Nina Monet Cambridge is a successful city girl living in country town. She runs and owns a tattoo shop with her cousin, Kourtney. Kourtney is tired of seeing her cousin down and out. She convinces her cousin to get back into the dating scene again, forcing Nina to confront her hurtful past. Nina grew up on a naval base in San Diego, California. When Nina was fourteen, she met and fell for an older musician by the name of Ricque Cole. What started off as tutoring to get him caught up on his schoolwork turned into a beautiful relationship, but more than that, the two became best friends. They confided in one another and depended on each other to get through the tough times. Nina struggled with the feelings of neglect that her mother placed upon her; Ricque struggled with the life that his parents left him to deal with. Circumstances pull the young couple from one another, forcing Nina to keep a secret that should have never been kept. Heartbreaking decisions were made, and Nina’s conscience begins to weigh down on her. After a tragic event, Nina’s aunt invites her to come live with her in Goldsboro, North Carolina. After almost sixteen years of living with guilt and anguish, Nina meets a handsome club owner by the name of Santiago Dominguez. Feelings start to flourish, and Nina can’t seem to shake the fact that the new man in her life has similarities to the old one. Just when Nina decides that it’s time to move on, her past confronts her with open arms.

Nina is hit with a whirlwind of emotions when her heart is confronted with her past. It took her seventeen years to move on from Ricque Cole, a superstar and son of a major drug distributor from the Dominican Republic. After seventeen years, she meets Santiago Dominguez, a smooth club owner who reminds her a lot of her old flame. Just when her heart decided it was time to move on, Santiago surprises Nina by taking her to a concert, forcing her to come face to face with a man she hadn’t seen in seventeen years. At Ricque’s concert, Santiago introduces Ricque to Nina as his half-brother, and her entire world falls apart. Nina can’t help but feel like Santiago knew all along that the man she’d been waiting on for almost two decades was his brother. Ricque is furious that his own brother would cheat his way into the heart of the woman his brother knew meant everything to him. Seventeen years is a long time to wait on someone. Seventeen years is a long time to fend for yourself. Seventeen years is a long time to wait and find out that the people you thought you could trust are the very ones that cannot be trusted. Secrets are revealed. Truths unfold. Lives are at stake. Emotions run wild. All the riches in the world could not make up for the losses that these characters endure.