Because on the very first line, it read: “Adult Adoption Decree: Petition for the Legal Status of Son and Father.”
I had spent ninety days filing the paperwork, pulling strings through corporate lawyers, and paying off the remaining back-taxes on a small, sunlit property back in Georgia—not far from Savannah, but miles away from the damp, mosquito-ridden riverbanks of our past. I wanted it to be a complete surprise. I wanted to hand him the keys, the deed, and the adoption papers all at once on his upcoming sixty-fifth birthday.
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