“You abandoned me in the middle of the night! You left me alone for five years!” Maya hissed as he lifted his hand to touch where her slap had left its mark. “I left to protect you! I left because I love you!” Nathaniel protested in a futile attempt to defend himself. —————————————————— Five years ago, Nathaniel De La Rue found love and a new life in Arlington City, but his past soon caught up with him and forced him to leave behind everything he had built, including his beloved Maya Miller. Now, Nathaniel is done running. He must confront his past to protect those that matter the most to him. After fighting for his right to live and accepting his rightful place in the De La Rue family, he finally returns to Arlington City. However, upon his return, Nathaniel finds that his world is not the same as he left it. Maya, the woman he loves, is engaged to another man. His best friend now works for the man who stole Maya from him. Furthermore, the woman who had cared for Nathaniel like a mother is being abused by her husband. It’s as if he has to start from scratch. But things have changed. This time he has the De La Rue Family by his side.
"That was not the man she was with when I left," Nathaniel frowned as he thought back to his last visit with his adoptive mother. "Clarisse wouldn't be with a man like that."
"But she is, Nathaniel," Jay said. "That's what she was protecting you from. Clearly, you wouldn't need protection from people like that, but she didn't know, I didn't know."
"And Nathaniel, this is the same guy," Nico said grimly.
Nathaniel could feel the world around him disappear, he remembered the man Clarisse Rue was with all those years ago.
The man didn't seem like he could be connected to anything illegal or powerful. He seemed to be quite normal except for his occasional abuse of Clarisse.
He remembered telling her not to trust him, to leave him, even back then he felt off with the man, but Clarisse insisted that she loved him.