CHAPTER 466

Sophia’s POV

The next few days passed quietly. Jared and Roxy filled the house with their playful energy, and watching them always lifted my mood. But every now and then, my thoughts would drift back to the conversation I’d had with Antoine recently.

Antoine had sounded… lost. Like a man who had given up on everything, including himself. I had approached the topic of adoption carefully, expecting resistance, guilt, maybe even anger. But what I got was the exact opposite.

“If Emily’s missing and she left Jared with you, it means she trusts you to take care of him. I trust you both too, Elijah and Sophia. You’ll give him the best possible life,” Antoine had said with an eerie calmness. “I can’t do that for him from here. I’m not capable of giving him a good life. So go ahead with your plans.”

The ease with which he agreed had caught me off guard. I knew Antoine had always been a complicated man, but hearing his resignation, his total acceptance that Jared wasn’t coming back to him… it