Not the son the world had assigned her.

The son who had shown up.

I have spent every year since trying to deserve that word.

Chapter 12 — A Quarter of a Million

The second thing in the envelope, the thing I had not been able to look at while the letter was in my hands, was a certified check, drawn from the trust she had described, made out to my name, in the amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

My heart simply stopped.