If I had paid closer attention back then, perhaps my mother and I would never have been deceived so completely.
How had we allowed a man to create such a deep rift between us?
My mother and I were the ones who should have remained closest.
I hired an investigator to look into the group home where Bastian had lived as a child.
I had plenty of money.
Even if I had to give every last dollar away, I would rather do that than let Felix and Bastian inherit it.
I studied the investigator's report.
According to the records, someone had signed Bastian out of the group home for one day every month.
The former director remembered that a refined, well-mannered man had frequently come to take him away.
A photograph was included in the report.
The man in it was my stepfather, Felix.
One thing
