For school documents including emergency contacts, things like that, but that's all. There was a...housekeeper, or something similar, that looked after him but her Visa expired and she had to go back to the UK.

[ He's not sure that's a typical response, but. It is what it is. He's not gonna force Alex to be adopted. Down that road lies resentment.]

Alex is his own person, even at his age, and I don't...intend to act as a replacement parent, or anything like that. Just an adult he can trust and who occasionally asks him about broken bones over dinner.

[ A shrug. How can he explain it properly, the pervasive feeling of 'this is someone else's project' when he reads the words Go Ask Alice? ]

I didn't say it made sense.