"Mom, we need to talk." Courtney said angrily as she barged into the kitchen to find her mother cooking dinner.
"Courtney, what's wrong and where have you been?" Barbara asked, since she'd been worried sick.
"You don't have the right to ask questions. Right now it's my turn to ask them." Courtney said.
"Excuse me young lady." Barbara asked.
"How could you lie to me about who my father is?" Courtney said, stunning Barbara.
"What are you talking about?" Barbara asked, desperately trying to deny it.
"Don't play dumb. If you must know, something happened today at school that you can ask Pat about later, but it ended with him taking me and Yolanda to the old JSA's headquarters where we found some kind of device that revealed that my father was Starman, like I thought." Courtney said.
"Wait, you brought Yolanda into this madness?" Barbara asked, trying to deflect the conversation, but Courtney would have none of it.
"You lied to me my whole life. Told me that my father was a deadbeat who didn't care about me when in reality, he died trying to save the world. So tell me, why did you lie to me?" Courtney asked and Barbara could tell that no matter how much she wanted Courtney to let go of this, she wouldn't until she got some answers.
"When I met Sylvester, I was going through a very rough patch in my life. I was trapped in a marriage to a man I no longer loved, if I ever did at all. I met Sylvester in a bar. He was kind and sweet and funny and he swept me off my feet. For the first time in years, I felt truly happy." Barbara said.
"So you slept with him." Courtney said bluntly.
"Yes. In a moment of weakness and I regretted it as soon as I did, since while I may have cared about Sylvester, he made it clear that we couldn't be anything more than friends and I was still a married woman. When I found out I was pregnant with you, I knew that there was a chance that you were his daughter." Barbara said.
"Did you tell him?" Courtney asked.
"No, I didn't want anyone to know that I'd had an affair, so I passed you off as Sam's daughter, even putting his name on your birth certificate." Barbara admitted.
"So you lied to me my whole life to protect yourself and your reputation. I had a right to know." Courtney said.
"Courtney, in my defense, I did not know about Sylvester's activities as Starman until you found the staff." Barbara said.
"Why should I believe anything you say to me anymore? I can't trust you anymore. And I don't know if I ever will again. Barbara." Courtney said, refusing to call her mom in her anger and Barbara flinched at the sound of Courtney calling her by her name before watching her daughter walk out.
"I really am sorry about all this Barb." Pat said.
"It's not your fault Pat, as much as I wish I could blame it on you, I always knew there was a chance she'd find out the truth. I just deluded myself into thinking that I'd be able to make her understand." Barbara said as Pat placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Courtney will come around eventually, she just needs time and the best thing you can do for her right now is to give it to her. You're her mother and you've been there for her whenever she's needed you. She'll come around." Pat said.
"I don't know if she will Pat and I don't blame her. I told myself that I was protecting her by not telling her the truth, but now I realize that I was just protecting myself." Barbara said.
"Personally, I think you made the right call, even if it wasn't for the reasons you intended." Pat said.
"Really?" Barbara asked and Pat nodded.
"Yeah, if Starman's enemies found out that he had a daughter, they'd no doubt try and use Courtney to get to him and there's a chance she'd wind up just like her grandparents. Plus, it also protected her from Sam." Pat said.
"What do you mean?" Barbara asked.
"Barb, now that we know that Courtney is Sylvester's daughter, she can now lay a claim to whatever's left of the Pemberton Estate and that family was rich. From what you told me about Sam Kurtis, if he knew about the money that Courtney could have access to, he'd do anything to get his hands on it." Pat said.
"Do you think we should tell her that?" Barbara asked.
"We'll let her cool down first and I need to check on a few things before we tell her anything." Pat said and Barbara nodded as Mike entered the kitchen.
"Is everything alright with Courtney, because I just passed her upstairs and she didn't even look this mad when you told her we were moving." Mike said.
"Look Mike, it's complicated and I promise I'll tell you more when things cool down a bit, but for now, all I can say is that Courtney is very angry with her mom right now and it's best to steer clear and let her cool off on her own." Pat said and Mike nodded.
"Anyways, Yolanda's with her now, just thought I'd let you know that she closed the door behind her." Mike said as he walked off and Pat stopped Barb from going upstairs.
"Barb, I think it's too soon for you to approach Courtney, especially if it's to make any kind of observation about her life, since from Courtney's point of view, you've likely lost those privileges for the time being." Pat reminded her.
"I know, but still." Barbara said.
"Barb, considering Courtney has yet to even realize how she feels about that girl or girls in general, I don't think we have much to worry about yet. Yolanda is probably just offering Courtney a shoulder to cry on." Pat said.
"Why did you bring her into this?" Barbara asked.
"It's a long story." Pat said as he started to fill her in.
"I'd ask you if you're okay but I'm pretty sure I know the answer already." Yolanda said as she sat down next to Courtney in Courtney's room and wrapped her arm around the other girl.
"I just, I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand, I get that my mom was trying to protect me in her own weird way, but at the same time, I can't help but feel betrayed by the one person I always thought would have my back. I don't know how I can trust her after this." Courtney said.
"I know it's not the same thing, but I do know what you're going through, since I have very similar thoughts about my parents." Yolanda reminded her.
"I know and I'm sorry that you have to deal with this on top of everything else you're going through right now, but I just, I can't do this with anyone else, since mom is the one I'm angry at, Pat is busy most likely explaining everything to her and Mike doesn't know anything about any of this." Courtney said.
"Hey, I get it. Honestly, I wish I had someone to support me like this after I was outed. Might've made the fallout afterwards a bit easier to deal with." Yolanda said.
"Does the pain ever get easier?" Courtney asked.
"I can't say that since it's too different kinds of pain. I was outed against my will, but at least I already knew who and what I was. You literally had your whole world turned upside in an instant when you found out that your father is not who you thought he was." Yolanda said.
"But we both share the pain of being betrayed by our parents." Courtney reminded her and Yolanda nodded.
"True, but there is one difference you need to take into account Courtney." Yolanda said.
"And what might that be?" Courtney asked.
"That my parents did what they did because they're religious zealots who believe that anything doesn't fit within the bible's guidelines is a blasphemy, but your mom, she did what she did because she thought it would be best for you and she still loves you. I'm not saying you should forgive her yet. Of course not, I think you should drag this guilt thing out for as long as you can." Yolanda said and Courtney actually laughed.
"But eventually, let her off the hook. Who knows, maybe now she'll understand why you want to keep using that staff now that you know that it really was your father's." Yolanda said.
"I don't know Yolanda. I hope you're right, but I am glad you're here now." Courtney said and Yolanda smiled, happy to see that she'd managed to cheer Courtney up a bit as they sat there and she allowed Courtney to take comfort in her presence, even if it wasn't for the reason she wanted it to be.