Chapter 1
Eleven-year-old Aubrey stood and watched the black limo disappear down the dusty drive. Once it was out of sight, she darted her eyes around and held in a sob. It had been three years since her father had taken over her entire existence.
Now, standing alone in a strange place, she realized that she’d never felt so abandoned in her entire life. Even after her mother’s death, she’d had Miss Ellison to snatch her up and show her where to go, what to wear, and how to eat. Her father had dictated every aspect of her life. This was the first time she’d been left unattended in all that time.
Three long years of learning how to be a lady had almost squashed her spirit. But this, this just might do it.
She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve being dumped at an all-girls summer camp. She’d never been to such a place before. What did they even do here? How was she supposed to make friends? Especially dressed like she was.
She looked down at the starched dress Miss Ellison had forced her to wear.
Tears blinded her eyes as she started following a group of girls towards a large building.
She was so busy holding back the tears and keeping anyone from noticing them that she bumped into a dark-haired girl roughly her own age.
“Sorry,” she said softly after the girl turned around.
“It’s okay,” the girl said with a slight frown. Aubrey knew that she was running her eyes over her. For the past three years, it seemed that all anyone had done was look at her with calculation in their eyes.
She was in one of the outfits that had been picked out for her. It was uncomfortable to begin with, but Miss Ellison had starched it until it was so stiff, she felt like she was wearing a straitjacket instead of a sundress.
Then a blond girl stepped forward and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Aubrey answered as she looked down at her feet while her eyes burned even more. She would not cry in front of these girls. They’d probably burst out laughing and make fun of her.
“I’m Elle. This is Hannah, Zoey, and Scarlett.” The blond girl motioned to each of them as she talked.
“Aubrey,” she answered quickly as her eyes returned to her tennis shoes. She was at least thankful that Miss Ellison hadn’t been in the car ride from the airport, where she’d slipped out of the stupid sandals that she’d forced her to wear.
Her eyes were so blurry from the tears that she didn’t get a good look at any of them. Not really.
“We were going to bunk together,” Elle said softly. “Would you like to join us? There’s room for one more.”
Aubrey’s head jerked up, and she took a second to search each of their eyes. It only took a moment for her to realize that they weren’t being mean or making fun of her. Instead, what she found in each of them was just as much sadness and loneliness as she felt herself. “Sure.” She nodded quickly and fell in step with them. “Thank you.”
Over that first summer, the five friends, known as the Wildflowers, grew inseparable. To be honest, she doubted she would have made it through the first day without any of them, let alone that whole first summer.
For the next five years, even when the friends were separated by distance, they were her line of defense against her father and all the horrors of the life he forced on her.
She was shipped out in the winters to a boarding school in upper New York where she attended classes on everything from ballet to baking and was molded into a perfect socialite. Still, her father’s reach was long, and she didn’t have many freedoms even there. The only place she felt like she could breathe was during her time at River Camps with her Wildflowers.
However, during her high school years, without her father’s knowledge, she’d managed to enroll in a couple of off-campus classes. Taking tai chi and judo was the only thing she had ever done in direct defiance of his wishes.
Both classes were a great place to channel her pent-up anger, and she excelled in each area. She easily gained her black belts long before graduation.
When she wasn’t attending classes, she trained herself in other ways. She would walk the hallways of her home or school at night, in the dark, to strengthen her ability to escape any situation. This helped her feel less trapped in life.
The classes and the summers spent at the camp got her through some of the darkest years of her life. When the five friends had grown too old to attend camp themselves, they’d returned as counselors. She’d lied to her father about the summer job and instead told him that the camp now allowed older girls. She would find out years later that Elle’s grandfather Joe had convinced him of that story at Elle’s request.
Shortly after their last summer at River Camps and a week after she’d graduated school, the Wildflowers took a trip together. Since then, they’d tried to get together every summer and head somewhere tropical for a week or at least a weekend. Their last trip had been to Cabo, last year.
She’d been working for one of her father’s businesses, the third one to date. She’d flown through jobs at Harold Smith’s many ventures more than most people changed hairstyles.
She tried to fit in anywhere, but the fact was, she just didn’t.
Over the years, she’d tried everything to grow closer to her father. Even Miss Ellison had disappeared a few months after Aubrey’s sixteenth birthday.
At first, Aubrey had tried to look for the woman, believing she’d been fired by her father. Then she’d overheard several of the staff talking about how Pricilla Ellison had retired and moved to Italy to be closer to her ailing sister.
Her father had made her life hell. He’d controlled every aspect of her day-to-day life when she was in New York. Looking back at her youth, she realized that her time at school and the campgrounds had been the only chance she’d had at freedom.
Shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she’d come home to find a small suitcase in the front entry. At first, she’d believed they had a guest, even if that had never happened once over the ten years she’d lived there. She had been excited at the prospect.
Then she’d read the note on the table and her heart had sunk.
Aubrey,
This fulfills my financial obligation to you. I will expect you to remove your items, which I have had packed up, and be out of my home before I return from work at 6:00 p.m. sharp. As previously discussed, there is a job waiting for you at my offices downtown. I’ve given them your name and they will expect a call from you today.
Harold
It stung, at first, that she’d only been an obligation. Over the next few years, she’d realized that’s all she had ever been to him. She should have never expected anything more.
She went to great lengths to keep her connection to Harold a secret. She was thankful that no one in the office where she had been hired as an entry-level filing clerk knew she was the boss’s daughter.
She’d slowly worked her way up the corporate ladder at the office and was close to becoming a team lead. Then one day, she’d walked in to find Terry Osborn reclining at her desk with his feet up on her paperwork.
“Terry.” She pushed his feet off her paperwork and glared at him. “What can I help you with this morning?” She tossed her bag and umbrella down on the floor. Since it usually took her half an hour to warm up after the brisk walk and subway ride into work, she kept her thick heavy jacket on.