After Brooklyn and I arrived at my old home in the villa, I got us settled in. It was strange being back there. Not a single thing had changed since I'd been gone. I was surprised that my father hadn't done anything with the house or with any of my possessions. It was like he just wanted to forget that I had ever existed.

Brooklyn and I went to the building with the business offices and took one of the electric carts that we used to get around to the different buildings in the villa.

My parent's house had been built quite a ways away from mine and my brother's houses, and my father had always had his driver take him back and forth in his car, but I loved the open air of the small electric carts.

We drove through a number of gardens that had been impeccably maintained since I'd left. It amazed me how things were always taking care of at the villa. Meals were always prepared, gardens always tended to, and everything was maintained like clockwork even when there was no one around to appreciate any of it.

Apparently my mother hadn't been up and around for months, but Lucas hadn't said a word. He told me that he really didn't have very deep feelings for her, but I was surprised that he didn't say a word about her to me.

That was another thing that reminded me of our father. I hadn't wanted to agree with him when he told me how he felt in the hotel room that night, but I did. I had noticed most of my life that Lucas was similar to our father in ways that I never understood. He could be cold and thoughtless about things that seemed like they would be common sense to anyone else.

"My God this is beautiful, Adrian. I never got to see any of this when I was here. I never even left the house except for the day your father took me away from you."

"I know. I hope seeing this part of the estate makes it a different experience for you. I know I have mixed feelings about this place. I have a lot of really good memories, but a lot of bad ones too. But there's a lot of beauty here. My mother made sure of that. This rose garden is hers. She's had help with it over the last few years, but she planted everything herself."

"I know how hard this must be for you, Adrian. I'm so sorry you have to deal with all of this and the memories of your father."

"Well, the sooner we get things taken care of the sooner we can move on."

One of the things that I was most afraid of, the thing I hadn't been able to tell Brooklyn, was that I was terrified of finding the old me lurking around in the corners and down in the cellar. I didn't want to even think about the training grounds below the villa, and I didn't want to think about the person I had been when I was down there. But I didn't want to tell her any of that. I didn't want to worry her any more than she already was by just being on my father's property.

We walked into my mother's room and I was shocked to see how small she looked. I went to the side of her bed and held my breath, staring at her and remembering how she had looked when I was a kid. She had always been one of the most beautiful women in the world to me, and now she looked so old and frail.

I didn't want to disturb her. I wanted her to rest, but I was also afraid of how she would be when she opened her eyes. She seemed to sense that someone was near and when she opened her eyes her face lit up.

"Adrian! Is that really you?" she said as she gripped both of my hands in hers.

"Yes, it's really me. I'm so sorry I didn't come sooner. How are you?"

"I'm okay. Today's one of my bad days. Some days I can sit up and even get out of bed. But today I don't think that's going to happen. I'm just so happy to see you. I'd hoped and prayed so hard that I would get to see you again before … before I get any worse."

"I'm glad to see you too."

I turned and brought Brooklyn close to the edge of the bed and put my arm around her, but before I could introduce her my mother spoke up.

"Oh my goodness, Brooklyn. It's been so long, but you look exactly the same. You're the same beautiful, bright girl that I remember. So am I right in understanding that the two of you are married?"

"Yes, Mrs. Bellini. We were married a little over a year ago on that same island where our families vacationed. Where Adrian and I first met."

"Oh, how romantic, but please, call me Caroline," my mother said to Brooklyn with tears in her eyes as she looked up at me. "I'm thrilled to see you again. You're such a lovely girl. I imagine you make Adrian really happy."

"She does," Adrian said with a squeeze of my hand.

"Is Lucas here? Did he come back with you?"

I was startled for a moment and I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to tell my mother that Lucas had arrived here a full day ahead of us and he hadn't come to see her yet.

"He's here, yes. I'll see if I can find him. He might be taking a shower after the long plane ride …"

"Hi, Mom."

I looked behind me and there he was, standing in the doorway. His arms were folded and he was leaning with his shoulder up against the doorframe. He walked across the room and stood on the other side of the bed, but only put his hand out after my mother held hers to him for a few seconds.

"I'm so glad you're back, Lucas. I don't know where you go off to. You're so much like your father."

The look in my mother's eyes broke my heart. I could tell she worried about Lucas and wanted to be closer with him, but she was right. He was a lot like our father in some ways, and I could tell by the look on his face that Lucas didn't particularly like hearing that.

