“Look, I don’t want to fight about this. I am genuinely happy to see you. You came at a time when I truly needed my family.”
Of course, Mother wouldn’t let it go. She never did.
“It’s quite clear you needed us, Astor,” she said with a dismissive wave toward Faith. “Alice told us everything. You’ve been abandoning your daughter because you suddenly have a son. ”
l didn't need to ask where that came from, Alice poisoned their minds, twisting the truth to make Faith look like the villain. I needed to protect Faith and Marco, but more importantly, I needed to protect Isabella. My parents had some strange, stubborn loyalty to Alice, perhaps because they believed her lies just as I once had. I didn’t trust that loyalty. I couldn’t tell them that Isabella was our biological daughter, the child
