The moment the boy alighted from the car, Adam couldn't help but watch him closely. There was something about the child that caught his attention right away. It wasn't just the resemblance—though he could see hints of something familiar—but something harder to define. A certain way the boy held himself, guarded but steady, reminded Adam faintly of his own younger self when he had first been brought to Madam Collins by Lady Collins herself when his father had passed away.
Back then, he had hoped to find a mother, only to feel strangely unimpressed when reality didn't match the stories he had imagined. He recognized a similar look flicker across the boy's face—a kind of quiet expectation mixed with uncertainty.
