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“She’s stable”

“I can be stable”

“She’s in the same place all the time”

“And that’s what you want? So you say?”

“You don’t know Susan She’s very independent”

“She’s dependent That’s the real reason why you want to marry her At least be truthful about your motives”

“We’re getting married on September twenty-sixth”

“Where?”

“I won’t tell you I don’t want you to crash the wedding”

“I’ to crash it Why are you so worried? I bet you’re getting married in her parents’ backyard”

“Their country house, actually In East Hampton”

She did crash the wedding by enlisting Billy Litchfield to help her They hid in the hedges surrounding the property She watched Philip in a white linen suit say “I do” to another woman ForPhilip’s e was like a death: One needed to see the dead body in order to believe the soul was really gone

A little over a year had passed when she heard froe had lasted fourteen ed to the English la habit When he died in a boating accident in Saint-Tropez, she went back to LA to restart her career

There was no work, her agent told her—she’d been away for too long, and she was over thirty-five He said she ought to do what every other actress did and start having children Being alone in LA without work to distract her from her husband’s death slammed her into a deep depression, and one day she didn’t bother to get out of bed She stayed there for weeks

Philip had come to LA in that time, but she’d made excuses not to see him She couldn’t see anyone She could barely leave the house in Los Feliz The thought of driving down the hill to the superather her things, get in the car, and back it out of the garage Steering the car along the hairpin turns, she looked for places where she ht drive off the road and into a steep ravine, but she wasn’t sure an accident would result in death, and it ht leave her worse off than she already was