Rex had spent the most part of the last two years paying off debts and now he was penniless.
One would have thought that with his past history of being a philanthropist several people would have offered to bail him out by now.
It was not because a couple of people didn't offer to help him with funds but Rex had rejected every attempts at being given any financial assistance.
Rex's years of having struggled alone for a long time had taught him to rely only on himself. "What if they offered to help him and fall short or they succeeded and made a mockery of him?"
Rex was a man overcome with pride and with good reason. This trait of his came to the fore when he lost all of his wealth. Lindsay had tried to understand his hurt at the beginning but was by now, losing the battle.
You see, Rex Michaels found himself in an orphanage when he was old enough to understand that they weren't his original family. That was at age 5.
Turns out that he had been brought there by his father when he was three months old. A fact he uncovered when he was thirteen because he had insisted the management of the institution tell, "his story."
There wasn't a lot of detail," just that his father had been struggling with the loss of his mother during childbirth while having Rex and could not keep him."
His father's last known address was what the institution had, his father could not be traced at the time, and so, Rex was left to come to terms with his situation.
He had been a wilful child, hard-headed and independent and so was getting passed over, whenever choices were being made by the clients coming to adopt.
Rex was that way by choice. He had been affected by how his father had chosen to treat him that he never wanted to be a part of any family again, excluding the orphanage.
However, he was very intelligent and had a love for figures which gained him a scholarship from an Asian philanthropist who had visited the local school he was attending at the time.
This was to mark his decision of becoming one when he made it in life and fate smiled on him. He was in his final year studying international relations when his benefactor died.
Rex wasn't deterred as he took up odd jobs supporting himself and investing, just by following his instincts.
Eventually his investments paid off big time and he enrolled for business and management studies. By the time he was thirty, he was extremely wealthy.
Rex identified with the church and the youths were his primary target, he gave back to the community happily.
Not forgetting the reason for his drive, he hired a private investigator, to search for his father.
His father was found somewhere in the Philippines where he worked as a road construction supervisor but had fallen on hard times and was suffering from an undisclosed ailment.
He had married a Filipino native but they had no children. Rex had sent an employee of his there and ensured that his father's medical condition was treated.
He stayed anonymous but promised himself he would pay his father a visit when the time was right, he had to know the truth.
Just before he met Lindsay he paid his father a visit. When he hired the private investigator the only photo he had of his father was the black and white mugshot attached to his file at the orphanage.
Then a couple of pictures sent to him by the investigator, then subsequently by the employee, so their first physical meeting was emotional for Rex.
He carried a lot of resentment against his father but taught himself to repress it,"after all he was the only surviving family he had," he reminded himself.
Then the story his father had told him during the course of their reunion didn't help matters.
"Your mother died before we could tie the knot, we had both agreed that she should give birth before we did. Both our parents had disowned us because we dared to get intimate before wedlock," his father relayed to him.
"She died very shortly after having you and my world went to pieces. I was riddled by guilt and was afraid my neglect of you could endanger you so I gave you away," he continued.
At the pained expression on Rex's face he said, "I know I should have come back for you years later after I got better and even gotten married but it felt good to stay hidden."
His words were like a dagger to Rex's heart and after succeeding in his quest of meeting his father face to face, he returned to the states.
His past history was the one thing Lindsay didn't know about him. She asked about his parents and he told her the truth about not having a mother and that his father remarried and lived in the Philippines.
"He was doing really well, his business extended to beyond the states but when he started going into bankruptcy, there was a massive boycott of all of his franchise."
"These days, all he did was to go after his former counterparts, trying to get a contract and meeting a brick wall. It was almost as if he was being stigmatized."
"Well, at this point you are completely down on your luck, there is an ill-wind all around you and it might rub off on me. I hope you understand," one of them had boldly told him.
A part of him told him to give up and let Lindsay get a job, "at least it would keep them going until the tides changed for the better," but he wasn't giving up just yet.
"He loved his wife with all his heart, but he wasn't going to rely on her for help, he wasn't ready to do that, she had to make a choice," he decided.