Ansel fell silent here. He didn’t know what else to say.

After a few seconds of silence, the person on the other end of the line burst into laughter. Ansel could sense the deep mockery in it. “Oh, my God! You’re hilarious! He raised me because of my mother—as his wife’s son, he had a duty to do so.” Bart sounded extremely proud of himself.

Ansel shut his eyes and took a few deep breaths before saying, “You’re the ridiculous one. He wasn’t obligated to raise you. Your biological father’s the one who’s duty-bound to do so. He only treated you like his own because he loved your mother, and he’d be heartbroken to hear you say these things.” He trembled with rage.

It hadn’t even been half an hour since Elton’s death, yet Bart was already calling him about this. How did he even know about this? “Look, I just want to know why you’re calling.” He didn’t want to say any more than necessary to his stepbrother because it was a waste of time.

“I’m sure you already know the answer to that—I want h