Marcus didn't fight her when she took his smoke, she was right, she was always right. He knew her heart was in the right place but he also knew it was in no way that simple. "Hon, I appreciate that, I really do. But the thing is I've given your uncle a chance since the day I met your mother. He hates me, Rissa. He hates me because I'm the one who married the love we shared. The thing with our family is we don't get jealous of each other when we don't stay with one, it's why our family works. The problem with Lan is he doesn't share that mentality, if he had his way by now I wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be my kids", he brought her into a hug then, some old memories started to leak up.<br/><br/>"There was more than once that I was scared your mother would leave me to be with him. It's made me bitter towards him. He's the one she would always cry on and the one who would kill to keep her happy", in fact he was fairly certain Lan had done that. "Of course I would do that too...", his spirits were sinking a bit. It was true that whenever Lan visited there was the nagging fear that he would leave with Liz on his arm. Lan always mentions giving up a lot for Liz to be happy. He had no idea what Marcus has done to make the life they share what it is, and what he was willing to do to keep it that way".<br/><br/>"I know I keep a happy face and it's genuine but sometimes I just sink back into the mentality I had before your mother was mine...and I never want to go back to that. It makes me protective and I've managed to keep that from being jealousy for a number of years, unfortunately it's starting to get out of my hands. There is nothing I can do to stop Lan from being here and nothing I can do to assure that your mother will always be with me. Of course I don't doubt that she loves me and I love her, I love her more than some people can imagine. But Lan has bridged past that, I've always suspected that he was more obsessed than anything.", he took a seat on a bench close by. He hadn't shared that before and some of it he was admitting to himself for the first time.<br/><br/>He didn't feel this was the time to continue, he'd just let a lot of things slip out and to his daughter no less. "I'm sorry that I've laid this on you, Charissa", he rubbed his hands over his eyes, feeling stress and looking down to his hand to see if there was another cigarette there. Unfortunately not.