"I was in New York City for business. Your grandfather assigned me there for a year to take care of a possible expansion. That didn't work out in the end but while I was there, I met your mother." Charlie breathed in, a small hint of a smile curling on his lips as he stared at nothing in particular—like he was watching the events unfold in his head.

"Your mother was beautiful… She still is, I'm sure. But she was the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen. You look just like her, Angela. Long dark brown hair, bright eyes, perpetual smile. She made heads turn wherever she went." He smiled at his daughter. "We were in the same building. Her father's office was on the top floor and she would visit him sometimes. After a few natural encounters in the building, I asked her out to lunch and we started dating after that."

"Did you already know who she was then? I mean…that she was in the Bratva?" Angela wondered.

"At first… No. Though I had a feeling that she was someone important. After all, her father was a businessman and she had guards around her. She didn't tell me until a few weeks later when I asked her why we had to keep our relationship a secret. It didn't make sense to me since she was already of legal age."

"So you still kept seeing her even after she told you…" Oliver said.

Charlie chuckled. "What could I have done? I was already in love with her. And she was good to me. It only proved what I have learned. It's not as simple as 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree'. People can be kind or cruel whether they grew up in a loving and normal household or have abusive parents—or in her case, a crime family."

Angela and Oliver shared a look. Even though neither of them said it, they both knew and understood what their father was saying.

"Anyway…" Charlie sighed. "We dated for a couple of months, always careful that she wouldn't get caught as she had to sneak out every time. Then she stopped seeing me all of a sudden. There was nothing I could do. I promised her that no matter what happened, I would never face her father. I guess I wasn't brave enough to meet a Bratva leader anyway.

"I didn't know much about them then except the rumors I heard from people around me. I was tempted to go to their house once when I hadn't seen her for two weeks. But I was sure that if I ever stepped one foot on their threshold, their guards wouldn't hesitate to shoot me. Their house was gated with high brick walls surrounding the property and armed men were stationed in strategic places. A friend told me the Russian Bratva were ruthless. Their brotherhood wouldn't hesitate to shoot a family member if they deemed it necessary."

Angela swallowed. The thought of her mother being in such a scary upbringing was a little hard to imagine. "How did you end up with her in Mayne?"

"A few weeks later, I saw her in a restaurant. She wasn't alone. A tall, well-dressed man shared a meal with her. They looked intimate—as if they knew each other for a long time. I was angry. We didn't end our relationship properly. She just stopped coming to see me. And then I saw her with that man." Charlie shook his head. "I later learned he was Ivanovich Volkov, an heir of another Bratva faction, and they were engaged to be married in a few months."

"She was seeing the two of you?"

"Cynthia told me she had always been engaged to Ivan and that they had known each other since they were teens. And then she met me. I was devastated when I learned that. It was one thing to be lied to and another to be strung along when she knew she was bound to marry another man."

Angela flinched, then she masked it by drinking a glass of water. An indescribable gripping feeling inside her was so uncomfortable that she paled. She could understand her father very well. But she didn't say anything and let him continue sharing his story.

"I thought we were really over. She was shocked to see me that day, but she quickly masked her expression as if nothing was wrong. Just like that, she ignored me and continued with her date with the man she was with. I don't know if it was cowardice… I wanted to confront her then, but I thought it was best to leave. And that's what I did. I then decided to come back home to Mayne. There was nothing left for me to do in New York anyway. The expansion was canceled and she and I were over.

"The night before I was supposed to fly back home, Cynthia knocked on my door. She was shaking and wet from the heavy rain. I was still angry with her, but I'd never drive her away when she needed my help. So I let her in. That's when she told me that she was pregnant with my child." Charlie looked at Oliver, a fleeting smile formed on his lips. "That was you, Oli."

Oliver didn't know how to react that he could only take a long swig of his drink, gulping it down audibly.

"She was afraid that her father would punish her. The women in the Bratva were ranked lower than the men. They were supposed to serve their husbands and offer their purity intact at their wedding. It would be a disgrace if they weren't—dishonorable. She asked me to take her away, knowing how hard it was growing up within that family. She didn't want to raise her child under her father's ruling and wanted a normal life. Taking her with me to escape her father was a risk I was willing to take. I still loved her then and I already loved the child she carried even though I hadn't met him yet."

"If…" Oliver hesitated. "If she weren't pregnant with me then, would you still have taken her with you?"

Charlie paused for a second. "I have asked that question many times in the past. And I only had one answer: Yes, I would still have taken her away if she asked me to.. In the end, I have you two, thanks to her."