As the movie in front of them ended, Erika found herself speechless. Her whole world had been turned upside-down once more, only more so this time. Her parents had been famous celebrities!
A few things had begun clicking into place for her. Her mother probably hadn't wanted her to see any flicks because she didn't want Erika to know. Granted, she HAD managed to see a few movies without her mother knowing- but besides 'Superman' during a slow English class, the only films she'd been able to see were a few Disney flicks and some anime that Mary was holding for her.
"You know," Tara commented with Julia's head resting on her shoulder, "that movie just gets better every time I watch it."
Erika nodded as she yelped in surprise at the sight of Kat and Mary making out, one of Mary's hands up her 'wife's' shirt. "Mary, why'd you have to st- oh." Mary's hands went straight to her sides as Kat laughed awkwardly. "Sorry... that's, you know... 'our movie'." Erika turned away, blushing.
Georgie stared at the scene before them. "I'm gonna go take a cold shower."
Shaking his head as his brother went up the stairs, Morty said, "I've got a bit more self-control than that."
Julia sighed. "Anyway, it's still a great flick. You should be proud, Erika."
"You should be." All eyes turned to see Buck entering the room. "Alright, I think you've got some more questions now."
Erika thought for a moment. "Why didn't anyone ever tell me?"
"Well," Buck admitted, "Allison wouldn't let ya' have the upper hand against her if she could help it. And there was a gag order."
"Yeah, but against talking too much about Mom! Where do I fit in?"
Uncle Buck took a deep breath, and began. "That order went in about talking about you and your mother. So when your father died, God bless him, they couldn't touch any part of you. All they could really talk about was what was going to happen to all of the money, which would legally become yours today."
"No, no, NO!" Erika seemed frustrated. "Why couldn't you tell me? Why couldn't Mr. Kingsley tell me? Why?""
Her uncle took another deep breath. "It's hard to explain. Once you were born, your father wanted you to live a relatively normal life; he trusted your stepmother to help take care of you. His trust was usually very hard to gain, you must understand. So even though I didn't like Allison at all, I trusted your father's judgement."
"That's not an explanation," Julia pointed out.
"I'm getting there," Buck explained. "When yer father died, his will was read to a small group of people- myself, Allison, her lawyer, and Kyle. A lil' fight broke out over how it could be done, if at all, and I had to fight tooth and nail to make sure that the will would be carried out in some shape, way, or form. But I had to make some concessions."
"That's right," Morty said. "For one thing, Allison demanded Erika had to be raised in ignorance of just who her parents were. But Jackie'd been out of Hollywood for so long that by that point it wasn't much of a problem."
"Right," Georgie added, "Jackie Daniels more or less retired after his wife died." Erika remembered that her father had never gone to work, and focused all his spare time on loving her.
"The part that I had to actually concede was what would happen if ya found out before today." Buck pulled at the collar of his turtleneck sweater. "If you found out, several things would happen. First, I would be prosecuted and/or sued by the state for breach of contract. It wouldn't matter if I'd been the one to tell you or not, I would've been charged along with whoever told you."
