"That was my mom's technique of getting us to leave her alone, too," Jason says, recalling how, when the nanny wasn't around, she would plant both him and Nadia in front of whatever children's program would be playing at the time and left with one of her girlfriends to plan the next big McConnell event. "Mostly so we wouldn't see her popping pills but, you know." Jason shrugs. It's never been as hard for him to talk about his mother and her worldly ways the way it is for him to talk about his father. Something about the way Adam describes his own mother makes Jason think he can understand what he means.

"Yeah, no kidding. It's beautiful. Almost reminds me of home," Jason says. The good parts of home at least, he amends to himself.