Chapter 8

Three years after we settled by the sea, a letter arrived from the Legal Aid Center in my hometown. The handwriting on the envelope was unfamiliar. I opened it while basking in the sunlight on the balcony lounge chair. Gavin was in the kitchen, simmering my favorite soup. The aroma mingled with the salty sea breeze, warm and soporific. The letter stated that my adoptive parents were facing criminal prosecution for involvement in an illegal public deposit-taking scheme, involving over three million dollars. During the investigation, police also uncovered that years earlier, to "smooth the way" for Liza, they had forged documents to seize the property of an elderly, childless widow. This was the source of the "trouble" my adoptive mother had tried to trade Liza's kidney for. "Illegal deposits?" Gavin brought over the soup, frowning as he read the letter. "When did they get mixed up in that?" Liza, however, was relegated to a footnote in the letter. It mentioned that after my adopt