Anastasia looks up from her curled up position at the same moment the door of her room opens. Allesandro enters with a frown etched on his face.

"You didn't come down for breakfast. Is everything ok?" He crouches down in front of her.

His eyes never betrayed the gentle look in them. He looks worried with his whole heart.

"Have you been crying, Ana?" He traces the outlines of tears soaked at her face and heaves a small sigh.

"I want to help, Anastasia. I really do. You are my daughter and it's my responsibility to take care of you." He presses her hand to his lips while taking a note of her cold skin.

"Ana.... Just tell me. Please. I can't bear seeing you getting hurt each and every second."

Anastasia stares at him. The more she stares, the more she feels her bottom lip quivering.

"I-is that m-my f-fault, you think? T-then I-I'm sorry I-I didn't m-mean to." A painful whimper leaves as she speaks with so much hurt in her tone that Allesandro feels his heart clenching with each second.

It takes him few seconds to understand her predicament. He sighs again and squeezes her hand.

"I want to show you something. Come with me."

Anastasia frowns in confusion as he tugs her out of the bed.

She follows him silently while he leads her to a silent and unknown hallway. Reason, because she never had a proper tour of the mansion. She was never intersted and so much had been going on since the moment she was brought here.

He finally pauses at the end of the hallway and with a key, he opens the white door. His hand never leaves his daughter's hand.

Both of them take a step inside a dark room. Nothing is visible to her eyes here.

Then all of a suden the lights turns on simultaneously almost blinding Anastasia's weak stare.

Her mouth suddenly drops after seeing various pictures sticking at the walls in all corners of the room.

"Your mother Angelina-- Anastasio's voice catches her attention. That's when she notices that in every picture there is a person with similar red-hair like her own.

"--well I could say it was our little ritual. We clicked pictures each day as you can see from since the moment we met each other."

He pulls her forward, starting from the wall beside the door.

"Here." He points at the first picture.

"It was the first day, we met. The day I fell in love with the most beautiful girl in this world."

Anastasia notices that her mother is of her age in this moment and she looks exactly like her.

Her breath hitches in her throat.

This is the woman who gave birth to her. Her mother.

"It was love at first sight for both of us. She had changed schools as her family moved in this country. We went to the same school you go too." He tells her with a distant, soft smile on his face.

He releases her hand unconsciously and Anastasia takes it as her opportunity to observe.

She takes a step forward gazing at everything.

In each photo her mother and father are together. Partying, studying, cuddling, kissing and staring in each other's eyes with such love like nothing else matters.

She moves to the section where the photos of their wedding were held. Each photo tells a different story of their life. Including her brothers too.

It takes her an complete hour to finally reach the last section where she assumes that her mother is pregnant with Ermanno and her and she also takes a note that she is reaching the ending point. It makes her heart hurt.

In the last photo, Angelina is holding two babies in her arms, staring at both of them with love and adoration in her eyes. Tears are rolling down her cheeks but nothing beats the small smile playing at her lips.

Anastasia looks up at her father in dire confusion. Her eyes silently begging for answers.

"Sometimes I thought it was my fault too." Allesandro says softly and takes a seat on the couch present in the room.

He pats the space beside him.

Anastasia hesitates a little but eventually moves towards him and stiffly sits down beside him.

"W-why do you s-say it?"

"I-I--" For the first time ever, Allesandro De'Romano stuttered. His eyes were pooling with guilt for a second.

"I cheated on her."

Anastasia's heart drops at his words.

"What?" She whispers.

He couldn't cheat. Anastasia found it hard to believe. In each photo, his eyes showed an unconditional amount of love. Perhaps, her eyes must be deceiving. Are these photos fake? Or is her father lying?

"What happened?" Anastasia asks quietly. She looks at her father's face with pleading eyes.

"Please tell me."

"It was the day when we got to know that Angelina was pregnant with twins. I was in Los Angeles, attending a business conference with my business partners when your mother called me to share this news. I was over the moon and already planning to fly back to Italy but due to the bad weather I had been stuck there. My one of the partner asked me to come with him to his club and get some drinks to pass time. To kill my frustration, I agreed but this was the worst decision of my life. I had a little too many drinks. Due to the alcohol influence, I cheated on your mother with some other woman."

Anastasia blinks taking in his words slowly and looks up at him silently asking him to continue.

"I was regretting it too hard. The guilt was suffocating me like clawing at my chest. That's why I told Angelina everything in the same moment I came back. She was angry and she hit me that I totally deserved and I accepted but she was too kind. It didn't take her long to forgive me. Everything was going smoothly. Your mother had just reached third trimester when one day Isabella came."

"Isabella?" Anastasia asks in confusion.

Allesandro heaves a deep sigh.

"With whom I cheated on your mother."

Suddenly it starts to click in Anastasia's mind. Isabella is Arabella's mother. Her nerves tightens for some reason.

"She was pregnant too?" Anastasia asks again.

At Allesandro's nod, she looks away from her father for a moment to glance at Angelina's one of smiling picture.

"What did she say?" She was motioning at Angelina, her mother.

"She wanted me to raise Arabella like a daughter too. Angelina had said that Arabella didn't deserve to pay for her parents' mistakes. She had allowed Isabella to stay at our home."

"What did o-others say?" Allesandro knew that she was talking about her older brothers.

"Well, your brothers have took their personalities after me so they didn't go easy on me like Angelina. They loved their mother so much that they were ready to bury me alive under 6 feet at her one signal." He chuckles a little but this smiling facade of his faded away.

"W-what happened?" She looks up at her father for answers.

"At the time of your and Ermanno's birth, there were few complications. Doctors had warned me that it could go worse or maybe I would have to choose between you two and your mother." Anastasia listens to him silently uncomfortable and distressed.

"Then, you would c-chose us?" She asks him while looking down at her hands.

Allesandro shakes his head that Anastasia did not notice.

"Your mother and I will always choose you all." Her head snaps to face him abruptly.

"W-what?"

"When a child gets hurt, 'parents' feel the pain tenfold. She and I can never choose ourselves before you all."

Anastasia stares at him for a moment and then she looks away from him.

Maybe, this is the reason Paul never became her true father even though she had grown up under his shadow. He liked to hurt her but Allsandro, her father, claims to never lay a hand on her. Because if he suddenly hurt her, it will hurt him too.

"Do you--umm--do you miss her?" Allesandro looks at her face and smiles.

"Maybe she's not physically present with us. Her spirit and her will lives in you six..."