No More Loving in Vain

Natalia Blackwood has loved Darius Sterling since childhood, but he has only ever seen her as the girl next door. When his first love, Celeste Reyes, dies by suicide, Darius mourns her openly and marries Natalia in a union poisoned by mutual resentment. Years later, assassins from the Moretti family of Eastbourne come for Natalia, and Darius takes the poisoned bullet meant for her. As he dies in her arms, he tells her his debt to her mother is repaid and asks that they not meet again. Natalia avenges him, then takes her own life.

She wakes at twenty, on the eve of their engagement. This time she refuses the match, choosing to leave for New Verden to run the family business and give Darius and Celeste her blessing. Yet Darius still tends the leg she injured for his sake, and when Celeste falls to her knees before her, Darius shoves Natalia down and accuses her of cruelty.

Resolved to walk away, Natalia instead races to save Celeste from the Moretti women, shielding her and facing them alone. A bullet finds her calf, and she drops to one knee.