The young girl quickly learned never to ask for toys or new dresses. 112 Julia started school when she was five, and her classmates would mock her because she wore the same dress "'and scruffy shoes every day.
When the other children [email protected],teased her, Julia fought them. She was a rebel, and she *as always being brought up before the principal. Her teachers didn't know what to do with her. She was in tonstant trouble.
She might have been expelled except for one thing: she was the brightest student in her class. Her mother had told Julia that her father was dead, and she had accepted that. But when Julia was twelve years old, she stumbled across a picture album filled with photographs of her mother with a group of Strangers. ' are these people?' Julia asked.
And Julia's mother decided that the time had come. ' down, my darling.' She took Julia's hand and held it tightly. There was no way to break the news tactfully.-'That is your father, and your half sister, and your two half brothers.' Julia was , looking at her, puzzled. ' don't understand.' The truth had finally come out, shattering Julia's peace of mind. Her father was alive! And she had a half sister and two half brothers. It was too much to comprehend.'Why ... why did you lie to me?" were too young to understand. Your father and I ... had an affair. He was married, and I ... I had to leave, to have you." hate him!' Julia said. 113 ' mustn't hate him." could he have done this to yout she demanded. ' happened was my fault as much as his." Each word was agony. ' father was a very attractive man, and I was young and foolish. I knew that nothing could ever come of our affair. He told me he loved me ... but he was married and had a family. And ... and then I became pregnant.' It was difficult for her to go on. ' reporter got hold of the story and it was in all the newspapers. I ran away. I intended for you and me to go back to him, but his wife killed herself, and I ... I could never face him or the children again. It was my fault you see. So don't blame him.' But there was a part of the story Rosemary never revealed to her daughter. When the baby was born, the clerk at the hospital said, ''re filling out the birth certificate. The baby's name is Julia Nelsont Rosemary had started to say yes, and then she thought fiercely, No! She's Harry Stanford's daughter. She's entitled to his name, and his support. ' daughter's name is Julia Stanford.' She had written to Harry Stanford, telling him about Julia, but she had never had a reply. Julia was fascinated by the idea that she had a family she had not known about, and also by the fact that they were famous enough to be written about in the pre ss. She went to the public library and looked up 114 everything she Could, about Harry Stanford. There , dozens of articles about him. He was a billionaire, "and he lived in another world, a world that Julia and her mother were totally excluded from. one day, when one of Julia's classmates teased her , being poor, Julia said defiantly, ''m not poor! My father is one of the- richest men in the world. We have a yacht and an airplane, and a dozen beautiful ,.' Her teacher heard her. ', come up here.' Julia approached the teacher's desk. ' must not ttell a lie like that."
"It's not a lie,' Julia retorted. ' father is a billionaire! He knows presidents and kings!' The teacher looked at the young girl standing before her in her shabby cotton dress and said, ', that's not true.@ ' 1st' Julia said stubbornly. She was sent to the principal's office. She never mentioned her father at school again. , Julia learned that the reason she and her mother kept moving from city to city was because of the news media. Harry Stanford was constantly in the press, and the gossip newspapers and magazines kept digging up the old scandal. Investigative reporters would eventually discover who Rosemary Nelson was and where she arrived, and she would have to take Julia and flee. 115 Julia read every newspaper story that appeared about Harry Stanford, and each time, she was tempted to telephone him. She wanted to believe that during all those years he had been desperately searching for her mother. I'll call and say, ' is your daughter. If you want to see us . And he would come to them and fall in love all over again, and marry her mother, and they would all live happily together. Julia Stanford grew into a beautiful young woman. She had lustrous dark hair, a laughing, generous mouth, the luminous gray eyes of her father, and a gently curved figure. But when she smiled, people forgot about everything else but that smile. Because they were forced to move so often, Julia went to schools in five different states. During the summers she worked as a clerk in -a department store, behind the counter in a drugstore, and as a receptionist. She was always fiercely independent.