"Ana," a voice halted her steps from behind as she was leaving the cemetery after Melissa's dramatic departure. At first, used to the wailings of her sister, she had not given much credit to the show the latter was putting on. It was only when insults had been directed at her, that she had paid scant attention interrupting her prayers. And the only emotion she could muster was grim irritation for having disturbed her silent plea to God to forgive her father, hoping that he'd at least found salvation.

As for accepting the condolences, she'd preferred a laid-back performance, granting her father's cousin Aunt Mathilda the main role while Melissa had been making a spectacle of herself. It had felt more appropriate, everyone from the family hated her anyway, considering she was not the rightful heir to her father's millions.

Like she needed that kind of dirty money, she chided derisively to herself while she waited for Uncle Jeremy to reach her at the end of the alley, most probably to talk to her about her father. At the other end, she caught sight of Devin in the background, his eyes bulldozing into hers like a predator lying in wait to pounce on its prey. She sighed. She never knew what history was between her father and him anyway, she'd never even known they had been close.

The first time the two formidable men had met, it had been to introduce him as her boyfriend, four months after their relationship. Devin had been jittery with nerves, and Ana had jokingly put his anxiety down to the first formidable encounter with his father-in-law.

"What did you tell him about me?" he re-iterated again, when she joined him on the sofa, waiting for her father to receive them in his office.

Ana had sighed benignly. "How many times do I have to repeat myself Dev? I told him absolutely nothing apart from your name."

"He must have questioned you. About me. My parents. My background," he'd pressed with almost desperation in his plea.

Surprisingly enough, her father had not given her the third degree like she'd expected. She'd simply assumed that for once in her life, her father had been proud of her choice, because she knew how much money meant to him. "Please relax. He's not going to eat you," she'd cajoled, taking his hand firmly in his.

"Why not invite us over at the house?" he'd mumbled bad-humoredly.

Ana had never seen him so uptight, so unsure of himself, and she'd acknowledged that he must have been definitely in love with her to worry about her father's opinion. "My father... is somewhat overbearing," she tried hesitantly, not wanting to badmouth her father, but also mentally preparing him for the impending meeting. "But remember, his opinion does not matter."

Instead of being pacified, he'd glanced at her with impatience, releasing her hand swiftly when the door opened to an austere looking Alastair. Ana had wanted to do that the proper way, on the multiple insisting of Dev, she'd acknowledged that she'd wanted her father's blessings for her upcoming wedding. But she'd also meant what she'd assured him. Her father's opinion did not matter.

Her father had not spared her a look, not even a small greeting, considering he was seeing his daughter after almost nine months. His whole attention was on her fiancé, and by the look of the rapacious gleam in his eyes, Ana could tell that he was already seeing the dollar signs. Ana would not put it past her dear father to swindle money from her fiancé as well, so she'd intended their meeting to be brief.

"Devin Crighton, isn't it? As in Crighton & Crighton Jewelries?"

Flinching at his lack of subtlety, Ana tried to gauge Dev's reaction but the latter seemed completely focused on her father. Dev hurriedly extended a hand, looking like he was in some kind of pain. It was the first time that Ana seemed to sense some intangible tension between the men. Determined to jump at his defense at the first opportunity, she braced herself for the war of words about to rain. All her intentions however went caput when her father addressed her for the first time. "Anastasia, will you leave us alone?"

Completely taken by surprise, Ana threw a questioning in Dev's direction and received a firm nod of assent. Still unwilling to leave him at her father's mercy, she lingered hesitantly at the doorway, only to have her father almost thrusting her out of his office. Worried, she bit her lips munching on what the two men could be discussing in her absence. She felt sure her father was trying to extort money from the poor unsuspecting Dev.

Twenty minutes later which seemed like a century, the two men emerged from the room with no sign of the previous hostility, both shaking hands briskly. Stunned, Ana had watched as her father had beamed approvingly at her for the first time in her twenty years. All the way home, she'd pestered Devin about how the meeting had trespassed, but he refused to give details, assuring her enigmatically that everything had been as he'd expected.

When a hand tugged her elbow, she was broken out of her reverie, focusing on Uncle Jeremy who looked down at her wearing a concerned look. "Ana? Are you alright? You look pale."

"I'm sorry Uncle. I'm a little bit tired after the long drive."

Uncle Jeremy was remorse personified. "I'm the one who should apologize, darling. Come on, walk with me. I did not even know your number..."

