“Please, if you won’t talk to me, at least take me to your father. You said he wants to see me,” Bertha pleads just outside my apartment door.

I shouldn’t have opened the door at all, but she was annoying me with the incessant pressing of the bell button. I was in the middle of sweeping the apartment for more bugs, and I needed some silence to continue working.

Some professionals will come and do the job properly tomorrow, but I don’t like the idea of sleeping in an apartment that has been compromised. Who knows what else they’ve planted?

How could I have been so careless? I should’ve known better than to leave a girl alone in my apartment when I haven’t even run her profile through the usual checks.

“Please, Caine. I beg you.” Bertha’s eyes well up with tears. She clasps her hands together in front of her chest, so tight her knuckles are turning white.

“Fine,” I finally say. It’s probably a good idea to spend the night at Pop’s anyway, now that my apartment is fucked.

Then, once I deliver this woman to him, I can wash my hands off this bullshit. I don’t need more complications in my life.

“Really? Oh, thank you very much.” Bertha spreads her arms and pulls me into a hug.

I stand there awkwardly, waiting for her to let go.

I don’t really want to have anything to do with her. After tonight, I won’t have to see her again. Pop can find her himself next time if he really wants to see her that badly.

* * *

“Nathan did what?” Pop raises his voice, shocked and outraged by what Bertha has just told him, which is basically the same thing Daisy told me back at the apartment before she left.

“It’s true,” Bertha says. “He told me he knew where to find my family. He implied that he was going to, I don’t know, do something really bad to us if I didn’t give up the baby.”

“Jesus Christ,” Pop curses.

“You know how it was in those days, Robbie. I was worried about my dad getting beaten up in some alley, my mom disappearing, never to be found again.”

Shocking as the revelation is, I almost choke when she calls him “Robbie.”

He’s too wrapped up in the old stories to notice my reaction, though. He says, “If I knew that snake was up to something, I would’ve—”

“Oh, let’s not get started with the should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. There’s no end to it,” Bertha says. “What matters is right now, and I think we’re all relatively happy people, living happy lives, right?”

I have to admit, that’s a pretty cool thing to say, especially knowing she just lost her daughter last year.

Pop’s smile grows so wide I almost don’t recognize him. Who is this guy?

“Birdy,” he says, taking her hand in his. “You were always so wise.”

This is, without a doubt, the strangest moment in my life now.

“Can I get some explanations, please?” I speak up. This lovey-dovey atmosphere is starting to piss me off. “Why would Uncle Nathan do that? I’ve never known him to do anything against us.”

“You mean against the family, Caine,” Pop says. “Birdy wasn’t family. Nora was family. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I was cheating on Nora, and Nathan was doing what he thought was best for the family.”

“I’ve also always suspected that he had feelings for Nora,” Bertha says.

“Right. That, too,” Pop agrees.

“Wait, so he went against you, Pop?”

“Well, in those days, the head of the family was your grandfather. His first priority was his daughter, of course. And a cheating son-in-law had to be put in his place.”

“And you were okay with that?”

“Of course I wasn’t,” Pop says. “But, you see, it wasn’t just about Birdy and me anymore. There was you to think about. There were our families, our parents, our siblings. We’d be putting all of them at risk if we incurred your grandfather’s wrath.”

He pauses and swallows, his eyes focused on something in the distance. He takes a deep breath before he says, “I was depressed for a long time after that. But over the years, I learned to work with your grandfather and Nathan again.

“When your grandfather passed, I thought about letting Nathan go, but he was such a big part of the business by then, and the whole thing happened so long ago, and I also knew Nora wouldn’t have been too happy about that.”

My heart beats faster in my chest. I’ve been operating under the assumption that Uncle Nathan and Todd were one of us, that they wouldn’t do anything to seriously harm us under any circumstances.

Now, I’m not sure what they are anymore.

“Do you think Uncle Nathan, or Todd, or both of them, would be capable of betraying us?” I ask.

“Oh, definitely. That’s why I’ve always kept a close eye on them,” Pop says.

I expected him to say yes, but not that quickly or confidently.

“Lately, I’ve been lax on that because of my illness, but I should probably—”

I cut him off before he can finish his sentence. I have another urgent question. “So if I were to tell you that I found out my bedroom’s been bugged, and there’s a chance that Todd was there, do you think it’s possible that he did it?”

“Absolutely.”