us using that money. My father had left me everything when he died. Unfortunately, we had two problems: I wasn’t eighteen so I couldn’t get access to my trust and because my money was no longer in the bank he worked for, we couldn’t get it that way either. I came up with this grand plan that I would forge my mother’s name on a withdrawal slip and no one would be the wiser. Except she was because by the time we got to the bank the next morning, she had moved the trust to an undisclosed location. There was a note that the bank manager gave me letting me know I could have the funds when I turned eighteen and I presented myself, along with my mother, for withdrawal.
“Sterling was beside himself with anger and told me that I was to never see my mother again. We got in the car and drove off, stopping in Vegas for a shotgun wedding, as the minister called it, even though I wasn’t pregnant. My face was plastered all over the entertainment section of the newspaper and by my eighteenth birthday I was nothing but a memory... a has-been. I’d never have a career in Hollywood again.”
Bianca turns and looks at me with tears in her eyes.
“After a few years of marriage, I realized I didn’t love Sterling like I should and wanted out. He wouldn’t allow it. He wanted a family, but I was faithful to my contraceptive at the time. One night, he caught me off guard and it would have been inappropriate for me to ask my husband to stop what he was doing so I could make sure a baby wasn’t created. When I told Sterling that I was pregnant and wanted to go home to tell my mother, to fix things with her before it was too late, he took away my independence. I had a nurse with me at all times because he was afraid I’d miscarry like I had before. I never had any privacy to do what I wanted.
“I make no excuses for Sterling, only for myself. When Liam brought you home, I saw me in you. I saw a young girl with goals and dreams and her friends around her getting pregnant. I didn’t want that for my son. I was blinded by my own hatred for the things I’ve done in my life that I couldn’t see what was right in front of me. When you came to the house, pregnant and alone, I should’ve sought you out behind Sterling’s back, but I didn’t because I’m a coward. I’ve done you wrong, Josie, and I apologize.”
Before I can get a word out, she’s walking away from me. I think about going after her, but my feet are cemented to the ground. I wipe away my own tears and let her words sink in. I have a feeling I’m the only one who knows her life story, and I think I need to know more.
As soon as I hang up with Josie, I know I need to get away from everyone here. Being at Metro is pointless. We’re just sitting around shooting the shit about where we’ve been and wondering when we’ll be the next hour-long segment on VHI profiling our failing careers.