Lorena Ramsey

Lorena is the half sister of Elizabeth Webber, a fact she does not yet know, and the mother of Roman Shaw's child. She works at the Jerome Art Gallery as a manager, and has had a troubled past involving criminal activity, including art fraud. The birth of her son encouraged her to be a better person, which she is trying to adhere to. 
== Life before Port Charles ==
Lorena was the only child born to Nora Ramsey and Jeff Webber, the latter of which she never met. Nora and Jeff met in Nevada, where Nora was a brief patient of his. They later had a short lived affair which resulted in Lorena. With Jeff already having two young daughters and a wife, he made the choice to leave Nora some money, and retreat back to the life he made.
Nora Ramsey didn't protest much about this. She and Jeff had a short, casual affair, that didn't result in love. Nora still kept her pregnancy, and would soon give birth to Lorena. From the very start, Lorena and her mother had a strained relationship. Nora was a very proud and detached woman, and while she provided the essentials for her daughter, she never attempted to bond with her. A workaholic, Nora had three jobs despite having enough money to support herself and Lorena with just one or two. Lorena was often watched over by a revolving door of babysitters, none of which she was able to form a bond with. By the time she was six, Nora stopped bothering to hire sitters, and Lorena would go to and from school by herself, and would often be home alone until her mother arrived around ten. Her entire childhood was trial an error, as she can count on one hand the amount of support her mother offered her. 
It's not that Nora hated her child, a fact that Lorena would come to understand as an adult, she was just simply not maternal. She withdrew from her daughter not out of malice, but out of the simple fact of being who she was. Nora Ramsey eventually disappeared, leaving Lorena with a note that wished her a happy eighteenth birthday, and wished her luck with the life ahead of her. Lorena had been seventeen, not eighteen. 
From them on, Lorena was on her own. She finished high school and kept a roof over her head by selling the items her mother left behind, such as the old electronics and pieces of jewelry. She found a part time job at the grocery store, but it didn't pay enough money to keep up with the bills. Lorena eventually sold her mothers house and moved into a low-rent apartment district, taking on any job she could find. This went on for a few years, and Lorena's only escape was through her art. Her love of painting began as a child, and she practiced the skill whenever she could. She made small amounts of money for certain paintings, but not nearly enough to support herself and save up for a better place. 
Her need to do something more with her life took her out of Carson City and into San Diego, California. It was more expensive there, but the jobs were more plentiful, and paid a lot more. With the four hundred dollars in her pocket, she found a cheap place to live and started collecting up places to work. The most lucrative? A shady strip club on the edge of town. With few options and in need of money, Lorena took the job. It had been decent at first, as she made friends with the other women and rarely had to deal with unruly clients getting out of hand, but the owner of the strip club grew worse and worse. He began requesting more out of the girls on stage, and threats soon followed. 
Not long after, Lorena met Roman Shaw. A visitor to the club, the two of them were equally attracted to each other. Lorena saw potential in getting closer to him, where she would soon reveal to Roman that she would have to leave San Diego soon, because the owner of the club was getting abusive and wanted to move the girls into trafficking. As she hoped, Roman took care of this issue. 
Lorena expected nothing else to develop between the two of them, but she was soon taken by surprise. The more she got to know Roman, the more of a connection she felt toward him. The two would start a passionate, yet volatile relationship that would last two years. 
During which, Lorena would quickly fall into a life of crime. Art fraud to be more exact. A skilled painter at this point, Lorena knew how much authentic paintings by renown artists would go for. She would soon take that first risk, painting a replica that she would eventually sell for about ten thousand dollars. A risky career path, Lorena would only make these replicas a few times a year, and would often only accept payment in cash that she could slowly transfer to a bank account to prevent suspicion. 
The other half of her relationship wasn't so detached from a life of crime, either. Lorena always had her suspicions about what Roman did for work, but she knew better than to ask. She assumed it was some kind of illegal dealing, and considering that what she did on the side wasn't so dissimilar, she rarely pried. It wasn't until their relationship began progressing did she really begin to worry. Occasionally Roman would score an injury that couldn't be ignored, and she began to doubt that Roman worked solely in some black market. 
The love between the two of them was fire hot no matter what they were doing. They fought hard and loved harder, but it wasn't until Lorena discovered that Roman was a mercenary for an alleged mafia boss that the relationship really began to shatter. A thousand new conflicts began to arise, with their fighting becoming more and more frequent. Lorena even fought with herself, unable to reconcile with knowing she shouldn't be okay with Roman's lifestyle and yet still being okay with it. 
During a particularly bad fight, Lorena made the impulsive choice to end the relationship, packing up her things and quickly disappearing. 
