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“Because you kept sending them after me.” I throw my arms up.

This is really fucking weird.

“Can we get back to the sister thing? Wanna explain what kind of crack you smoked? I’m not your sister. I don’t have any siblings.”

“You do. Me.” He crosses his arms over his chest.

“Okay, buddy, then explain how that’s possible.” I raise a brow. “You’re like what, fifty? If my mother was alive, she’d be fifty, so not possible.”

“I’m forty,” he deadpans. “And your mother isn’t my mother. We share the same father.”

“Again, not possible. My dad was the same age as my mom. Try again, buddy.”

“You are a frustrating woman, do you know that?” he huffs.

“Then save us both the trouble and let me go. Problem solved.” I shrug.

He sighs again, ignoring my last comment.

“Before your mother got pregnant with you, she was my nanny. I was five when she started working for us. She was seventeen.”

I shake my head. “No way. My mother lived in Stonehead Creek her whole life. It’s not possible.”

“Then there are a lot of things that your parents kept from you. Like the fact that your father wasn’t biologically your father. Mine was.”

“No.” I shake my head.

“Yes. For years, my father let your mother believe he loved her, that one day they would run off together. It was a lie. Something he told all the young women who worked for him. A few years after she started, she realized the kind of monster my father actually was, but she stayed. I didn’t know why, still don’t, but I believe it was because of me.” He walks back over and sits down in the chair. Leaning forward, he scrubs his face with his hands. “She was the only one who cared about me. She was kind, sweet, loving, and I liked her a lot. I was twelve when she left; I believe she was around twenty-five. I never knew why, after all that time, she decided to leave. For the longest time, I thought my father killed her. That was until a few years ago.”

“What happened a few years ago?” My brows furrow. I don’t believe anything he’s saying, yet I find myself wanting to hear him out.

“My father became too sick to run the family business, so I took over. The first thing I did was get as much information on everyone my father either did business with and who his enemies were. I didn’t want any surprises. I wanted to be prepared. I sent out men to do some digging on all the families. That's when word got back to me that the sons of Dmitry Volkov weren't preparing themselves to take over for their father like they spent eight years training to do. They were following around a girl.”

“Let me guess, I’m that girl?” I raise a brow.

“Smart one you are.” The corner of his lips kicks up.

“I’ve been told.” I give him a tight-lipped smile.

He blows out a breath before continuing. “I had only a few men keeping an eye on the brothers. Reporting back to me if anything suspicious came up. But for the longest time it all seemed normal... or so I thought. Turns out, they were really good at hiding the fact they were stalking you for years. It wasn’t until one of my men caught Shepherd sneaking out of your house that he started to follow them, following you. I thought digging around for more information on you would be beneficial to me. They were so infatuated with you that they would give up everything they spent their life preparing for. If I was going to need any kind of leverage, you’d be the source.”

“So, you did take me to use me against them?” I sneer.

“No,” he growls. “Would you let me finish?”

I flip him off, but say nothing.

“I had my men find out who you were; that's when I did my own digging. I looked into you and your life. Your grandparents' last name sounded familiar, so I uncovered information on their lives and found out who their children were, one of them being your mother. Despite changing her last name after getting married, and being much older now, I knew her face. It was the same woman and the only person who ever cared about me even when my own parents didn’t.”

“So, if what you’re saying is true, and you knew my mother, what brought you to the conclusion I was your sister? How the hell would you even know that?”

“The time frame between when your mother left and when you were born had me wondering. I knew my father was sleeping with her, and it doesn’t take much to put two and two together. But I had to know for sure. So, I had my men start following you.”

“How did that work out for you?” I grin.

“Not so well,” he grunts. “I assumed they were killing my men when they didn’t come back or contact me. So I sent more. And more. And fucking more.”

“Some leader you are. You suspected your men were being killed, yet you kept sending them out to die.”