Read Online Blue Dahlia (The Dahlia Trilogy of The Gilded Flower Series Book 1) by Vivian Winslow - Free Book Online Page A

called her from Vegas to give her the news. She never bothered to tell her parents. She knew they’d found out, and it wasn’t Lily who told them.
    Rodrigo leans back into his seat and lets out a long exhale, as if he were just punched in the stomach. It’s an agonizing ten minutes while she watches the look on his face change from shock to anger to fury to anger and then resignation.
    Finally, in a restrained voice he says, “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me, Dahlia?”
     

Chapter 33
    “It’s complicated,” she replies.
    “Then uncomplicate it for me.”
    She looks down, twisting the napkin in her lap. “I was twenty at the time. Shane was twenty-two.”
    “So it’s this Shane guy you mentioned when you were in California? You flew there to see him after I left New York?”
    Dahlia nods. Rodrigo opens his mouth to speak but she holds up her hand. “Just let me finish.”
    Sighing, she begins, “I had every intention of moving to Miami to be with you. The only thing that was standing in the way of that was a divorce. I left him just before my twenty-first birthday. I was young and such a complete mess that I let my parents deal with it.”
    “And? Their army of lawyers couldn’t make it happen?”
    Dahlia shakes her head. “No one would tell me why. My mother just told me she’d take care everything and to leave it alone. I was more than happy to do anything just to forget about it all, so I did.”
    “You pretended like it never happened.”
    “Mostly. Until I met you.”
    “Am I supposed to be flattered?”
    “You don’t have to be, Rodrigo. I fell so in love with you that I wanted to be with you. So much so that I decided I would pursue the divorce. Until you, it never mattered since I didn’t care about getting married again.”
    “Then, if you wanted to be with me, how could it all change in a week?”
    “Because, the part that complicated it the most was we had a child together.”
    Rodrigo’s eyes betray his shock.
    “You have a kid? Is he raising your kid?”
    Dahlia shakes her head and runs her hand through her hair. “She died,” she says in a whisper.
    “Oh no, Dahlia, that’s terrible.”
    She takes a deep breath, trying to hold back the tears she feels coming.
    “It was a few days after I gave birth. There were serious complications, and I got really sick. I was so out of it and drugged up for days. There was no NICU at the hospital where I delivered so they had to transfer her. Shane was on the other side of the world chasing his big wave when it happened.”
    Dahlia shifts uncomfortably under his gaze. She doesn’t want his pity.
    “I felt so much guilt and shame over all of this. I was too young and immature to cope. I left California and wanted desperately to leave it all behind. But then I met you. You deserved better than all that baggage, so I went to California to get him to sign the divorce papers. Little did I realize . . .”
    “That you were still in love with Shane.” Rodrigo finishes her sentence.
    Dahlia nods. “We couldn’t work through our daughter’s death together. Hell, I couldn’t deal with it until recently. I’m finally able to move forward in my life. I’ve taken up my art again. That was my passion.”
    “Glad I could help,” he replies facetiously.
    Dahlia gives him a slight smile. “I won’t say all those ridiculous things about how a part of me will always love you and that we can be friends or that you’ll make someone very happy. You deserve better.”
    “Than you?”
    Dahlia nods. “Thank you for loving me the way you did. I never felt so safe and accepted by anyone else in my life. It’s just . . . I’m meant to be in California.”
    “With Shane,” Rodrigo says bitterly.
    “It’s different. Things are still tenuous, like it could all change still. I don’t know. But with you, I never felt more certain about anyone.”
    “This isn’t making me feel better.”
    “I’m so sorry, Rodrigo.” Dahlia reaches out and touches