Chapter 4

May came a lot quicker than it should have. I don’t think anyone was ready for the wedding except the bride and groom. Her kids were running around like chickens, both with and without heads, and into each other, proving that point. Ivan was even nervous. He was given an additional duty, at my request, since I still couldn’t have a decent conversation with his uncle. I asked him to give me his Nana’s hand in marriage, like his great grandfather would have done if he was living. He cried. His mother cried. His Nana cried, and there was Marta to take my tears and feed them to Svetlana.

Blessed does not explain away the fortunes in my life.

But the time came, finally, and the garden was full of her friends, and a couple of mine. I guess.

I had two of my floor managers, a secretary, and my office manager demand to be able to attend. I flew them over when it was time and had to give them two weeks off since they didn’t want to pay for the flights, and I offered to take them home halfway through the honeymoon. We were stopping by Odessa on the way back from Ibiza, then heading home, then to Cabo San Lucas. Then home again and after a while back to Odessa to start getting things moved, relocated, sold, yada. Anyway, they needed to find things to do for a week, and Mikel promised to help.

The ceremony was beautiful. Svetlana’s dress was a work of art. Off white, knee length, and just gorgeous. Rebekka’s dress was the same as Svetlana’s with a touch less flair, and in a mauve shade. The girls had beautiful little dresses as well, maybe a bit sexy for the occasion, but they picked them out themselves, and looked adorable. I was in a nice tux, with Nana’s Little Man’s tuxedo matching mine, only several sizes smaller.

When the women, Svetlana and Marta both, said ‘I do’, the rings were placed on and we were pronounced man and wife. The three of us shared ‘wives’ a bit surreptitiously, so as not to blow the priest out of his frock. It was done. Svetlana Gasst signed her wedding license as Svetlana Casper, then everyone else signed, Anya and Rebekka as witnesses, and we were married. We spent the rest of the night eating, drinking, dancing and acting like crazy newlyweds. It was my first time, and it had been a while for her. Lana had a few men ask to dance with the new bride. She danced with all but one. Anya told me he was a troll and Mamma hated him. She also danced with Ivan and the girls. I danced mostly with my bride, Marta, Alina, Yuliya, Lena, Ivanya, Anya, and Rebekka. She was a really nice lady. She looked ten years older than Svetlana, but my wife only looked thirty-five to forty, so really, Rebekka looked young at her age, looking to be fifty when she was actually sixty, just like Lana.

We didn’t leave for the honeymoon for two days. I was flying, and to be honest, the day after my wedding, I was not in any condition to fly. It was a long night with lots of toasts, lots of dancing, and even more so, I can not believe how much I ate.

We did finally get off the ground, though, and headed for Ibiza. The five of us. Svetlana, myself, Marta, Lena, and Gregor. This time Gregor was working, and the girls got a bit of time off.

We spent several days on the beaches, but there was an abundance of night life as well. The girls didn’t go out with us every time, opting to stay at the hotel and find activities there, letting Gregor take us out and turn us loose.

The beaches, mostly topless or just plain nude, were like home. Marta and Lena hadn’t spent that much time at them, and Gregor opted to sit on the hill in the car, overlooking everything. The second day there, we were all lying nude, soaking up the rays when a woman stopped to talk to us. She sounded very British and asked us about our twin daughters. If she had been an assassin, she would have failed.

Gregor was there in seconds, listening to the conversation, checking out her movements, attitude, all the things that spies do to make sure someone isn’t a bad guy. She looked at Gregor. “And you are?”

“Gregor Yovich. Aide to Miss Gas ... Aide to Missus Casper.”

“Aide? Sir, you look more like a paratrooper than an aide!” He smiled. “Your Mistress’s daughters are a beautiful pair...” I interrupted her.

“See, Marta, I told you that you were beautiful. Lena must be, too, but I told you!”

“Believe him, darling. You two are gorgeous little girls. Any use in modeling?”

“No, Ma’am, they keep us pretty busy, what with homework and all.”

“How about you, Gregor? Any chance I could get some shots?”

“My lady...” Svetlana interrupted him. She saw the same thing I did. Her eyes were off the kids on the hunk. She couldn’t be a gold digger, as she was sniffing at the hired help, not the Mistress or the Master of the Manor.

“Gregor, see to Lady Gwen’s request. Please.” You could see his frown forming. “I insist.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“Thank you, Gregor. Lady Gwen, you’ll have him back before five, right?”