== Providing Stability ==
Within weeks of leaving Roman behind, Lorena discovered she was pregnant. It came as a shock, and one she initially refused to believe. She bought at least three sets of tests in her panic, every single one of them coming up positive. As someone with a purposefully absent mother, Lorena never expected, or intended, to be a mother herself. She struggled with what to do over the next week, including going back to Roman to tell him the truth. 
It took took weeks, but Lorena built up the resolve to keep the pregnancy, and keep it away from her child's father. A selfish decision on her part, one she almost went back on a couple dozen times, but Lorena kept going. San Diego was far in her review mirror, and would only move further. Her first stop was in New York City, where she used her savings to get an apartment, and wait for the arrival of her son. She painted in her every spare second, continuing to create copies of famous works in order to sell them as authentic. It made her enough money to support herself and her son, though she resented the chaos and risk that came with the fraud. Every painting she sold ran the risk of getting her caught, and leaving her son with no one. 
She soon vowed to her newborn, a baby boy named Gabriel, that she would give him the best, most stable childhood she could. From there, she began working as a tour guide for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. It made her some money, but she was still stretched for cash and would occasionally give into the impulse to sell another painting to make a safety net for her and Gabriel. 
In her search for a better job, Lorena came across the Jerome Art Gallery, located in Port Charles, New York. She quickly applied for the job as archivist and art coordinator, and got the job. Since moving to Port Charles, Lorena has made friends with Ava Jerome and after a year, she was promoted to manager of the gallery. Her life with her son finally felt stable, and just before Gabriel's third birthday, Lorena sold what she told herself would be her last fraudulent painting. 
Now a two year resident of Port Charles, Lorena has settled into the city and built up the best life she could for her son. She has been living in relative peace and routine, right up until she ran into a face she thought she would never see again: Roman. The two were surprised to see each other, immediately putting up defensive walls and exchanging barbs rather than pleasantries. Lorena continued to keep Gabriel a secret, hoping that Roman would soon be leaving Port Charles, and nothing would come of this visit. 
Meanwhile, Lorena is still unaware that she has been living in the same city as her half sister, Elizabeth. She recently met the woman at the Jerome Art Gallery and the two of them bonded over their many similarities, with no idea that they share a father. 
Although Lorena hopes that Gabriel's paternity would be kept a secret, she panics when Roman sees her eating with her son. When he questions whether or not he is the father, she thinks quickly and tells him that she slept with someone else a few months after they broke up. Betting on the fact that Roman won't be able to tell the difference of a few months in her child, Lorena sticks to her guns and Roman walks away. She considers it a close call. 
== Personality ==
Since childhood, Lorena has been stacking the bricks that make up the walls around her. On the surface, she has thick skin, a stubborn streak, and a tendency to be hot-headed. When she feels like she's been pushed into a corner, she will often lash out and speak before she thinks, even if what she says isn't how she truly feels. Lorena isn't a stranger to anger or the use of manipulation, though the birth of her son and the subsequent stability in her life has mellowed her out. She still has the habit of isolating herself, as she was isolated in childhood. Despite living in Port Charles for two years, her closest friend is a sixty-eight year old mother figure who she only met because they live in the same apartment complex. The other is her boss, who she only sees occasionally. 
Outwardly, and thus typically at work, Lorena is cordial and helpful. With a criminal past, and some semi-recent illegal transactions to hide, she doesn't like to draw any unwanted attention to herself. She spends most of her time with her son, who she adores. 
Her more self-destructive side hasn't been seen in a few years, but those tendencies still linger just beneath the surface, ready to erupt the second she's put on the defense. 
== Important Relationships ==
* Gabriel Ramsey: Her son with Roman Shaw. She has been playing the role of single mother since he was born. He is the most important person in her life and most of her decisions are based on what she thinks is best for him. 
* Roman Shaw: Her ex and the father of her son. Their relationship was volatile but passionate. She is afraid that one day he will find out that she kept his son away from him. 
* Greta Ivarsson: Her neighbor, and a woman who has filled a mother figure role in Lorena's life. She often happily babysits Gabriel, who sees her as his grandmother. The two are close. 
== Crimes Committed ==
* Stole her mother's credit card as a teenager on multiple occasions to buy clothes and groceries. 
* Often lied about her identity with multiple aliases. 
* Never reported any information about Roman or her suspicions about him to the police. 
* Painted and sold over a dozen pieces of fraudulent art. 
* Lied about not knowing who her son's father was to healthcare professionals. 
== Health and Vitals ==
* Neglected by her mother during childhood and adolescence. 
* Hospitalized for pneumonia as a child.
* Threatened and slapped by her boss when she worked as a dancer. 
* Experienced severe Braxton Hicks contractions while pregnant. 
* Gave birth to Gabriel completely natural.
* Sprained her wrist while working at the art gallery.
Category:Characters