Hit.

I'm pregnant, Nick. We're having a baby. Please answer the phone or write me back. I don't think I can do this alone - Ana

Hit.

We're moving to Cambridge. I still have your necklace. You know where to find us. - Ana

Hit.

I gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Madeline Rose Salvatore, after my mother and yours. Write back soon. - Ana

Hit.

Our little girl said her first word " dada " I'm totally going to kill you. You're not even here. You don't deserve to be her first word. - Ana

Hit.

Madeline took her first step today. I taped a video for you. Write back soon. I don't want you to miss out on anymore things. - Ana

Hit.

It's her second birthday and she never look more like you than right now. I meant I didn't just gave birth to that ungrateful brat for her to look like her invisible father.

In all seriousness, please write back soon. She's starting to ask questions. - Ana

Hit.

This will be my last time writing to you. I finally accepted and made peace with the fact that you don't care about us.

I write to tell you that I made it. I did it, Nick. Madeline is the perfect little girl. Take care. - Ana

Hit.

It was the silence of night, three in the morning when I found all her letters and the pictures I never received. My heart pounded in unbearable pace before dropping to the pit of my stomach. I read it all every words were like knives being thrown right into my chest. Every pictures I could almost feel the glint of sadness in my daughter's eyes longing for her father, the low voice calling for me in the video tapes ringing in my ears like a never ending alarm clock reminding me I was the world biggest jerk for leaving the two of them.

I punched the wall in anger, falling into the trap of self hatred. Blooded oozed out painted my wall with metallic red before dripping down to the floor as my flesh of my knuckles was ripping apart. I didn't feel a thing, numbness and cold inside the hole in chest where my guilts truly kicked in.

Guilts, regrets, strangling me from inside.

I felt like I didn't care enough and too selfish to have it easier when she was at the edge of surviving her new life and dealing with the pain I had given her.

Heavy burden of shame creeped passed my head. I failed my daughter. I could have been there for her and her mother. I made the biggest mistake and for that I would never be good enough for them.

I wasn't worthy enough to be apart of their lives. I would never be. I was late, too late. But, I wouldn't give up, not again.

" Bring Cora. My office. Now. " I grunted into my phone.

I sat on my desk, clutching a small square picture in my hand. The first sonogram, she had sent me four years ago. I stared at the black and white image with a black expression on my face but I could feel myself drowning deeper and deeper into the ocean of guilts.

I didn't look up from the picture when I heard the sound of my office's door creaking opened. Footsteps approaching my desk, boots thudding on the floor, and a pair of smaller footsteps. I felt them, Ryan and Cora, towered over me in front of the desk. I nodded my head without looking up but Ryan knew what to do. He pushed her onto the chair, slamming her hands on my desk.

Knife slicing flesh and clinking against her bone, as he cut into her fingers, one by one. My eyes focused on the picture of Madeline beaming under the Christmas tree hugging her mother, it was last year. I could have been there if I wasn't so much of a coward.

Cora's screams filled the room as Ryan kept cutting off her fingers then her hands, like I asked him to.

When I finally look up from the picture, her blood was spattered all over my desk, fingers laying in the middle of the space. I bored my eyes into hers and she looked at me with so much emotions that I wanted her dead right then and there. I watched her tears pouring down, leaving stains on her cheeks. Pain and horror were cleared and full displayed across her face.

I waved my hand, motioning him to stop. " You stole my letters. Hiding my stuffs and stealing my phone. You cut all my connections to my child. "

" A thief's best punishment was to cut all of its fingers off. "

" How dare you sabotage the relationship I could have had with my child? You crossed the line when you took my letters and hid it away thinking you have the rights to do so. Who the fuck do you think you are? " I barked, slamming my hands on the desk.

She flinched away slightly, more tears streaming down her cheeks. Pathetic was the best word to describe her right now. I couldn't believe this, a mere maid who I saved from starving to death at the side of street thinking she had the rights to ruin my chance of being with my daughter.

" She's not good enough to be the mother of your child. Anastasia is a traitor. She is an enemy. She wanted to murder all of you. That monster doesn't deserve your love, neither is her little spawn. " Cora said looking at her laps.

I laughed humorlessly, dryness escaping my throat.