“Yes, thank you, Missus Casper, four hours should be plenty.”

Off they walked, Gregor, looking over his shoulder, grumbling, and Svetlana throwing kisses at him, just egging him on.

The four of us went out into the surf, nude, having a ball. It was nothing for one of the girls to be climbing all over me, and Svetlana even held my cold little prick a couple of times, laughing. It shrunk up pretty good in the water, for the most part, unless one of them was teasing me.

I noticed about myself that I didn’t look at other women on the beach, or in the water. Normally, in my past life, I would have, but I found that with my gorgeous wife, my beautiful concubine, and her sister, my amazing little girlfriend, which I was holding onto until Ivan was ready and the arranged marriage was consummated, I just didn’t need to look around. I was happy. I was content.

At four-forty-five, local time, a laughing Gregor Yovich and a giggling Lady Gwen Barstone approached four frightened tourists. Marta, in awe, Lena, scared shitless, Svetlana, not understanding the whole of the time warp continuum issue, and one Charlie Casper, afraid the pod people had taken our bodyguard and the pretty English, sorry, Welsh, lady was their leader.

“Miss, I have been returned as promised by the lovely lady. Would it be all right Miss, if I could take a couple hours for lunch tomorrow. There is more of a story she would like to finish.”

“Twenty rubles or a quid and she can have you.” Lady Gwen laughed uproariously. “Yes, Gregor. That will be fine. We’ll stay close to the hotel. We did fine today, but we’ll stay there tomorrow, just in case.”

“Thank you, Miss. Let me see you to your car, Gwen.” They walked away, her hand holding his arm.

“Charming. He called her Gwen, too. Maybe she’s not really a ‘Lady’ as they say.”

“She is, Miss,” Lena told us. “I Googled her. It’s hard to believe that a little Ukrainian girl, in Ibiza, is Googling, an actual verb now, an English woman, so her Russian bodyguard doesn’t get his heart broken on the way to America.”

“Yes, hard to believe, but she’s Welsh. Wales. It’s a big deal to them,” I told her. “Your point is made. The world gets smaller every day. Good observation, Lena. Do you think Ivan will be able to follow you around as you hit the jetstream saving the world?”

“I hope so. I used to be fond of him, but when the little turd put the flower in my hair, and asked if he could kiss me, I fell in love with him. He asked me if he could kiss me! Sorry, Miss. He’s not a little turd. That was rude.”

“He can be at times, honey, but I know where you were coming from. Love is a strange thing. Hard to believe for you, I am sure, that you can be sixteen and in love with a twelve-year-old boy?” She nodded. “Remember, my sweet, he will be thirteen very soon, and you just turned. You two are only just over three years apart. In a decade that will seem a blink of the eye. I am not going to say look at Charlie and me, since that is an outlier, but it is not uncommon for twenty-three-year-old women to marry twenty-year-old men, and I think that is what you told us your goal was. Am I correct?”

“You are. I hope I can keep his attention that long.”

“You’re doing fine,” I told her. “You’re doing just fine. He is a patient young man, Lena.” She smiled at me and nodded. “He’s learning what love is, and from what I gather, you’re on the other end of that lesson.” That time I got a grin. She laid back down on her blanket next to her twin sister and we waited for Gregor in what was left of the remaining tanning rays of the retreating sun.

The next day after lunch Gregor had his girlfriend with him again. We were out at the pool of the hotel, a topless setting, all of us catching the rays and having a few drinks.

“Miss. Mr. Casper. Lady Gwen and I would like to ask a favor if that is at all possible?”

“It better be good, Gregor, I am on my honeymoon and I am not taking you to Disneyland tomorrow!” Marta and Lena cracked up laughing. Gregor smiled. Gwen was confused.

“We’re moving to the states soon, Lady Gwen. It’s a bit of a family joke that they all want to go do Disneyland. Ever been?”

She nodded. “The one on the western coast. Los Angeles. Ages ago now. I was but a child.”

“Gregor should enjoy it, then,” Lena said, pushing her luck.

“Sir, may I?”

“Yes, but, be careful. She’s not a soldier.” He picked Lena up by the middle and pitched her into the pool. We were at the deep end. “Gregor, the ditch pitcher. I think I gave you that name. What’s up, anyway?

Lena came up sputtering. “One of these days, Gregor. Someday!” She was shaking her fist at him and trying not to laugh.

