“Since she was five. A kid’s model at first for clothing catalogs. Then she graduated into haute couture and the cat-walk. She told me how brutal the whole thing was. How mean everyone was to newcomers, how she had to starve herself to stay thin. She was bulimic. Even when she was pregnant, she used to starve herself, didn’t start showing until she was in her sixth month. She wound up losing the baby shortly afterward. Afterward, she was five-nine, ninety-five pounds.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, a real skeleton. Even her agent told her to gain a few pounds back. Which she did. She worked for a few more years. Then she said she got pregnant again and lost that baby—”

“Wait a minute, Cindy.” Marge pulled out her notebook and began to scribble furiously. “She got pregnant again?”

“Yeah. This time when she was eighteen. She was still living in New York.” Cindy’s eyes lit up. “You didn’t know that one, did you?”

“No.”

“See. I found something—”

“Just cool the pats on the back for the time being, okay? Did she lose that baby, too?”

“Yes, but earlier than the first one. In the fourth month, I think.”

“Did it send her into a depression or anything?”

“Well, it made an impact on her. And on her professional life. Because the second time around, she refused to starve herself. She felt the starvation was the reason she lost the first baby. She said people told her over and over it was her fault she lost the first baby.”

“Which people?”

Cindy shrugged. “She just said people. Probably her mom. So the second time she got pregnant, she ate. And ate and ate and ate and ate. It was the first time in years that she could eat normally. When she lost the second baby, she had put on fifty pounds. But she didn’t care. By that time, she was so disgusted with the business and her mother for pushing her, she left New York and came out here.”

“She’s originally from New York?”

“No, from Berkeley. Her parents were divorced when she was a kid. Her mother took her to Manhattan to model shortly after her parents split. She used to live with her father during the summers, but when she got real busy with her career, she stopped visiting him. She said she was glad. She hates both her parents, I can tell you that much.”

“Sounds like a lovely girl.”

“She’s had it rough, I guess. A bitch stage mom—real pushy—and a philandering father. We talked about divorce for a while. How hard it can be on the kids.”

Cindy started biting her nails.