teen star

part 69 - zoom call

TW: Talks of abuse and neglect.

Stevie: Hello Aurora, I'm Stevie, your social worker, and I also have Clarice joining us today. She is a counsellor, she won't be saying an awful lot, but she is here for support if you should need it.

Rory: Hi, I prefer Rory

Stevie: No problem at all, so, Rory, this meeting today is so we can hear from you and understand your story.

Rory: OK, any part in particular?

Stevie: Whatever you are comfortable sharing, we are mostly interested in anything concerning your parents and Elizabeth.

Rory: OK, so when I was little, I was basically forced into acting. Although I've grown to love it, I was never given a choice. I spent more time on a plane to LA than I had in my own home before I turned 6. I had met a bunch of people who are now like bast friends to me, but they mostly all still believe my parents are good people.

Stevie: And are they good people?

Rory: No. You know that saying that a child deserves a parent, but a parent doesn't deserve a child, well that applies to my life pretty much.

Stevie: How so?

Rory: Growing up, they never cared about me. They only cared about how much money I could make, and it got worse the bigger I got. Some of the shows and movies I had been in got nominated for awards, and sometimes, if you win an award, you get a sum of money from it. My parents would take me to every event, dress me up like a princess, and pretend to care about me for a few hours. And I believed them every night, I thought they had finally changed. But when we got home, if I didn't win, my father would beat me for hours, while my mother screamed and cried about how ungrateful I was, how I had let everyone down, I wasn't good enough.

Stevie: Was this a one-off thing?

Rory: I wish it was, it started just after award shows I didn't win, then it became after roles I didn't land, then last days on set, then it became pretty much every day.

Stevie: Did it stop when you grew up?

Rory: No. It worsened. When I hit puberty was probably the worst one, they aaid how it would be harder to get roles because I didn't look young anymore, they best me for nearly 5 hours, then locked me in my room and didn't let me eat for 2 days. Then when they had finally had enough of all the flights, we moved to LA, or so  i thought, I did a whole movie out there, and on my last day of filming, when I got home they were nowhere to be seen, they had gone back to the UK and left me there, no food, no money to buy food, I ended up surviving off of tap water for nearly a week until the cast took us out for celebratory dinner.

Stevie: That sounds really rough. Did it stop when they moved away?

Rory: If only my father had lost contact with me, he didn't bother. But my mother would send me horrible texts occasionally. She would leave a long enough gap in between for me to think it was over, and then I'd spiral back, it felt like emotional manipulation,  I could send you some of the texts if you'd like?

Stevie: If you could, I'll give you my number in a moment. Can you explain when Elizabeth comes into this?

Rory: It is when I first started filming Multiverse of Madness that the whole cast went out to lunch a couple of days before to meet for the first time, and she picked me up, she was so kind to me even though it was the first time we'd met. Then, the next day, my mother messaged me, and it really upset me, so when Xochitl asked to hang out, I was quite blunt. So she asked Lizzie to check on me. Lizzie literally dropped everything that day to make sure I was OK, she made me food, helped me clean the house, comforted me, in that one afternoon, she was more of a mum to me than my own mother had ever been. That day, despite me denying it, she found out I was living alone, so she let me stay in her spare room. It had warm water, food, and someone who cared about me.

Stevie: Is it still like this now?

Rory: Yes. She's the best mum I could ask for, and even if you don't let her adopt me, it won't change how much she has helped me, and let me be me. I love Lizzie more than I have ever loved either of my parents. She would drop anything to help me, and I'd do the same for her, even though she'd never ask me to.

Stevie: One last question, Rory. What is your biggest fear?

Rory: being made to go back to the UK and live with those monsters.