The Missing Heir trilogy has one feature that’s often uncommon for young fantasy leads: Arabella’s parents are in her life. And while I wouldn’t say that Arabella’s parents match mine, it’s potentially possible that her dad may have some things in common with my own. 

I certainly wouldn’t say that my dad was inspiration for Trenton, but he is protective of his daughters. I have an older sister and an older brother, and we grew up being told, “No closed doors if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend over.” This rule was strictly observed for my older sister whenever her boyfriend visited. Then, when my brother got a girlfriend, they were shut up in his room ALL the time. So I told my dad that he couldn’t tell me I couldn’t shut my door if I had a boy over, because, clearly, enforcing that rule had dropped by the wayside. 

His response? “Oh, yes I can. You can tell me that I have a double standard, but yes I can.” To be clear, my dad is an incredible father. I grew up in a home where he almost NEVER yelled at us. It’s only as I’ve grown older and interacted with my nieces and nephews and raised my voice more I wish I had that I’ve realized how amazing that was.

Turning our attention to Trenton and his overprotective ways in The Missing Heir, he spent all of Arabella’s childhood wracked with nightmares about his mother discovering her and stealing her away, which is exactly what she would have done, and which would have left Trenton no options to save his daughter from the supernatural life he wanted to protect her from. Even if he escalated to assassinating his mother to get Arabella way from her (because a frontal assault against your own matriarch would never work), the rest of the Heavens Clan wouldn’t have allowed Ara to leave once they realized how powerful she was. And, as we know from Luca’s visions, she would have ended up dead from them pushing her too fast.

Once Arabella became a teenager, Trenton’s nightmares finally faded . . . but not the lingering fear of something terrible happening to his daughter while he wasn’t around to protect her, hence his intense dislike and protectiveness over her being alone around someone of the opposite sex, because he had no guarantee they wouldn’t try to hurt or take advantage of her.

He was always going to be a protective father, but his fears around his mother and clan kidnapping his daughter took that into extreme realms, especially after he was unable to protect her from joining the supernatural world in the end. 

Eventually he’ll calm down and appreciate Luca as Arabella’s husband. 

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