ictor and Laura Roberts adopted Nathaniel McAllister.

He did not take their name, that was his decision and they allowed it.

He wanted to remember where he came from, he couldn’t forget. He had to remember always what he was, who he was so he would never go back.

It would have been easy to forget with his new life.

It was almost like a genie came out of a bottle and gave him his every wish.

They were rich. Victor and Laura (he never called them Mum and Dad, even though Laura wanted him to) lived in a beautiful home on a street where all the houses were gleaming white, all the railings were glossy black and all the window boxes were filled with redder than red geraniums and trailing green ivy.

They had two children, Jeffrey and Danielle.

Jeffrey hated Nate with a passion.

Danielle loved him just the same.

Conversely, the first was a godsend, the second was a nightmare.

Jeffrey and Danielle had everything they ever wanted, everything they asked for, everything they desired. They had two parents who loved them and spoiled them too much, way too much. They had a beautiful home, beautiful clothes, food to eat that they didn’t have to steal or cook and servants to put clean, fresh sheets on their big beds and even iron their expensive clothes.

They’d never needed, they’d never been hungry, they’d never stole, they’d never dodged a punch thrown by a grown, drunken man and they’d never held their mother’s hair back while she vomited.

Jeffrey knew from Nate’s rough accent just who he was and where he came from and he never let Nate forget it.

Never.

And this was good, Nate didn’t want to forget.

Jeffrey’s voice was posh from schooling at special schools. Jeffrey was the same age as Nate but would have lasted about two seconds in Nate’s old neighbourhood. Jeffrey knew this and Jeffrey knew his father knew this.

Jeffrey’s father, he understood (though he was never told), had been like Nate when he was younger. Victor, Jeffrey had heard his father tell his mother one night, saw himself in Nate. Victor admired Nate. Jeffrey thought his father even doted on him and he was not wrong.

Jeffrey despised his father even before Nathaniel McAllister came into their lives. He was coarse and rough even though he tried to be polished and refined.

And he despised Nate and did everything he could to make his father’s new son’s life a living hell.

Nothing he did pierced Nate’s armour. If anything it seemed Nate found Jeffrey amusing.

However Nate did not find Jeffrey amusing. Nate watched Jeffrey carefully. Nate trusted Jeffrey about as far as he could throw him. Jeffrey kept Nate’s instincts for survival finely tuned.

Danielle, two years younger than Nate, took one look at the handsome young boy and fell instantly in love.

She wanted him; she was going to marry him. She knew this at age ten.

And everything Danielle had ever wanted, she’d been given.

So after first clapping eyes on him, she decided she owned Nate.

And she was not a girl who liked sharing.

It took Nate mere months to melt into their lives. He was a chameleon. Even though for two years he’d barely gone to school, he caught up so swiftly he immediately became the teachers’ pet. He lost his rough accent within two months, lost his tough manners at one dinner at their spectacular, shining, dining table simply by watching what they did and emulating it. He wore his new expensive clothes with a casual grace that made Jeffrey seethe and Danielle’s heart skip a beat. He learned tennis, how to ride a horse, how to play cricket, rugby, soccer and in no time at all was the best. Better than Jeffrey, better than Victor, better than any boy at school or even the coaches.

Jeffrey hated it.

Danielle loved it.

Laura adored it, adored the boy, her new son. At first her heart went out to him. Victor had sent men to find out Nate’s story and this story Victor shared with Laura. Nate reminded her so of her beloved husband. She realised quickly Nathaniel’s pride and history would not bear her coddling which she so wanted to do. Instead she treated him with respect, almost like an adult, and he that responded to. He’d never really had a mother and at first he distrusted Laura but after time she won him over. This was because she didn’t treat him like a kid, she didn’t treat him like he was stupid but she did treat him like she cared because she did.

Victor grew to love the boy with a fierceness he had for neither of his other children. He felt guilty about this but as he’d been busy wiping the scum from his skin, the filth from under his fingernails, erecting a life of privilege and giving them everything they’d whined to have, they never, not once, said thank you. They never, not once, did anything but ask for more. This was partially his fault. He wanted them to have everything he didn’t. And he wasn’t around that often, he had not been a good father. He knew this.

Victor Roberts was also not a good man nor was he a kind man, he was a dangerous man. This was out of necessity and this was what Nate would have become.

But Victor loved his children, as hard as it was sometimes. He adored his wife. But the best thing he’d ever done, outside of marrying Laura, was bringing Nate into their lives.

And once he did he made up his mind that his fortune, his business, everything he had would go to Nate. Victor would take care of Jeffrey and Danielle, most certainly, they’d never want for anything. But he knew Nate would not let Victor’s hard work, his sacrifice and the black marks he’d scored onto his own soul go to waste.

The minute Nate’s adoption was legal (after a few strings were pulled, favours were called in and palms were greased), Victor Roberts went legitimate. He would not saddle Nate with a glorified life of crime. Nate had become a gangster’s boy at eleven, he would be his own man, a gentleman, at twenty-one.

And thus Nate’s new life led him through different challenges: posh schools where Jeffrey made sure all the boys knew Nate’s background, this also kept Nate’s instincts honed as he’d been called out for nasty fistfights constantly just for the other boys to test their meddle against streetwise Nate (the other boys always lost, soundly); Cambridge where Jeffrey was thrown out for terrible marks; country clubs where Danielle tried to get Nate to take her virginity, this he did not do, instead a lifeguard did it while she convinced herself Nate was watching in jealousy but Jeffrey was watching and laughing; Sunday rugby matches where Nate, to Laura and Victor’s delight, always led his team to victory.

All the while Victor groomed Nate for his future. Victor did this alongside Jeffrey who took no interest and eventually just took himself off and was given a nominal post that came with a very good office where he could seduce a variety of women.

Victor took his own cunning and tapped his new genius son’s bright mind and together they found legitimacy and respectability, made masses of money and forged a relationship closer than blood.

Victor knew Nathaniel’s future was bright. He’d taken great pains to assure it. Nathaniel would make a good marriage if he’d simply stop sampling all the skirt that threw itself at him, Laura was getting distressed. He’d have beautiful children. He’d live in a beautiful home. He’d always take care of Jeffrey and Danielle out of duty and respect to Laura and Victor. And he’d be certain that Victor’s legacy was secure.

This Victor thought was assured.

But Nate never forgot where he came from, never forgot who he was, never forgot what he was, never trusted what he had and always knew he didn’t deserve it.

So he worked hard, harder than any man, to keep it, build it and make it strong.

So it would never go away.

So he’d never go back.

So it would never destroy him.

And he was beginning to feel his success.

And then came Lily Jacobs.