Ana squeezed his hand reassuringly, not keeping any grudge against the old man. "Don't worry about it. You have it now. You can contact me whenever you want."

"Contact you? Are you leaving back for New York already?" he asked with a disapproving frown. "You should take some rest before going back."

"I am. I'm staying at a hotel for a day before going back home," she answered, as she hooked her arms in those of Uncle Jeremy, as they walked together down the rocky path to her car.

"Why stay at a hotel? Why not at the house. He was your father too dammit!" the calm man responded with unusual ferocity.

She rolled her eyes conspiratorially. "I'm afraid I've had enough of Melissa for today," she confessed with a moue, to soften the blow of her words as she hated badmouthing her family.

"I see. In that case, I would love for your company. Your Aunt Stephanie would be glad to have you home with us," he opened the car door, shaking his head firmly against any form of protest. "We can ride together to the mansion tomorrow for the opening of the will."

The next day morning arrived too quickly, and within no time they were at the mansion, every concerned member already waiting in the hall.

"Alastair Forrester was a close friend of mine for the past twenty years. Now that he is no longer among us, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to his family and close friends," Jeremy Miller announced in the study room the next day as Ana made herself almost invisible at the far end of study behind a wooden room divider.

Aside from the two daughters, Aunt Mathilda and a few distant cousins, a few business associates were also part of the circus, listening most intently to measure their profits.

"I, Alastair Forrester...," read out Uncle Jeremy, his strong voice echoing until the far end of the room, encompassing to everyone present in the room. The other guests were not even listening knowing that their gain was minimal while Ana was listening with inly half an ear, having attended the event only on Uncle Jeremy's insistence.

Melissa was hooked to every word, mentally calculating the amount of her gain most probably, and Ana felt a cynical reflection that she'd inherited their father's nature in that department.

When the speech was over, Ana relaxed having understood the basics of the will. Basically, she'd been leagued the strict minimum, the mansion and a few shares in the company. Not that she needed the money. Making her mind that she had no business in that house anymore, she attempted to leave when the pandemonium started again.

"Why the hell has he given her the house?" Melissa wailed angrily at their lawyer.

"Melissa, please don't start again now."

"Don't patronize me, Jeremy. I am not a child anymore."

"Then don't behave like one anymore," mimicked Uncle Jeremy in the same tone which made Ana bit back a reluctant smile.

"How dare you? You bloody..."

"Enough!" shouted Jeremy Miller with a force that left Ana reeling. "Melissa, if you don't agree with the will, please feel free to contest it in a court."

At that, she sobered sulkily and stomped out of the study angrily shouting. "I am getting the hell out of here! It's no longer my house anyway." Uncle Jeremy shook his head and dismissed everyone. Except Ana.

"Sometimes, I can't believe you two are sisters. You are so different from one another. Alastair had spoilt her rotten, and I'm afraid she's only going to waste all his money."

Ana swallowed painfully at the comment – yet her father had preferred her sister. As for wasting away the money, there was no prosperity in ill-gotten goods anyway. "So, I'm ultimately the owner of this mansion."

Uncle Jeremy nodded avidly. "Along with nineteen percent shares to his empire. I know it's not a fair share as compared to Melissa's forty percent but..."

"To be honest, I wasn't even sure I would figure in the will," she confessed with rueful outspokenness. It was not about the money, but it was clear that Melissa was his rightful heir, despite anything she'd been made to endure at their hands. Her sister had inherited the lion's shares, with two penthouses in the US, his lands, his cars and even the overseas apartments. Not that it mattered to her.

However, she was puzzled over one detail about the will, and decided to clear her confusion. "So, tell me. Who the hell is Alyssa Huntington who has inherited Ashford property and Johnson factory? What are those properties anyway?"

Her harmless question seemed to put Uncle Jeremy in quite a turbulent discomfort, his thick eyebrows furrowed together in anxiety as he pushed back his thick glasses along the ridge of his nose. "Ana...it's complicated, you know. There are so many undeclared assets which had been leagued to Melissa as well, and which the world is not supposed to know about."

Ana frowned at the prevarication – she knew when the truth was being avoided, she'd lived in a household where dishonesty was trivial. "You haven't answered my question."

The old man signed, his worried look accentuating the wrinkles age had marked on his face. Finally, he sat resignedly, like he'd lost the war with himself, obviously feeling torn between loyalty to her dead father and to the latter's living daughter. "You know your father was a con man, right?"