"There's going to be some paperwork for you to take care of now that your father is gone. I'm having our lawyer come here tomorrow and we're all going to meet with him. I'm hoping I'll have enough strength to get into my wheelchair. I'd really like to be there with all of you when the will is read."

"Why do you want us to be there? He took me out of his will. I haven't had anything to do with the business for over a year."

"Yes, Adrian, I'm aware of that. He told me all about it. And as much as I'd like to change the will, there's nothing I can do. As far as your father's will is concerned, anyway. I want to talk to the lawyer though. He'll know the best thing to do."

"I don't care about the money, Mother. I never cared about that. I just don't know if there's any point to Brooklyn and I being there."

"It is very important that Brooklyn is there."

"Why? Is she in his will? Did he put her in there?"

"No, I did. I called our lawyer when I found out he was dead. I told him that Brooklyn was Fredrick's daughter and that legally she was entitled to a part of his estate."

"So, wait, you knew that Brooklyn was his daughter all along?"

"Yes, Adrian. I knew about Brooklyn and I've also known who your father was."

My mouth fell open as I listened to my mother explain how she had had an affair with John Pierce and how my father was livid when he realized that his firstborn son was not his. It was all true. What Lucas had told me about the affair and Brooklyn being related to us. But neither of us could have ever guessed that John Pierce was my father.

"Your father never forgave John Pierce for that. And I'm not even sure if he ever forgave me. But he chose to keep me with him as his wife, and I couldn't complain. I've always loved your father, even though there were things about him that I didn't like at all. Every marriage has compromises, Adrian. You two will learn that too."

I was amazed that my mother had known all this time. It made me wonder what would have happened if I'd confided in her. I wondered if she would have helped us.

"I get tired so easily now. I think I need to sleep for a while. I'm so happy to have the three of you here with me. I want to catch up with what you two have been doing this last year, but it will have to be tomorrow."

"We'll be there at the meeting in the morning. Then maybe we'll have lunch in the rose garden."

"That would be lovely, Adrian. You'll join us too, won't you, Lucas?"

"I'll have to check my schedule, but I should be able to make it."

I glanced up at Lucas as we left the room. I wanted to take him aside and tell him how much he's hurting our mother. But I realized it was pointless. Lucas was who he was, and he wasn't going to change. And after everything I had learned over the last few weeks I wasn't really sure if he could. Or if I actually needed him to.

* * *

The three of us left my mother and headed back to my house. When we got back, Brooklyn decided to take a nap and I took the opportunity to talk to Lucas about the business.

"So what are your plans?" I asked Lucas as I sat in one of the leather chairs in his office.

It was surreal being back in this part of the villa. This building was where Lucas and I had spent most of our time throughout our twenties while we were deep into the training. I had to admit I missed parts of being at the villa. It had always been my favorite of all of our family homes, and back when I lived here I truly believed that this was the life that I wanted.

"I'm not exactly sure. I've been thinking about it for a while, actually. What I was really thinking about though was leaving."

"Leaving the business?"

"Yeah, I really couldn't get back into it after you left. I tried, but it just wasn't the same down there anymore. And you know I've never had any interest in the business end. It bored the hell out of me and Dad knew it. Don't think he ever really intended for me to take over, but I was his only option. But over the last few months I was really getting tired of following his orders."

"What have you been thinking about doing? Do you have any ideas?"

"Yeah, but I think I'm gonna take a little time off before I get involved in anything new. I always liked the idea of you and Brooklyn sailing away on your yacht. I was really jealous of the two of you, actually. I thought about taking off a couple times, but I guess I'm not as brave as you are."

"You gotta be kidding. You think what I did was brave? Running away?"

"Well, yeah. You stood up to Dad. You didn't back down on what you believed in and you got the hell away from him. I thought it was awesome. I never had the guts to walk away from the business and the money. I gotta tell you I was really impressed when you took off with Brooklyn like that. I just wish I could have seen his face as you left him there on the tarmac."

"You knew about that?"

"Yeah it was some of the security guys' favorite story for a long time. You know, a lot of people respected Dad as a businessman, but not that many people liked him. He made a lot of enemies with the way he did things."

"Yeah, I can imagine."

"A lot of the people who used to work with you ask about you. I think most of them would rather deal with you."

