I once believed that the Locke family’s current glittering success was something Nathaniel had built step by step through his own abilities and schemes.
I was even naive enough to think that it was only later—after he had an affair—that he became unrecognizable for the sake of his mistress and Evangeline.
But the documents tell me, with brutal clarity,
It wasn’t “later.”
From the very beginning, his goal had been to swallow everything whole.
Marielle.
The only daughter of the Whitmore family.
The true heiress of Bayou Pointe—born with a silver spoon in her mouth, raised amid boundless love and privilege.
And Nathaniel?
He came from a remote little town. His mother ran off after giving birth to him; his father was rarely home, raising him with perfunctory neglect.
The moment he fo
