Donna fell silent. Mrs. Amberson gloated triumphantly.

“Can’t get out of it, can you?” she said.

Donna didn’t look like she was paying any attention. She drummed her nails on the arm of the chair.

“This is starting to make sense,” she finally said.

“Oh, is it?”

“There was someone else, Amy,” Donna said. “One time, when you were out and Rick was doing his phone shift—I came home unexpectedly and found another girl in our apartment, sitting at the table with Rick. Alice. The redhead from the audition. Do you remember her?”

It was hard to read Mrs. Amberson’s expression, but she nodded slightly.

“He said she had just come by for moral support, and she left right away. But it gave me a strange feeling, like I’d caught him doing something, but I had no idea what.”

“If this really happened, why didn’t you tell me?” Mrs. Amberson said skeptically.

“There was nothing to tell. I didn’t want to make you suspicious about nothing. All I had was a funny feeling and nothing to back it up. Then when Alice left, I remember that Rick said to me that he wanted to get you something special, to celebrate what he thought was going to be a big week. I suggested that case…”

She pointed at the red cigarette case.

“You did?” Mrs. Amberson was clearly shocked now. “How did you…?”

“You babbled about it all night when we were coming home from some party. You were a little drunk. I remember you said how much you liked it, and how you wanted to buy it when your big break came. He told me not to tell you that I suggested it. You believed in all that mystical stuff. He said you would take it as a good omen if it looked like he had read your mind. He seemed so concerned for you.”

It was Scarlett’s turn to fill in the silence that followed.

“Alice played you on the phone,” she said. “Rick was lying to you the whole time.”

“It makes so much sense,” Donna said, nodding. “There were only ten spots on that cast. Rick told me later, when we weren’t getting along so well, that he was never afraid that I’d get one of those ten places. He never thought I was good enough, but he was definitely concerned about you. He took you out of the running, Amy. He took your spot, not me.”

Mrs. Amberson was still trying to process this rewriting of the last half of her life.

“But,” Scarlett said, “at least it never aired, right? He didn’t make it, either.”

“Oh, he made it,” Donna said. “That show never aired, but he started making the Hollywood rounds. That’s when he realized he didn’t need me anymore. I can’t turn on the television without seeing his smug face. He eventually married two or three of his costars.”

Mrs. Amberson creaked to life, cracking as she pulled herself up to her knees.