Summer's End (Wildflowers #5) - Jill Sanders Page 0,23

I was uprooted.” She closed her eyes on the pain that always came when she thought about the woman who loved her so much that she would have given anything to be with her.

“How did she die?” he asked.

In the past, she’d skirted around this question. Even her friends didn’t know. She’d told them that Nora Murphy had died of a broken heart. She knew they’d assumed she’d died of heart failure or something close to that.

“When she found out that the courts were about to award full custody of me to Harold”—she glanced over at him and held her breath for a split second—“she slit her own wrists.” She sighed. This was the first time in Aubrey’s entire life that she’d said it out loud. Tears burned behind her eyes, and she had to shut them quickly.

“I’m so sorry.” Aiden moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. She held onto him for a moment, enjoying the safety and warmth he provided.

“Less than a year earlier, my mother had hunted Harold down. She’d claimed that she’d fallen for him when she’d worked for a private airline company. She’d been hired to steward one of his private jet flights and, well, she had always told me that she’d fallen in love with him the moment he walked onto the plane.” She sighed, then shook her head. “I was eight. Everything was so… romanticized back then. So, when she got fired from another job, she decided to find him and ask him for help with his child.” She glanced over at him. “There were blood tests, court appearances, and social service meetings for several months before it was agreed that I would move in with Harold.”

“You must have been crushed,” he said softly.

“I was leaving behind everything I’d ever known. Moving out of the love-filled one-room apartment above a gas station to a ten-thousand-square-foot mansion with a father who couldn’t be bothered to see his daughter but once or twice a week.”

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated.

“The worse of it was, shortly after I arrived, I realized just how cruel Harold Smith could be. He started controlling every detail of my life. My clothes, my activities, school, my diet, exercise, every detail was planned out and charted.” She stood up suddenly, wrapping her arms around herself as she moved closer to the water’s edge. Knowing Aiden would follow her, she didn’t even glance back.

“There was punishment when I didn’t fall into line.” She hugged herself tighter.

“Did he…”

She glanced over and stopped him. “Harold Smith would never stoop as low as to hit anyone,” she said stiffly. “His punishments were more… mental.” She glanced out at the water. “Things I enjoyed were taken from me. People I grew close to… disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“I had stumbled into the kitchens one night. After I’d disappointed him with a B in social studies, I’d been sent up to bed without dinner. No biggie, except I’d also had five hours of dance class that day and had only eaten an apple for lunch. Naturally, by midnight, I was starved. I tiptoed down to the kitchen and ran into Luis, my father’s private chef. Instead of tattling on me, Luis consoled me and made me a sandwich.” She smiled. “Over the next year, he became my first friend in the house. I often snuck down to the kitchen after dark to spend time watching television or enjoying snacks with him.” She sighed.

“What happened?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Harold found out. Luis’s work visa was cancelled, and he was shipped back to a country he hadn’t been to in over fifteen years.” She closed her eyes on the new rush of pain. “Less than a month later, a newspaper was left on my breakfast plate.” She turned to Aiden as tears rolled down her checks. “The article talked about a chef that had been kidnapped and forced to mule drugs for the cartel. When he’d refused, they’d beheaded him and hung him from a bridge.”

“That’s terrible.” He moved closer to her.

“I was ten.” She shook her head as she dashed the tears away. “Suddenly, I knew what kind of man my father was. I knew I couldn’t cross him. So I fell into line. For the next few years, I did everything he wanted. I became his perfect protégé. Until one summer, when I was dropped off… here.” She glanced around. “I felt so abandoned, so alone, until I bumped into Zoey, Elle, Hannah, and Scarlett.” She smiled and her tears dried