"Wow, I had no idea about any of this. I appreciate you telling me, Lucas. It means a lot to me. So what's this idea you've got? I'm really curious."

"Oh, I don't know. It's gonna take a little bit of planning. But I guess it's similar in some ways to what you and I did, and even what that Syrnyk guy did."

"Seriously? You wanna stay involved in all of that?"

"Not exactly. I've been thinking about it a lot though. I thought that instead of the way we'd been going about it, you know, illegal and shit, I thought maybe I'd start a sort of a club. Where the people apply and join and pay to be involved. There would be training areas like we have downstairs and there would be people who purchased the trainees, but it would be all aboveboard. I think there might be enough people in the world that actually want to participate in that sort of thing that it could actually work."

"Wow, that's an interesting idea. But also kinda crazy. I mean, where would you find people to do this?"

"With all the connections we have in this business I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be that hard. I'll just have to hire someone to do some market research."

"So by a club you mean it would be located in one spot? Like a nightclub?"

"Yeah, I'd probably start with one location. There would have to be space for the training and then a series of rooms where the parties could go on. Who knows, it might branch out to multiple places all over the world. I have no problem with thinking big," he said with a smile.

"So what made you decide to give up the family business? Was it what went on with Syrnyk?"

"Yeah, that was part of it. The moment when he told me that I was going to become one of them, a trainee, it kind of put things into perspective for me. But I'd actually been thinking about it for a while. You're the one that's been the most influential, to be honest."

"Why? What did I do?"

"I don't know. It's just who you are, I guess. I always looked up to you. You're my big brother. And everything seemed to fall apart for me after you left. I didn't really want to do it anymore, and after a while I realized that part of the reason was because I knew that you didn't want to have anything to do with the business.

"Remember when we were back in Russia and I told you that there were a lot of times when I didn't feel things like other people? Well, this whole business falls squarely into that category. I had been going about my life thinking everything was just grand, and when you stopped wanting to have anything to do with me and with the business it made me see things a little differently. I'm not saying I'm Mr. Squeaky Clean now or that I ever want to be," Lucas said, flashing me another smile. "But I feel like it's about time to take what I know and take it in a different direction. Besides, I figure I could learn a few things from you."

"I don't know if there's much you can learn from me. I'm not such a good guy. In fact, most of the time I don't feel like a good guy at all."

"What are you talking about? After everything you've done for Brooklyn? Dude, you're her freaking knight in shining armor. If you're not a good guy, then I don't know who the hell is."

"Yeah, well, there's a bunch of things that I still want to do that make me feel like I'm never gonna be a good guy."

"Like what?"

"You don't feel like all of the experiences we had with the business made you a different person? You don't feel like it affected the way that you are with women at all?"

"Dude, I've never even been in a relationship! I don't know what it's like to be with a woman without telling her what to do or just taking what I want from her. I've never been able to relate to women like you do. But the thing is, I know what I like and I'm okay with it. So far it's worked okay for me. Everybody has different tastes, you know that."

"Yeah, I just feel like there's a line, and I crossed it so many times in the past I don't even know where it is anymore."

"Well, that's something you gotta figure out for yourself. It's pretty damn apparent that you still have a problem with what we did with the trainees, but I really don't. I know logically that it was wrong, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in that position now that I have an idea how it feels. But I just don't feel bad about what we did. I have a feeling that you feel bad enough about it for the both of us, though. That's in the past now. It's been over for you for a long time. You haven't been doing anything wrong for over a year and you still feel bad. I think what you really need to deal with is your past, not what's going on right now."

"But how? How do I forget about all of that? Especially when I want to do some of those same things to Brooklyn?"

"So she's not as submissive as she seems? She doesn't like all that stuff?"

"No, the opposite actually. She says she wants me to do those sorts of things to her."

"Well, do you think she's lying to you?"

"No."

"Then I would take her word on it. I think you got it into your head somehow that you have to do things a certain way. There's no one way to do anything. If you're not hurting anyone I don't see what the problem is."

"Yeah, that's pretty much what Brooklyn says."

"Well, I'd listen to her, then. You're one of the good guys, Adrian. You always have been, no matter what you believe about yourself."

"Thanks. I guess I just have a hard time seeing it."

"Maybe you're looking in the wrong direction. Anyway, who the hell am I to decide who's good," Lucas said with a big grin.

"You have a point there."