Sending her DNA off was really a last resort. So far nothing had happened. No magical leaves appeared on her bare-limbed tree. No long-lost relatives popped up willing to embrace her. It was as though she and her mother had been dropped onto the earth without the cumbersome, yet sometimes needed, support of family. Something just didn’t add up, and Quinn was determined more than ever to find out just what.

A knock at the door startled her. Her food had arrived, and that meant dinner, a bath, then a fall into what she knew would be a restless sleep. There were big things looming ahead of her, and if Quinn knew her subconscious, it would be a night of dreaming about them.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Some women were born with natural beauty, the kind that allowed you to roll out of bed, run your fingers through your hair, and face the world without reservation.

As much as it saddened her, Quinn wasn’t one of them. It would take her some time to get her face on and look appropriate for the public. She sat up, stretched her arms over her head, and tried to blink away the grogginess. Feeling heavy with fatigue from a restless night, she slid out of bed and crossed the room.

She opened the door to the balcony, and suddenly the quiet was gone, sucked out in an instant. In its place, birds chirping and the sound of the surf crashing against the beach filled the room, shifting the solitude into something bearable.

At the desk, she pulled out the chair and sat, then turned on her computer and opened Facebook.

She typed “Elizabeth Senna” into the “Search” field.

Hundreds of women sharing her mother’s name showed up. She changed her search to “Elizabeth Ellen Senna Maui.” It didn’t do much to narrow the choices. Obviously, Senna was a popular family name.

Moving on to the ancestry website, she logged in and opened the messages box. She hoped for at least a distant connection to show up.

Nothing.

She looked at her watch, then closed the laptop and headed for the bathroom, still perplexed that in this age of technology and loss of privacy, she’d unearthed absolutely nothing helpful. Was the universe against her finding her heritage?

After a quick shower, Quinn dried her hair before coaxing it into a low-hanging twist. She expertly applied her makeup, her hands graceful and nimble, nearly moving without any thought.