"No need to thank me. You were raised and cared for to be treated like a queen, and I told Adam that when he told me he was going to marry you, to stop you becoming the wife of every man in the Lens family, but he wanted you. He always did. Even before Allister bought you, Adam... I don't know what happened between you two, but I'm here to offer you choices, my daughter. I know it's late, but I'm here to support you. I won't leave your side anymore."
"Why did Adam want me? Has he seen me before?"
Henry ran a hand through his hair.
"Anna, he saw you with some friends at our old house when he came to offer me a job. I'm sorry, my child, but your fate has always been tied to this family."
"Adam offered you a job?"
"Yes. But I couldn't take it. I was buried in my own addiction and if I accepted, I'd be condemning you to death. Adam started torturing Allister long before he took power. I don't think Adam was ever a child. Anyway, he gave up my services when he saw you."
"He didn't seem to suffer from his father's death."
"He doesn't show feelings. Sometimes I believe he doesn't have a heart."
"He didn't even love his own father?"
"Maybe. Allister was the man Adam hated most in his entire life, but there was a sense of loyalty..."
"Why didn't you come to me before? You would have known that you were going to have your grandson, for me." Anna asked, but there was no more hurt in her heart.
"Anna... I was kidnapped by someone who took everything from me, including my addiction, and I was held in private prison. Lucky for me, that person did it to free me. Or I'd be dead now. After you were taken away, Allister wouldn't let me run out of drugs, and I used too many. He wanted me to overdose. After what he was doing to you, all he wanted was for me to disappear and never come back to tell you his secret."
"And this person who kidnapped you decided to free you? Did he torture you?"
"No. He saved me, Anna. All this time... There's a history of hatred, and he made me see that all was not lost. This friend of mine found out where they were keeping me and my friend's men stormed the place. Allister had sent me to Chicago and left me unprotected. I thought he'd forgotten about me... But hatred is such a bad feeling, that even though he took revenge on me, and started a beautiful family, he was never able to forget..."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that... "
"I think you've had a bad time too."
"Yes. But now that I'm with my son, everything else is behind me."
"As I said before, I've come to bring you choices. Staying on the street isn't an acceptable choice, so you'll have to decide between the options I'm going to give you."
He paused for a moment before continuing. Anna was still surprised by his youth. She remembered him as older, but he probably hadn't reached his fifties yet. Perhaps his impression of an old man persisted because he lived drunk, bearded and dirty.
"You can go back to Adam and marry him and start a family..."
"No. He'll never know you have a son. Not with me. That option is ruled out."
"Well, then I have two more options. You continue to live here in England, where I'll guarantee that Adam will never find you, in a penthouse apartment, with servants, and surrounded by security guards, go back to school, and live your life normally. With every comfort. Or you can have the same things, and even a car of your own, in a place where you won't have to hide and you'll be close to me... I'll be able to do for my grandson what I didn't do for you."
"Did you rob a bank?"
Henry smiled.
"This friend has kept with him something very useful that I had completely forgotten, in despair at losing part of my family. His mother left me an inheritance and I learned to invest in the right places..."
"And where do you live?"
"In Scotland."
Anna looked at him thoughtfully. She remembered everything she'd been through, and knew she'd be safe with either option, but...
"I was mistreated and dismissed as a piece of trash by people here. Thrown out because I was looking for work. Even my pregnancy didn't move them. A form of rejection and lack of compassion that I've never seen before. I don't want my son to grow up here and be an arrogant person. I'm going with you."
"I'm happy with your choice, but I must remind you that Beth and some of the people who helped me find her are native to this country, and they are good people. And most of the population are good people. But fate has only put her in the path of bad people. They are everywhere. The people here are good and honest people. Nowhere in this world will you find only good people."
"Yes. I didn't mean to put them all down as bad, but I did mean that they made me have a bad experience. And that's going to stay with me for a while..."
"All right, then. I'll let you rest." He said and stood up, leaning down to her, and placing a kiss on her cheek and then on his grandson's. "I'll get your travel documents in order. My friend had already started doing that before I was captured. I'll come back for you tomorrow. But don't worry, because my men will guard this room like they guard their own lives, and there's only you on this floor."
"Dad..." Anna called out. "I need to thank someone else. But from the United States, who helped me. This person's help has accompanied me throughout my stay here. I must go there and thank them." Anna said, remembering the clothes the woman at reception had given her.
"You can let Genevieve thank you and I'll repay her. Also, we'll stop by the public places you said you'd been turned down for work in a rude way."