Ana nodded, as the lawyer's uneasiness was starting to make sense – that subject was a taboo one. "So Ashford and Johnson are the properties of his ex-mistresses?"

"Not both. Susan Johnson was his ex-wife to whom he'd been married for less than a year."

Of course! The name did ring a bell now that Uncle Jeremy was mentioning it, her mind recalling that particular detail. Officially, her father had three wives and an endless string of mistresses, all of them heiresses, rich as sin. That fact had not been a mere coincidence, they had been carefully sought targets by him and his college sweetheart Melanie Delacourt. Her father had been such a cunning man, so greedy for more money that he knew how to cover his tracks with perfection. No one had a miff of his scheming machinations until it was too late.

She'd been briefly aware of her father's colorful past, but had never been interested in the details as she had been deeply ashamed of it. But she'd played the ignorant fool for far too long. Maybe it was the time for her to accept the truth, no matter how bitter.

"His first wife Megan Myers was not very rich, all monies acquired from that marriage had been dissolved into investments in your father's newly established enterprise at that time. Poor Megan had not suspected anything, after three months of living pure hell, she'd been eager to get rid of her greedy husband. Susan Johnson was the next wife, who caused him quite some problems, especially since she'd dragged him to court."

Ana nodded numbly, not wanting to hear anymore. What had she expected to hear? A fairy-tale story? Unfortunately, her father had no sob story, no solid reason to have turned him into such a rapacious leech. It had been his nature.

"Wait. Let me finish," the lawyer bent his head against the cushion of his seat, pinching his eyes with his thumb and forefingers, an action of abject weariness.

Bracing herself for the next blow, she was unaware of the way her knuckles tightened around her fist, a feeling of dark premonition gripping her.

"Ashford mansion belonged to one of his mistresses, Eleanor Ashford." There was a moment of ominous pause. "Eleanor Ashford Crighton."

For a moment, there was a buzz in the region of her ears like someone had given her a resounding slap, and she feared she might have misheard that announcement. It was just a hallucination, she told herself reassuringly. There were so many Crightons in the world; it didn't have to mean anything. Did it? Did it?

When Uncle Jeremy removed his specs to look at her, the mien in his eyes was enough to confirm the unspoken question on the tip of her tongue. In slow motion, he nodded to confirm the tacit demand, her eyes sheening with tears when she finally accepted the truth. That had been what it was all about.

"Ana? Are you alright?" she heard a voice zoom in her ears, and nodded valiantly.

"Tell me everything," she responded unbelievably calm for someone whose world was in total chaos. "Tell me the whole truth about my bastard father."

Uncle Jeremy seemed to hesitate, then he removed his glasses with a longsuffering sigh. "The same thing happened to her like so many others. Alastair had usurped properties from his numerous mistresses, only to dissolve the cash in his own empire. Sometimes they were freely given out of love, sometimes he tricked them into signing forged documents."

"Why didn't he sell those two properties as well?" she asked, taking in all the information, her heart twisted with disgust, as she finally overcame the initial shock.

Uncle Jeremy shrugged with nonchalance. "It beats me. Maybe there were some legal problems with those two properties, I really don't know. After he'd settled his empire, when he no longer to infuse enormous amount of cash in it, he married Melanie as he'd planned since the beginning. Except..."

"Except?" Ana probed with barely concealed impatience.

He took a deep breath before delivering the blow. "Except that Eleanor Ashford Crighton committed suicide on your father's wedding day."

A shocked hiccup escaped her, and her hands flew to her mouth to prevent the rise of nausea, as her eyes popped out in disbelief. Devin's mother had killed herself because of her conniving father? With horror, she tried to search her memory, wondering what she knew about the woman but only came up with a blank. How could she so little about to the man who she'd supposedly been madly in love with? With great difficulty, all she could recall was the fact that his mother was dead, never had she had a single clue that she'd taken her own life.

That was why Devin hated her so much?

For the past five years, she's raked her head with every possibility that she must have done some terrible mistake for him to regard her with so much loathing. So much disdain.

She had known about the business deal between her father and Dev, alright. Unaware to both of them. On that famous day, she'd been informed of Devin's arrival by her malicious sister who must have picked up the vibes. She'd been visiting for the marriage preparations with Melanie, and had thought that Dev had joined her to surprise her. It had been days before the wedding.

Happiness had filled her heart at the prospect of seeing him, she'd eagerly climbed down the stairs with haste only to stop short in front of the study room at the sound of raised voices. She hadn't meant to eavesdrop.

