He had drafted the documents on those instructions.

And the signature on the letter disclaiming the pregnancy, he said, he had assumed to be authorized through the corporate power of attorney my mother held, because it never once occurred to him that a mother would forge her own son’s name.

When Rosalind refused the money and kept trying to reach me anyway, my mother had ordered him to escalate — to threaten her with harassment and extortion charges, to make the city unlivable for her, to frighten a pregnant woman into running.

“I should have verified it directly with you, Christopher,” Oliver said.

“Six years ago.

One phone call.