“Lady Gwen would like to accompany us to the estate. I offered her a ride home if she did, hoping she could ride with us. I can pay for travel expenses, if that would be appropriate. I told her you only stop at the Signature places, and she looked up her home south of Cardiff and there is a Signature place there, in Cardiff, Wales.”

“Gregor, before we negotiate this, do you realize that’s the most you’ve said to me since I met Miss? You’re really on a roll, Cap’n.”

“Not a Captain. I was equal to your Sergeant Major.”

“It’s just a term, a saying. I wasn’t addressing your military grade. Sorry. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“No, sir, Charlie, I am sorry.”

“Svetlana, hon, I’m OK with it. We have plenty of room and range isn’t a problem. Up to you.”

“I am OK, too. Gwen. May I call you Gwen?”

“Please. I’m a Lady because my father was rich, and my late husband was in the military. I’m just a woman out getting pictures for a magazine layout.”

“OK, then. Gwen, you want to accompany us to Ukraine? And then we drop you off home in Wales?”

“If that’s OK. Greg and I have a bit in common, and I’d like to get to know him. He’s working, and I can’t really pull him away. I could change all my flights, but I’d rather just get flight credit and pay you for your trouble, then see him at home. I hope I’m not being too much of a bother.”

“Seeing ‘Greg’ (I air quoted) smile is far from bothersome, Gwen. You’re welcome to go with us, but if you have more than a hundred or so pounds of gear, you may have to ship some of it.”

“No. I’m traveling light with two cameras and three lenses. Only one of them is big enough that needs its own case. I’m well under forty, if I recall.”

“Welcome aboard. Where are you staying?” I asked.

“Up the beach a bit. Greg said he’d help me move down here if you don’t mind.”

“Far be it from me to mind that!”

“I got you into this. It’s fine, Gregor. She can stay with you or get a room. You are adults. Up to you.”

“Thank you, Miss.” He looked at me and snarled, then laughed.

“Someday, Egor. Someday!” He laughed at my joking about the girls teasing him and walked away with Gwen.

I called back and had Anya and Ivanya send my employees home commercial and told them I’d reimburse them when I got home. I was told by both not to worry about it, but four grand is a chunk of change I didn’t want to leave laying on the table. I thanked them and took care of it later.

I was surprised, but days four through six included the company of a wild British lady who had no qualms of showing her topless slightly tanned self and hanging out with Marta and Lena. Gregor was always around, but he didn’t light long, and left her with them to keep her from bothering us. We bothered her a bit, just being friendly, and it wasn’t a problem.

She spent the evenings in Gregor’s room, but we never heard anything, and she may have been doing the over and under covers thing for all we knew.

Svetlana took to her after her gold digger alarm reset and didn’t go off again. She really wanted nothing to do with us. She thought the twins were dolls and was infatuated with Gregor. Sorry. Greg.

The last day there, she spent with us. She was actually a very charming lady and thought Gregor was quite a guy. He was gentle and charming, she said. Quite the catch, she told Lana.

“Gregor? Our Gregor? Nooooo!”

Marta looked up at me from her chaise, and affirmed, “Charlie, he would not harm anything. He really is that man that Lady Gwen has found. We are happy for him if it is real like we have with you and with Ivan. He is a good man, love, he really is.”

“Oh. OK!” I said, stoically. I still couldn’t imagine him ... Chip goes to him as well. I guess I could believe it. “It’s not like you can’t put swine on an airplane.”

“WHAT?” Lana, Lena, and Marta all blurted out.

“American saying for something that doesn’t seem like it could happen. ‘When pigs fly.’ It’s like saying ‘when hell freezes over.’ All three of them broke out laughing.

Marta summed up the entire conversation in her own way. “I am the lower concubine and lover of a silly goose.” Svetlana laughed as Lena giggled. Marta smiled and blew me a kiss.

Lady Gwen was a hit at the estate. Ivan thought her quite interesting and Anya and she hit it off well, socializing often. Her tales of photo shoots in exotic locations and with influential people kept them mesmerized. Ivanya privately questioned her honesty, but Ivan found some of the pictures she mentioned on the interweb and noted that they were attributed to her. Lena showed them where to find some information about her and her family. Come to find out she was actually in the four hundreds or so, in line to accede to the throne.