"Alastair, I've had enough of your blackmails. We agreed on a deal of twenty percent and nothing more," Devin angered voice resonated inside the study, distinct enough for anyone in the corridor to make out every single word.

"I need more. If you want your precious engagement to go on without any mishap, you will have to find another way to satisfy my needs. Don't forget Ana in the process, she's also an asset in our deal."

Asset? Deal? Truth? What was that all about? Her father was threatening her fiancé, and she hadn't been informed about it – she should have warned Devin about that horrible man. Incensed beyond words, she was about to open the door when her hand stopped on the knob just in time to hear Dev's answer.

"You can do whatever you want. I don't care anymore. We both know that Ana is marrying me only because I'm offering you my shares - after all, she's your daughter," Devin vent out with cold hostility, and Ana winced in astonishment at the tone of his voice. Her hand fell inertly from the door, as she clutched her heart freezing with shock. "You can't retract your words just days before the wedding. I assented on exchanging my shares versus me marrying your daughter and having my property back."

She heard her father's devilish snicker resonate in the corridor, causing a chill in her heart. "You should know better than anyone that no one gets a fair deal with me," his father inferred with sadistic savagery.

The response was even more violent, as Dev responded to the taunt with vicious venom. "Bastard! You had every intention of increasing your demands. You have me right where you want and if you think you can fool me, think again! To think that I had to tolerate your bastard daughter for six months only to have been wasting my time!"

Ana hadn't wanted to hear more. Numb with pain, she'd scurried out of the house, her only aim was to find a place where nobody would find her, and cried her heart out once she'd recovered from the shock. Was it true what Dev had said? Or was he pissed off at her father right now? Surely he knew her better than that – that she was not mercenary like he'd accused her to be? He wouldn't punish her for something her father had done?

Still hoping, she had phoned Dev for the following days, in desperate need to apologize for her father's cruel behavior, and beg him not to leave her. His number had been out of reach, his hotel room checked out three days earlier than planned. Desperately, she'd tried searching for him, and had found with surprising revelation that she knew nothing of the man. He'd never tolerated her into his world enough for her to know more than the basics.

On her wedding day, she still had no news about him, but she'd stood in front of the mirror, her heart full of trepidation that Dev would eventually come back to his senses. He would not let her down that way. It had been a misunderstanding. Hadn't she assured him that her father did not matter?

But he'd never showed up.

Inadvertently, she had then believed that after the deal had fallen apart, Dev discovered her father's true nature, and had discarded her from his life to punish her from keeping the truth from him. That had been one of her theories.

Never in her wildest dream had she come any close to the actual truth. It had been cold-blooded revenge. All that time.

Shoulders slumping in defeat, her mind whirled with past moments with him, some mistakenly delivered remarks finally making sense. His constant contempt for her making some kind of logic. He'd left her because of his cold-blooded revenge, not because she had not been good enough for him. For sure, it didn't excuse what he'd done to her - one can never right a wrong with another wrong. But she could understand the betrayal.

He'd lost his mother at a very young age because of that slime, her heart ached for him, and she understood him better. As a person. She wished she had known about their interlinked past back then, not that it would have made anything better, but she would have protected him from her family.

As for her father! That bastard had known everything from the start, ever since she had introduced Devin, and he'd only seen it as an opportunity to take over another company instead of thinking about his daughter. How could he have stooped so low? And Jeremy Miller? He'd known everything from the beginning too, had been present at her wedding. Yet, he'd preferred friendship over honor. How could a man live with that kind of burden on his soul?

"Ana, my child?" Uncle Jeremy was pleading, shaking her slightly from her stupor. "Please forgive me my dearest. I could not tell you the truth while he was alive."

Ana opened her mouth, twice but no sound came out.

"I am so sorry, dear. I know you have been hurt badly in the past and you never really understood Dev... I mean what happened. I should have told you five years ago but I chose not to. I hope you forgive me."

Blinking back scorching tears of repressed feelings of despair and self-recrimination, she turned her face away from him, unable to fake her forgiveness. Jeremy Miller let out another long, suffering sigh as he got the message, but he relentlessly went on. "I have something else for you." Today, out of all day, he was hell-bent on getting everything off his conscience. He added the last sentence for good measure, another blow delivered which resounded in the study having as much impact as an announcement of death.

"As for Alyssa Huntington,well she is your other half-sister."