“Sandy left as soon as Rose got to the hospital—Sandy really was a good person. And all of Bobby's friends raced up to Poughkeepsie as soon as they heard. The only time Rose left his side was when I came in—she didn't want to be in the same room with me. But once, when she didn't know I was listening, I overheard her saying to him that she was sorry because it was all her fault. Back then I thought she felt guilty because they'd been fighting and that had brought on his heart attack.

“It took Bobby two weeks to die. I went to the funeral, but after it was over, Rose said that she never wanted to see me again. She said if I wanted to have any contact with you, I'd have to take her to court.” Lu closed her eyes. “She was in so much pain. There was no way I was going to hurt her any further.”

“And you had all that Catholic guilt going on,” Carrie said. Lu looked at her. “Because you probably did see what was going on with Bobby and Sandy but you blocked it out because you didn't want to know. You'll always feel guilty about it.”

Lu allowed herself a little smile. “How do you know that?”

“It's a DNA thing. I'm familiar with guilt.” They both smiled. “So that was why you quit working.”

“It wasn't the only reason. Bobby hadn't finished writing his show, and Rose wouldn't let anyone else touch it, so that was the end of my comeback. And after he died, and after all the fights with Rose, I wanted to get away. I spent a year traveling—Europe, Canada, Mexico—all the places I'd never had time to see before.

“By the time I came back, Rose was doing her philanthropy gig and people were starting to notice her. For the first time she was her own person, not my daughter or Bobby's wife. I think that was what she had always needed.” Lu shrugged. “What she didn't need was me.”

“So you retired for her sake.”

“I wish I was that good. The truth is, there wasn't any work for me; nothing I wanted. And being a performer is a funny thing—it's like exercising. It's hard to get back into it once you stop.”

“And you didn't want to rain on Mother's parade.”

“No, I didn't. Of course, if a terrific role had come along …”

“Right.” They sat silently. Then Carrie said, “So what's the part of the story you left out?”

Lu straightened up. “What do you mean?”

“When Bobby was dying, Mother told him it was her fault. You said back then you thought she felt guilty because she'd had a fight with him, but you were very careful with your words and you didn't say that was the real reason. So what was the reason?”