Ivan thought that was funny, and his description of a line of hundreds of people outside Buckingham Palace waiting for all the people in front of them to keel over was entertaining. Lady Gwen walked in at the end of it and laughed openly at the lad’s oratory.

“Oh, my Lord, laddie. Young master Ivan, you have no idea how close you are to the truth. Not at the level I am at, but rumors abound about those in the Windsor Manors.” She laughed a bit after sharing that, as did her audience.

Ivanya caved and decided that Gwen was on the up and up, so she, Gwen, and Anya set out about the town on a couple of excursions. It was Gwen’s first time in Odessa.

I received a phone call from the staff at Luxon that intrigued me. They had a new process and control module that could be of interest, they said, and invited me to lunch. Svetlana was off work, the ladies were out gallivanting around with Lady Gwen, and it was a lunch thing. They were trying to woo me, according to Lana, as only the business leaders around these parts even bothered with the ostentatious joint. I called them back and asked if they minded that my wife accompanied me.

Upon arriving, we thanked our hosts and explained to them we had only wed several days ago, were in between halves of a honeymoon and Svetlana was not only at loose ends, but needing to be fed as well. The gang at Luxon were not stuffy, so they all got a kick out of that.

Halfway through lunch, just when the operations director of Luxon was about to start explaining the new control element, Svetlana and I both noticed a dapper and familiar gentleman enter the establishment. She made to move, but I placed my hand gently on her arm and held her still. Willem nodded to the head after he pointed to a table in the far corner and off he went in that direction. He was greeted by a very young blonde woman, maybe younger than his little sister, with a kiss, not a peck, a hug, an ear whisper and another kiss. Her smile and giggle at his hands on her waist and back proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, as they say, it was a clandestine romantic interlude.

Svetlana looked at me. I looked at her and mouthed, ‘do nothing’. We sat through the presentation, I asked them to send some notes to my development manager for his staff to digest, then we had a cup of coffee and chatted. Svetlana was watching her son fawn all over that cute woman, seething inside. I knew exactly what she was thinking. She’d just gained a daughter. She would take Anya in and tell her son not to bother her anymore. What I didn’t know was how Lana would handle it?

Presentation over, we parted ways with the Luxon people and on the way out the door, Svetlana took me to Willem’s table. “Willem, son, she is gorgeous. A very pretty girl. You always did have an eye for the beautiful ones,” his mother said in English.

“Thank you, Ma’am,” she returned in very good English herself. “He asked me to marry him just a few moments ago.”

“How wonderful. I will be sure to let the rest of the family know. Please let me know when you set a date. The lawyers will be very interested. Oh, this is my new husband, Willem’s stepfather, Charles Casper. And you are?”

“Yvonne. Yvonne Kotok, ma’am.”

“Oh, Yvonne, I will bet you are the kitty kat. Charlie, Kotok is Cat, in Russian. We must run and check in with the rest of the family now. You enjoy lunch. So nice to meet you. One can never have too many daughters-in-law.” She kissed Willem on the temple and for my benefit told him in English, “You are so fucked, you, pompous piece of shit. You will rue the day you decided not to accept my relationship with your stepfather.” She pinched his thigh, hard, and was laughing as she took my hand and walked me out to Gregor, waiting at the door.

“Miss, was that Master Willem?”

“Yes, Gregor, with my new daughter-in-law, so she thinks.”

“Miss?”

“My son is fucking some blonde bimbo behind his wife’s back. Between the two, Gregor, tails, he loses. I want her in my life far more than I want him at this point. Please take us home, Gregor, I need a shot of Charlie’s sweet whiskey and a hug from my husband. SHIT, what a fucking moron. Cheating is the very worst thing. Sorry, honey. I’m not happy.”

“No shit!”

Gregor tried unsuccessfully to hide a chuckle. I didn’t even try. My wife slapped my leg. Then giggled.

“I’m pretty sure Ivan and I were married when we made that bastard, but he is still a bastard!”

We were in the study and I had just finished a call back home. It was early, but I let my people know they should be getting some notes from Luxon. After development went through them, I needed to talk, but would probably do that on the way back from Cabo, the final leg of our honeymoon.

The women of the travelling shopping carts came in, giggling and acting like old school friends. Anya came to me for a hug and a kiss.

“That was nice. This will be nicer. Anya, sit in Charlie’s lap, please. Ivanya, sit and hold her hand. Gwen, please hold on to something solid. Things are about to shake up.

