“But I’m glad we adopted you,” he added. “You’re a good boy. A kind boy. You always were.” I felt a curious sensation inside myself and was unable to identify it until, on further examination, I realized that I was a little moved. This was probably the nicest thing he had ever said to me in the forty-nine years that we’d known each other. “And you weren’t a bad father,” I lied. “All things considered.”
