Things We Left Behind

The narrative shifts to 22 years in the past. Because a young Lucian is confined behind bars for six days, he misses his 18th birthday and his high school graduation. Chief Ogden unjustly tries to charge Lucian as an adult, and a district attorney suggests a plea deal for eight years in prison. Meanwhile, Sloane plans to record Ansel’s next incident of domestic abuse in order to gain irrefutable proof to put him behind bars. When the time finally comes, she calls the police, but before they can get there, Sloane sees Ansel place a knife to his wife’s throat, so she breaks into the house to defend her. Ansel breaks Sloane’s wrist.

The novel returns to the present moment. Sloane sneaks out the next morning, but Lucian comes to her home later, and they have sex once again, promising each other that it will be the last time.

Sloane makes grilled cheese sandwiches for her and Lucian. They make a deal and agree to answer each other’s prying questions for 20 minutes. Lucian admits to buying a condo for Sloane’s parents. Sloane reveals that her broken wrist derailed her college scholarship and sports medicine career, but this was for the best because it gave her a better life than she could ever imagine. Lucian confesses that his one week in prison as a teenager was the worst week of his life because he feared for his mother’s life and his own future.

On Monday morning, Lucian agonizes over texting Sloane good morning. When he arrives at work, everyone is alarmed at his unusually pleasant disposition. Lucian spends most of his morning flirtatiously texting with Sloane. Later in the day, Lucian’s security team alerts him to a tracking device on one of his cars. He is relieved to discover that it’s not the same vehicle that he drove to Knockemout to see Sloane. Lucian increases security at the office and plans to use the tracker to his advantage.

Sloane and Naomi meet with a lawyer named Fran Vereen about an appeal for Mary Louise. Fran offers to take the case pro bono. They sign a retainer letter, and Fran visits her new client.

By Valentine’s Day, Sloane has given a few local interviews to stir up support for Mary Louise’s appeal. As she is decorating the library for an adult romance author’s book signing, Nash visits to get a second opinion on a Valentine’s gift for Lina. While he is there, Sloane receives a threatening letter addressed to her in the library’s drop box. It reads, “Stop now before someone gets hurt” (350). Although Sloane believes it to be a prank, Nash takes it very seriously and plans to review the security footage of the past 12 hours. Sloane also receives a case of sports drinks from Lucian, which piques Nash and Naomi’s curiosity about Sloane’s secret man. Lucian secretly shows up as the library is closing and convinces Sloane to pack and come to his place in Washington, DC, for the night.

After having sex with Sloane at his place, Lucian receives a call from Petula about urgent upcoming meetings, including a reservation for him and his “lady friend” next Thursday evening. When Sloane reacts with anger and jealousy and attempts to leave, Lucian admits that his “lady friend” is Karen, Sloane’s mother, with whom he has weekly dinners. Lucian begins to realize that his need for Sloane will not go away anytime soon.

Sloane meets her friends at Knox’s bar, Honky Tonk. When Lucian arrives, they disappear to a private corner of the bar and become intimate. However, they stop before things escalate too far and agree to make excuses to their friends and leave in 30 minutes.

Lucian brings Sloane to his home, which is next door to her home in Knockemout. They have sex, and afterward, Sloane brings Lucian to her home. They are shocked to find a pile of dead rats on her welcome mat. When he calls Nash in to collect the evidence, Lucian discovers that Sloane has been receiving anonymous threats. Nash shows up with all their friends in tow, and no one is surprised when Sloane and Lucian’s sexual escapades are revealed.

Lucian meets with Nash to discuss the threats and to obsess over Sloane’s safety. Lucian also decides to end things with Sloane to avoid exposing her to unnecessary danger from Anthony Hugo. He fears that she will run straight into danger without thinking things through, just as she did with his father when they were teenagers. When he breaks the news to Sloane, the conversation becomes a confrontation, and Lucian accuses Sloane of being like his mother: “a woman who ha[s] no sense of self-preservation” (398).

Lucian has his security team install security measures around Sloane’s house, and Sloane ignores his texts for the next week and a half. Meanwhile, Fran has an unsuccessful meeting with the judge who originally sentenced Mary Louise.

Sloane’s bad day only worsens when Naomi shares news from a gossip blog. The article showcases pictures of Lucian entering the same hotel in which he and Sloane had their first sexual encounter; this time, however, he has a beautiful, rich woman on his arm and is also shown taking another woman out to a fancy restaurant. The news devastates Sloane. To cope, she visits a bar with her friends, including Nash and Knox, and she reveals the real story behind Lucian’s animosity. Sloane’s friends believe that Lucian is hiding Sloane away to protect her from threats like Anthony Hugo.

Sloane continues to ignore Lucian’s texts, and he grows increasingly irritable at work. His mother, Kayla, visits him about increasing the budget for an event she is planning and reveals that she has recently begun seeing someone romantically. It is the first relationship she has had since Ansel, and Lucian is accepting of the change. Lucian meets with Emry, who attempts to get Lucian to acknowledge his love for Sloane. Lucian admits that he has been seeing multiple women to confuse Hugo into thinking that Sloane is of no special significance to him. Lucian hopes that this ruse will prevent Hugo from targeting Sloane in the future.

Lucian meets Knox, Nash, Stef, and Stef’s boyfriend Jeremiah at Honky Tonk for drinks. Sloane enters the bar on a date with Kurt Michaels—a local teacher and a perfect potential family person. Lucian stews in jealousy as Sloane flirts with Kurt. Lucian follows her to the bathrooms when she leaves the table and foolishly invites her to come to his place later. He insists that what they had “was more than sex” and asserts that they have “always been more” (428). She rejects his advances. Sloane encourages Knox and Nash to escort Lucian outside. Though the two brothers normally resort to knocking sense into each other with their fists, they never do so with Lucian because of the abuse that he suffered from his father. Now, Lucian picks a fight with the Morgan brothers, but they hold back good-naturedly.

Sloane meets her mother to go through Simon’s things. Karen asks Sloane about Lucian’s well-being, adding that he has cancelled their usual dinners two weeks in a row. Sloane comes across her father’s past medical bills and discovers that Lucian paid for experimental cancer treatments not covered by health insurance. Sloane later confronts Lucian about the medical bills and also asks him about the three different companies he owns which have all anonymously covered the costs of running her library over the years. However, when Sloane accuses him of loving her, Lucian refuses to admit it.