“Anya, love, do you have an open relationship with Willem?”

“No, Momma. I would never cheat on him.”

“Charlie, hold on tight! My beloved daughter, you are the only one of the two who feels that way. Charlie and I were at a business meeting, a luncheon at Stratos...”

“Stratos?”

“Yes, dear, the menu is not the important part of this discussion. Willem walked in and joined a beautiful little blonde thing and was quite cozy with her. Romantic, Anya, the niece story will not hold. I would have known her anyway. She introduces herself as Yvonne Kotok. I doubt that is her real name, but she went on to introduce herself as my future daughter-in-law. I want you to move in here, darling. I want you in my life, and I do not need him in it. Please say yes.”

I pulled her head to my shoulder and tucked her into my neck. Through the tears, she nodded. “Of course, Mamma. Of course.” She fell apart.

Ivanya called her nieces to come there after school. She told them her mother was there waiting for them. We had visitors that evening. I didn’t know lawyers worked that late, but a striking woman and a much younger man, a mother and son legal team, spent the evening with us, to include dinner, drinks, and an abundance of notetaking. She handed me a card and then handed one to Ivanya.

“I will send him an email first thing in the morning. Do not contact him. If he calls looking for her only you two are to speak to him and only tell him she is fine, she is safe, she is with her little girls, and if he wants to know anything else, he is to call my firm. Only Derek or I will give him information, and he won’t like it. Do not confront him. Gregor, do not lose your temper with him. He is Svetlana’s son. He has made a huge mistake, but do not hurt him. That is not what she wants. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, Gertie. I understand, but I will protect Miss and Miss Anya.”

“As you should. You all have a nice evening. Thank you for dinner. Anya, I am sorry for the circumstances. There is life after heartache. Just ask your mother-in-law.” Gertie and Lana shared a hug and a kiss, as did Lana and Derek. That was when I knew Derek was queer as a man in pink lace panties. He probably was, come to think of it. I’m not disparaging. He was a great guy, and whoever he was seeing, or belonged to, was a lucky individual. When his foot raised back on Lana’s cheek kiss, he kind of let the world know.

Willem called the next morning. His first call was to Anya’s cellphone but was rejected. The next call was to his mother’s cell but was also rejected. When he called the house phone, I answered, turning on the speakerphone function. Several of us including Anya, his mother, and his sister were present.

“Casper residence.”

“Bullshit on that. Let me speak to my wife or my mother, you moron.”

“Willem, please call Gertrude Manova or her son Derek Manov. You have their number if you have checked your email since last night.”

“I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t do as I tell you, Casper.”

“You have no idea who you’re talking to, son. As your stepfather, I shouldn’t be spoken to in that manner. As someone who might be able to make Gregor cry, you are stepping out of your lane by threatening me. Please do as you have been instructed before you make things worse. Good day, Willem.” Click. I hung up. Gregor was in the room and looked at me before he started laughing.

“Wanna try?” He saw the steel in my eyes. I mentioned before that Gregor was large. Even compared to me, but I wasn’t afraid of him. Anyway, I was not happy with Svetlana’s oldest child, and it showed. He shook his head, and on the way out the door to take Ivan to school, he stopped and shook my hand.

“No, I don’t. I won’t. You and I are on the same side. Thank God. You have the eyes. I have seen them before. I do not want to see if they are real.”

“They are, Gregor. And, we are. On the same side. Your Miss, my Lana, and her family. Those are our priorities.” He nodded and with his hand on Ivan’s shoulder off they went through the kitchen.

“If that happens, Charlie, make sure it is outside. Momma has many expensive works in this house,” Ivanya said, smiling as if it was a joke.

“It won’t, honey. One of us would die, and that would suit no one here.” She gasped.

Svetlana giggled. “Little boys are so much fun.”

Anya laughed for the first time in twelve hours. I was holding her in my lap, again, and holding on to her tightly. The laugh dwindled and I felt her picking at the buttons on my shirt. Her head laid on my collarbone, forehead in my neck, and she started crying again. All I could do was hold her. Marta came in and sat with me, patting her back, Lana held her hands, and that’s how we spent the morning.

We packed and readied for the trip to Cabo. Anya was surprised when I told her to pack lightly. Two skimpy bikinis, a wrap, two cocktail dresses with matching heels. As high as she could find to coordinate. “I love a woman in heels,” I told her. She blushed as her mother-in-law giggled, nodding.