" And, who do you think deserve it? You? "

" I love you since the moment you saved me. I have always loved you. I know you have feelings for me too until that bitch came into the picture. "

" She wanted to leave when you were dying in the hospital, do you know that? I had never been more happy. I wanted you to see her true color. I was even willing to help her if that meant she will leave you, leave us alone. "

" And, when she finally left, all you could think about was her while you drown in alcohol. She hurt you, caused you pain. I hated her. Then she came back again, this time stealing you from me completely. You were in love with her, blinded by love, I could see it in your eyes every time you look at her. But, I knew she didn't feel the same way. She was hiding something and I was determined to find out. "

" She was the daughter of your biggest enemy, under a mission to kill all of you. I couldn't let her kill you. I love you, Nicholas. So, I told one of your men her real name. I helped you find out her true identity. "

" I wanted you to kill her like you and your family always did to a traitor. I knew the mafia wouldn't hesitate to kill her right on the spot. I wanted her dead so we could fall in love when she was finally gone. "

" But, no. You saved her life. You killed your own men, those who knew about her. You didn't tell another soul because you knew they wouldn't be happy if she was alive and would ask you to kill her in front of everyone. As a leader you know you would have to do the right thing if it came to that. "

" So, you took her away and let her go. You broke your own rules for her. "

" What does she have and I don't? I was here first. "

I gulped down the golden whiskey in my hand. Hard liquor burning my throat, making my head dizzy, but not enough to make me forgot about the coldness in the hole of my chest.

Cora was dead, on my floor, in the middle of the pool of her own blood. Killing her was the punishment of robbing my daughter from me all those years. But, still I didn't feel better about myself.

I could have been more careful about the things happening around me. I could have prevented all these if I was being such a pathetic loser who couldn't handle a heartbreak. If only I didn't turn to alcohol for help, I could have noticed.

Glass shattered in my palm, million pieces of small glass cut into the flesh of my hand. Blood dripping like waterfall, I did nothing to stop it. Liked I didn't stop her from leaving me.

" Nicholas Evan. " father's voice echoed through the whole room as he entered my office.

I didn't look up. " Father. "

" Anastasia left with Madeline three days ago. "

" I know, dad. " I murmured under my breath.

" Aren't you going to do something about that? "

" She and I, we are unfinished business. I will not let her go without a fight. I just need to sort out my shits first. " I muttered.

I wasn't going to let her go again. Not this time. We might keep hurting each other in the past but I was determined to change that because I believed that if two lines touched, the universe would always find a way to keep them connected even when hope was lost.

" Sorting yourself out by falling into the dark manipulation of guilt won't get you anywhere. " father scoffed, dropping himself down on the couch.

" Do you think she will forgive me, Dad? " I asked feeling helpless.

" You lost her but it wasn't because you didn't love her enough so don't blame yourself, son. I hate to boast your ego but I personally think you did the right thing. It was your instinct to protect any harm that came to her. You knew I would have killed her on the spot if I had found out first and the whole mafia would have gone against their own leader If you protected her. Because rules are rules and I raised you to make family your first priority. "

I loved her. I really did. Letting her go was the hardest decision I had to make. I chose my family without even knowing I was going to have one of my own.

" You did it for your family, you saw threat and you eliminated it as a leader should have done even when you know it would hurt you more seeing her go. You didn't have much of a choice. You sacrificed your happiness for your family and for that I'm so proud of you. " father let out a heavy sigh as a small smile formed on his lips.

But, most of all I did it for the sake of our fallen love.

Letting her go was needed. Her and I, we had our own demons, she wasn't communicating and I didn't try either. We were both hurting and fighting our own battles. She was still confused about the whole thing with her father and loving you, while I on the other hand was trapped between the pain, the anger of being betrayal by my love and the urges to protect my family, the same urges that blinded me to overlook what she had to explain.

Letting her go was never because my love for her wasn't enough or that I didn't care. I believed that the both of us was better off to find healing we truly needed without being together and hurting each other more in the process.

They said two lost souls, trying to heal each other was love. But, not in our case. I knew we would ended up destroying each other even more.

She needed to find herself and so did I.

Except I never did. I lost myself when I ripped her out of my life with my own bare hands.

" I thought I was doing it all right, Dad. I thought I had it all figured out. My stupidity caused me to lose four years of my daughter's life. The life I could have had with her and our little girl. "

" Losing time with Madeline was big loss and I couldn't imagine your pain being father without even knowing it. Cora robbed you the first years of your fatherhood and she paid for it. We can't turn back time. " he placed his hand on my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

" You may have lost four years but you have forever to make it up to her so don't lose anymore time. "

We got all the space we needed in the past four years. It was about time we re-visited us, reopening our old story, and this time we would get a happy ending, with our little girl.

I was going to make it right this time.

" Thank you, Dad. " I gave him a small smile.

" Now go get your daughter back and for the love of god make her mother your wife. I'm not getting any younger. "

He grunted under his breath, throwing me the key to his car and with that, the title of the Don.

" Again, thanks for this dad. That was some speech you prepared. Mom trained you well. " I said, earning an unimpressed looks from him.

" Get out of my face before I disown you, fucking ungrateful brat. "

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