Emily Preston was excited when she learned that she was pregnant. Even though her relationship with Holden Kelly was casual, at best, she saw this as a chance for them to build a family. Her way of taming a rowdy member of the Hell's Reapers and possibly settle down. Holden believed her when she told him that she was pregnant, but he didn't really want to be a husband and a father. It was too much change at once and when he suggested to Emily that they just focus on the pregnancy, she was mad. Vindictive and manipulative to the core, Emily started to freeze Holden out of things. He missed appointments and when she went into labor on June 22, 1992; he almost wasn't told.

In the end, Emily relented and let Holden in to see the birth of his baby. It was his second child, after a boy born a few years earlier, and he was excited to be the father of a gorgeous little girl. They went back and forth on names for a while and even had an argument that made nurses step in. When she went home three days later, the little girl had finally been named Ainslie Grace Preston. A happy but wiggly baby, she was happier in her father's arms than her mother's, something that surprised everyone around them. The Reapers attached to Holden's Austin charter laughed and teased him for finding the worst possible woman to mother his second child. He'd gotten lucky with his son, despite not always being able to see him. They were living up near Dallas, thanks to a lucrative job offer that the boy's mother just couldn't resist. But it felt the exact opposite with Emily. She couldn't hold down a job and she would tell anyone who listened that she wanted to just be a stay at home mother. That it was Holden's responsibility to take care of them both. Holden only wanted to be responsible for Ainslie.

Even though her parents were constant at odds, Ainslie grew inot a happy but rowdy toddler. She was constantly in things and begging her momma to play with her. Emily, who had long ago felt the novelty of motherhood wear off, wanted to be free. She wanted to go out and party, hang out with her single and childless friends. But Holden didn't always allow her that luxury. He felt that she needed to stay at home and be a mom, though he did make sure that she had a sitter for all of the club events and parties that Ainslie couldn't come to. Emily didn't feel that was enough and put more pressure on her daughter's father. Pressure that ultimately led to him being caught by the police. Holden had been doing an errand for the club when he was stopped by the Texas Highway Patrol. They asked to search his saddle bags and, not trusting cops, he refused. They didn't have probable cause, he aruged, but it didn't matter. He was yanked off his bike and thrown to the ground, handcuffed while they searched. Resisting arrest, speeding, and carrying a loaded weapon gave him jail time. Emily was pissed to find that her child's father had been caught and demanded to know what the club was going to do about it. When the charter's president pushed back, saying that she wasn't an old lady, she decided to take her daughter and leave.

Ainslie couldn't understand where her father was or why he wasn't coming home. She knew that he'd gotten in trouble but in her eyes, he was a good guy. He was the man that had taught her how to fight and catch a baseball. He encouraged her to do what made her happy, as long as her education didn't suffer. She also couldn't understand why they'd moved from Austin, to the small town of Midland, Texas. She wanted to go home, but Emily was always quick to shut down her daughter's protests. Midland was home now and she was determined to find someone to take care of them. As Holden's incarceration continued to lengthen, Ainslie realized that she needed to start helping out around the house. Emily was bartending at a local place, but it was barely enough to cover expenses. She kept hoping that Holden would be released from jail and let her come home, but it didn't happen. Six months turned into a year. A year turned into two years and by the time Ainslie was eleven, her father had been charged with murder. It was self-defense but a fellow inmate had still died at Holden's hands. His prison sentence was extended to twenty years, but there was a small possibility of parole if he started keeping out of trouble. Ainslie begged him to stop fighting and he agreed.

Life without her father was tough for Ainslie. She was growing to hate her mother, who had refused to tell her what had truly happened to her father. As Emily told it, Holden had run off with another woman and made her leave town. He didn't want them around, Emily constantly claimed. And because Holden had asked that his young daughter not visit him, she had no one to tell her otherwise.