Page 71 of Disavowed

“Yeah.” She gave a slight nod. “A lot of girls that age begin to distance themselves from their parents, but not me. I loved being around them, and when they weren’t there any longer, I felt totally lost and alone. I didn’t know where I belonged anymore.”

When she took a deep, shuddering breath his heart ached for her and for the lonely orphaned girl she’d once been. He caressed her cheek, urging her to continue.

“My mother was from Scotland and didn’t have any immediate family. My father was a blueblood from Philly. Part of the Van Rensler clan.”

Dom immediately recognized the name. He’d been tracking down a witness in Philly and recalled passing by a large building associated with a university. The building had been named Van Rensler Hall. She wasn’t kidding. Her family really was blueblood.

“My mother was a simple woman, a botanist by training and the best florist in all of Philly. Everyone loved her.” For a moment her eyes welled up, but she sniffled and blinked away the wetness. “Any marriage to a non-blueblood was beneath the high standards of the Van Rensler tradition. When my father eloped and married my mother, his father—my grandfather—was enraged.”

Her lips compressed, and she twisted the sheet in her fist. “He all but disowned my father and wanted nothing to do with me or my mother. Of course, I never knew any of this until after my parents died.”

Dom frowned and rubbed her shoulder. He had a bad feeling where this story was going. Her eyes flashed with anger before she continued.

“Initially I was forced to live with my grandparents. I think the only reason they let me in the front door of that mausoleum of a house was to keep up appearances for the press. God forbid it ever got out that the Van Renslers didn’t want their orphaned granddaughter. But they let me know it every day. I never saw them except at my parents’ funeral. Within a week after they were buried I was discreetly driven to live with a childless couple near Harrisburg and was given a different last name, to safeguard the high and mighty Van Rensler reputation.”

“Jesus Christ.” Dom clenched his jaw. How the fuck could they abandon their own granddaughter?

A single tear trickled down her temple, and he wiped it away with the pad of his thumb. The look of grief on her face about killed him, and if her grandparents were standing before him he’d—fuck. I’d kill them. “Are they still alive?”

She shook her head. “No, they were quite elderly back then.”

“What about other family? Aunts, uncles, cousins? Wasn’t there anyone else who would take you in?”

“I don’t really know.” She stared over his shoulder, her eyes blank. “I was whisked away so quickly after the funeral, even if someone else would have opened their doors for me they never got the chance. With my name change there’d be no way they could ever find me. And when I turned eighteen I changed my name again and legally took my mother’s maiden name: Fowler.”

“Did you ever try to look them up?”

“I never wanted to. At that point I wanted nothing to do with anyone from the Van Rensler clan. And I—” Her lower lip trembled. “I was afraid no one else in my family would want me, either.”

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, and she let out a sob. He put his arm around her and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, then her mouth. He held her firmly against him while her body shook with more gut-wrenching sobs.

Now he understood. The woman he’d met a year ago was bubbly and gregarious, but it was all a facade to hide her pain and suffering. Her own damn family had done this to her. Fucking bastards.

He continued stroking and kissing the top of her head while she let out twenty years of grief. It amazed him how she’d turned her life around and managed to become the kind person and successful businesswoman that she was now. A true testament to her innate strength and courage.

Minutes later, she pulled away to swipe at her tears. Her eyes were red and glossy, filled with such sadness that it tore at his soul.

When he thought she was ready to go on, he threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed her hand. “What happened in Harrisburg?”

She let out a long sigh. “The couple I was with was kind, but I wasn’t really theirs and they weren’t really mine. I wanted my parents back, and they knew it. All I had left of them were a few photos, my mother’s jewelry, and some of my clothes.”

“That’s it?” He couldn’t hide the incredulity in his voice. “That’s all they gave you?” The more he heard, the more he wanted to track down every last one of her relatives and beat the shit out of them.

“Not exactly.” She met his gaze for the first time in several minutes. “I have a trust fund. My dad set it up for me before he and my mom died. Financial wizardry ran in the family, and it was probably the one good thing he inherited. The couple I was with knew about the fund but never tried to take it from me. Even if they had, they couldn’t. Dad set it up through an outside attorney—no one affiliated with the family—and it was ironclad. No one could touch it except me, and only when I turned eighteen. As soon as I did, I got a small apartment and used my trust fund sparingly to pay for essentials, like food and a roof over my head, until I could get a job.”

He gave her a half smile. “I’m guessing your first job was in the flower business?”

She nodded. “With the basic knowledge of flowers and horticulture I learned from my mother, I was able to get a job with a landscaper. Then I started taking botany and horticulture classes at night. I stayed with the landscaper for several years, learning the industry until I went into Manhattan one day and loved it.”

Dom was relieved at the renewed sparkle in her eyes.

“New York City has a life of its own, a vibrancy that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. So I moved to the city and got a job with a florist on Park Avenue. Flowers are my passion.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” He gave her a sarcastic grin and was rewarded with the tiny hint of a smile.

“Eventually, I tapped into my trust fund and bought a little shop of my own downtown. I got enough steady contracts with restaurants and a few small hotels that I needed to expand, so I bought a bigger place. The shop I own now.”

He shook his head in amazement. “You’ve made an incredible success from hard work and perseverance. And you did it alone.” To say he admired her was an understatement. After everything she’d been through. Abandonment. Starting out on her own with no family to help her through the difficult times. Like him, she’d been through hell and survived. Albeit a different kind of hell, but hell nonetheless.