6 De La Rue

"You work at DLR or you just work under Oliver doing random jobs?" Nathaniel questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"At DLR of course!" he boasted.

"How is it possible that Oliver Wright has a higher position than you?" Nathaniel questioned. "Did you slack off or something?"

Jay paled and shook his head.

"Do you really think I wouldn't work hard?" Jay asked Nathaniel. "Nate after you left someone had to—"

Jay covered his mouth as soon as he realized what he was about to tell Nate.

"Had to do what?" Nathaniel asked sending a chill up Jay's spine.

Something about Nate had clearly changed and it had nothing to do with the luxurious penthouse apartment he lived in now.

"I had too…" Jay's voice became softer as he looked away from Nathaniel.

"What are you hiding?" Nathaniel glared at his friend. "Spit it out."

Jay pressed his lips into a thin line and frowned.

"Well you see when you left, Maya was broken," Jay told Nathaniel without much prodding. "I had to be there for her, that's all."

"What did you do?" Nathaniel said as he continued to look intensely at his friend. "You and Maya—"

"What the fuck? No!" Jay quickly responded looking quite appalled by what Nathaniel had suggested. "She is like a sister to me, that's all."

"So what does that have to do with you working for Oliver?" Nathaniel asked, utterly confused by what Jay had just said.

"Ah nothing, I just used it as an example to prove that I would never slack off," Jay said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Jay…" Nathaniel said as he stood up and walked towards the ceiling to floor window that gave him an obscured view of the city. "What did I miss? When I left Oliver Wright didn't even exist, I come back and he's about to get engaged to Maya."

"If it's any consolation, Maya would never have agreed to marry him," Jay said as he looked at his friend. "Oliver was a childhood friend, he left before you arrived and when he returned he found Maya heartbroken over you."

Nathaniel wordlessly nodded as he reflected on what Jay had told him.

"It still doesn't explain how you know about the De La Rue family?" Nathaniel asked as he looked back at his friend with a hostile glare.

Jay raised his hands in surrender, as if trying to tell Nathaniel that he was innocent.

"The truth, all of it," Nathaniel demanded.

Jay sighed and shook his head.

"I work as a Revenue Assistant in DLR Enterprises, Oliver Wright is the Vice President of that department," Jay explained. "I have to know all of these things in order to do my job right."

"How did Oliver Wright rise so quickly in my—the company?" Nathaniel asked.

Jay suppressed a smile as he noticed Nathaniel's slip up.

"His father does business with the local DLR office," his friend explained. "He did start out as a manager, but he brought in several high value partnerships through his family's connections."

"How does he treat you?" Nathaniel asked, concerned about his friend's wellbeing.

Jay gave him a week smile and sighed.

"You left Maya five years ago, she didn't date after that. Oliver, on paper, is a much better man, more suited for her and yet she's rejected every singled proposal he has made for her."

"What does that have to do with how he treats you?" Nathaniel was confused by his friend's words as he walked back to the couch.

"He associates Mr. Woods with you," Clark said as he arrived with coffee for the two men.

Jay was confused with how direct Clark was addressing Nathaniel, he had initially thought that Nathaniel was a member of the De La Rue family sent to deal with the Arlington branch. It seemed that he could have been mistaken.

"He's an idiot if he blames Jay for what I did five years ago, not that I had a choice," Nathaniel scoffed as he crossed his arms on his chest.

"Nate, how are you involved with DLR Enterprises?" Jay didn't want to leave without finding out the truth about how his friend Nate got involved. "And why did you come back now?"

Nathaniel smiled as Clark warily looked at his boss.

"You of all people deserve the truth." Nathaniel said as he took a deep breath.

This was the first time that he would be telling someone from his past the truth.

He had always worried about how they would take it.

Would they think he left for money? Would they reject him if they knew who he truly was?

Most people wouldn't shun a friend that's suddenly became as rich and influential as Nathaniel, but he knew both Jay and Maya were not like that.

He had also done so much damage by leaving, that Nathaniel truly felt guilty.

"As I mentioned, my real name is Nathaniel De La Rue, I'm the eldest legitimate grandson of the late President of DLR Enterprises," Nathaniel said as he watched his friend's reaction.

Jay paled when he heard Nathaniel's words.

"Th—tha—that means—" Jay stuttered.

"Clark is my assistant, he came to Primus Hotel to pick me up," Nathaniel calmly told Jay.

He knew his friend was smart and that he didn't have to explain everything.

Suddenly, Jay's expression changed, from one of shock to a confused and angry one.

"Why did you come back?" He questioned Nathaniel as his eyes burned with a new anger. "You can have any woman in the world, don't tell me you came back for Maya."

"And so what if I did?" Nathaniel asked his friend. "I didn't just come back for her, I came back for all of you. I owed you all an explanation."

"You're crazy." Jay scoffed, making Nathaniel smile.

In just a few sentences Nathaniel had gotten his friend to quickly forgive him.

"Why didn't you tell Oliver who you were? That would have solved a lot of drama," Jay tilted his head to the side as he tried to figure out what purpose Nathaniel had.

"Because I think he is quite arrogant and I want to mess with him a bit."