SARAH TAYLOR'S APARTMENT

"You're not living in Molly's shadow," Paula says.

In an instant Sarah's usual accusatory sarcasm is back, the overworked calm of a minute ago forgotten. "Oh, really? How do you figure that?"

"You are your own woman, Sarah. You have your own career, you have a daughter--"

"--which just makes it worse that I even care anymore!" Sarah narrows her eyes. "Do you really not see it?"

"See what?" When she receives no response -- at least not verbally -- Paula continues, hardly a drop of doubt in her mind about what the answer was. "Your father and I never favored Molly over you."

"Please! At least own up to it now! You owe me that much."

"We never intended to 'favor' any of you," Paula repeats more quietly.

"But you did!"

"We love each and every one of you equally!" Paula shoots back, her voice leaping back up.

Her tone, or maybe the statement itself, gives Sarah pause. She sets Victoria down on the floor with the new toy. And then she responds with force to equal or outdo her mother's: "It's not just a matter of love! Don't you remember all the times that you told me to do things the way Molly did? I should have studied like she did, I should have done activities the way she did. Maybe then I wouldn't have been such a screw-up."

"You are not a screw-up, Sarah! You never were. We never said that."

"No, I'll give you that. But you may as well have. Nothing I did was ever good enough. Molly always did it better. I always had to try and be more like her."

"We wanted the best for you--"

"And obviously I couldn't get that by being myself, right?" Sarah spits. She shakes her head furiously, dismissively. "Whatever. You're never gonna get it because you don't want to. And we can't be the happy little mother-daughter team you want until you do. So we're really stuck, huh?"

A thick, frustrating silence engulfs them. They stand there, only a few feet apart but suddenly more separated than ever -- or at least more aware of it than ever.

"What would you like me to do?" Paula says. "Admit that I'm a terrible mother?"

"No! You're not a terrible mother. But you hurt me, you and Dad both. It's just the way our family is. I got the short end of the stick or something. Molly's the shining star. It's always going to be that way."

"That's not how I ever wanted it to be!"

"Then maybe you should've tried a little harder!" Sarah turns away, suddenly unable to look at her own mother. "And Molly doesn't make things any better. She's always rubbing it in and showing me up. God, look at how she's got Brent wrapped around her finger--"

"She's out of line."

"Yeah, and she acts like--" Suddenly Sarah's tirade comes screeching to a halt, as what Paula said registers. "What?"

"Molly is out of line as far as you and Brent are concerned. I absolutely agree with you."

"Really?" Sarah asks cautiously.

"Yes," Paula says. "Molly is far too involved in that situation."

"Wow," is all Sarah can muster. For an instant that makes everything much better.

But then she is swept back into the argument that was just raging between them, back into the years that built whatever this is inside of her.

"I need to be alone," she says abruptly. She moves for the door and opens it quickly.

"What?" Paula flashes her a confused look, hoping for some explanation.

All Sarah offers is, "Just go. I--I need to think. We were getting so worked up, and ..."

"All right," Paula says. She makes her own move for the door but pauses before she exits the apartment. "I am sorry, Sarah. I don't want to leave things like this between us."

"Neither do I," Sarah says as she shuts the door.

"Neither do I," she repeats as she returns to Victoria in the middle of the floor. She does realize that Molly is the one to blame here, she thinks with an odd tingle of excitement.

She scoops Victoria back into her arms and holds her close. "Maybe there is hope after all," she murmurs, wanting so badly to believe her own words.

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