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JAYLENE ROSEWOOD WAS A FREE SPIRIT, unable to be confined by the idealistic standards that made vile efforts to pull her in ever since she was old enough to understand the way the world worked.
In the Outer Banks, there were only two classes, one of the wealthy versus the poor. The middle class wasn't relevant . . . they didn't have the same money as the elites, but they weren't necessarily indigent. Outcasts if anything.
Jaylene was one of the fortunate ones. She was born into a wealthy family, mainly from her father's side, that is. The Rosewood's had taken a single success and never looked down from there, generations of different successes embedded in their DNA. Her father, Henderson Rosewood, had opted out of the empire his grandfather had handed down to his father, concluding that anything revolving around the divisions that were clean energy and big oil wasn't for him. He'd turned towards stocks with Wall Street having caught his interest at a young age which opened several doors for him. From an investor, he went on to become chairman at a technological division and before his death had been upgraded to founder in the aerospace company he'd launched with the help of more knowledgeable individuals who hadn't received an equal amount of credit for their hard work regarding the company. None of that mattered, however, given the generous paychecks they received with more zeros appearing in the last few weeks with the success of the business deals that were being sealed left to right, all thanks to the woman who had taken over the company after the loss of her husband.
Marleen Harrington-Rosewood was a brilliant individual, a foot in both worlds, one of the working class and the other inside of the affluent society her father had warned her about as a young girl. Her mother, previously known as Florence Van Doren, came from money, a rich girl lathered in the viridescent bills her father brought into the luxurious home she grew up in on the wealthier side of the island. Her father, Mark Harrington, on the other hand, wasn't quite as spoiled. On the contrary, he belonged to the lower class, forced to spend his youth bussing tables day and night to keep the bills paid when his drunk father couldn't. Opposites often attracted, which appeared to be the case with Mark and Florence. The relationship was frowned upon by the Van Doren family, more so when Florence fell pregnant at the age of seventeen with Marleen's oldest brother, Mason Harrington.
Dysfunctional was one way of describing them, yet despite the family dynamic, Marleen lived a relatively normal life. She worked as a beverage cart girl at the country club during the summers which was where she met Henderson Rosewood. The two rapidly grew infatuated with one another, which was made obvious when the blonde-haired woman took a pregnancy test that appeared positive.
While Jaylene wasn't necessarily given the details as to how their parents had reacted to the news, she knew they couldn't have been joyful that history had repeated itself and a seventeen and nineteen-year-old had been so irresponsible. What she did know, however, was that the twins—yes, twins—had been spoiled rotten since the day they were born despite the chaos they'd caused before they could take their first breaths.