A very slight detour took us through Cardiff International Airport. We spent the night there turning Gregor loose with his lady and staying in the hotel. They had a nice restaurant and a nightclub on the grounds, so we were not without sustenance, and felt pretty safe.

Gwen lived south of Cardiff, between the city itself and the airport, so it was pretty handy for all concerned. She dropped him off at the hotel just as we were boarding a shuttle back to the airport. We all witnessed a very emotional Gwen, hugging and kissing a very emotional killer. Funny. He really was a puppy dog. They looked like they were made for each other. I heard, just barely, “I will ask them if you can accompany us one day if you like. I cannot be away from Miss for long, and I want to be with you. I think they know that. Ivanya and Anya like you. It would be a good thing.” She nodded, kissed him again, and pushed him away.

“Gregor,” she said as he stepped back. “Be careful. I think I am in love with you.”

“I will be, Lady Gwen. I think I may have the same affliction.” Then nodded to each other, he boarded the little bus, and as they waved, we pulled away.

“Gregor’s got a girlfriend. Gregor’s got a girlfriend,” the twins sang out raising his ire. Anya laughed at the interaction.

“Someday, children. Yes, one of these days...” He shook his fist at them and laughed. They both rushed him and hugged him.

Lena told him, “We are happy for you, Gregor. She seems to be a very nice lady, and it is clear she is in love with you. As you came to us, I saw a tear. You are lucky. She is lucky. Bring her to us, Gregor, and do not leave. Please. That is very important. We need you.”

He wrapped his arms around them, pulled them to his chest so they wouldn’t see, and looked at me. He nodded. It caused two tears to fall. I handed him a tissue from the driver’s dash, so he could wipe his eyes before the girls noticed. I got another tissue for Lana’s tears and watched as Anya smiled.

We had to stop twice for fuel and to stretch our legs, but the flight was uneventful and quite smooth. Marta was my co-pilot, Lena deferring to her, finding her place would be with Ivan, and letting Marta spend more and more time with me. That meant more time with Lana as well, but Lena did still spend loving moments with the three of us. She knew that Miss loved to watch them make out and play with each other’s kitties and wanted to learn all she could to make sure she knew how to make Ivan’s life better for her being in it.

The sands of Cabo and the nightlife there are similar to Ibiza, and yet so different. Everyone wore clothing. Or at least tried. Some of the bikinis we saw on the hotel beaches were scant, if any word would work. The nightlife catered to the less wild, the older crowd, if one looked hard enough. There were clubs there that didn’t boogie and rap all night long. The ones where the music slowed and allowed a couple of people to hold each other while they danced also allowed us to bring our ‘help’.

I found that Anya was an accomplished dancer, and after she danced with Svetlana a couple of times, noticed she clung to me a bit tighter, moved a bit closer to my body, and had a sharper look when her eyes met mine. She smiled once while we were slowly swaying and pulled me down by the back of my head to kiss her. After she did that, I pulled her to me and told her to let me know how I could help her, that she deserved better, and that Lana and I would be there for her.

“I know, Charlie. She just said the same thing. She told me to lean on you, as much as I wanted, without limits. She said that you had a heart big enough to comfort and care for all of us. Thank you for that. You really are all the things she and the girls say about you, are you not?”

“I don’t know about that, Anya, my dear.” I felt her embrace tighten a bit. “Ask them, but I love them all, especially your mother-in-law, my wife, and I have taken Marta to be mine as well. Ask them, but remember, whatever you need of me, I’m here.”

“What do you think of Ivanya, Charlie?”

“I think she is a beautiful and delightful woman and a wonderful mother. She has done so well with Ivan. I know the girls and his grandmother are involved, but he is a treasure and she gets most of the credit.”

“Ivan and I talk. We are very close. I am his uncle, actually, since Willem has always been too busy for him, or just not the kind to care for his nephew. He told me she has mentioned your name. On accident, and in her sleep. Once she was having a nightmare. He went in to help and soothe her. She calmed and mentioned your name and said, ‘Thank you, Charlie. I love you.’ He told me she had the sweetest look on her face as she said it. He has not told her that it happened. He held her and rocked her back to sleep, none the wiser. He has told me a few times, in different contexts, that he wishes you were his father, or uncle, or grandfather. I guess that one came true, did it not?” She giggled.