First: she had seen her mother with another man, discovering that her mother was a prostitute. This had been made clear to her by her mother's participation in an obscene sex act… for which she had been paid; secondly, she, herself, had been a party to incestuous sex with her brother, Donnie. When she had gone to him for solace, he had offered her something different than she had expected or wanted. Much against her will, she had progressed from joining him in smoking a marijuana cigarette to full-blown sex. It was her first, but she had vowed to herself that never again would she be so weak as to allow Donnie that intimacy, again! It was wrong… so terribly wrong!

… But, she had enjoyed it. The rapture, the ecstasy of the moment was more than she had ever dreamed! She had soared to bursting orgasm under him, but still that sense of right and wrong was with her, strong in her to the point of disgust. After all… sex activity between brother and sister was one of the strongest taboos of civilized man, and she had violated it! Dear God! It'll never happen again! That's one thing I know for sure…! I'll never let Donnie know that we're only half-sister and brother! Heaven only knows what he'd do!

That had been the third and worst blow of all! Their mother had run away… copped out on them, unable, apparently, to face the consequences of her own actions; however, before leaving, she had written a note to Charity, the words of which still burned, indelibly, into her mind. It was this terrible knowledge that had pierced her heart like a cold-bladed dagger, a knife that had been twisted in her, for good measure. GABRIEL SCOTT IS NOT YOUR REAL FATHER. HE DOESN'T KNOW THIS, AND THERE WOULD BE LITTLE POINT, NOW, IN TELLING HIM. THERE IS ALSO NO NEED FOR ME TO TELL YOU HIS NAME… EXCEPT TO TELL YOU THAT HE WAS A FINE AND GOOD MAN, A MAN WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY. HE DIED IN KOREA. HE NEVER KNEW THAT OUR LOVE HAD RESULTED IN THE BIRTH OF A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, YOU… MY OWN CHARITY. YOU'LL NEVER KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO MAKE THE DECISION TO GIVE YOU UP… A DECISION I SHOULD HAVE MADE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN! INSTEAD, I PRACTICALLY FORCED GABE TO MARRY ME… AND SUCCEEDED ONLY IN BOTCHING UP ALL OF OUR LIVES…