Kai Luonan had never actually gone through with the formal adoption process.
Legally speaking, Chaisi's guardian had always been his elderly, taciturn aunt, right up until her death many years later.
Chaisi had just turned sixteen at the time—an age where, as long as no one brought it up, child protective services wouldn't come looking to make arrangements for him.
After his aunt died, there was no one left in the entire world who cared where Chaisi Monroe was living, who he was with, or how he was doing. And yet—by some miracle he couldn't comprehend—he ended up having a far more comfortable and privileged upbringing than most.
He'd forgotten how he gradually came to live at the Kai family's home.
