Point of View

Most of the novel is told from the first-person point of view of Bert. Bert writes the story of the discovery that she was the only living heir of the Montebianco estates through her understanding of all that inheritance entails. She tells her story from hindsight, when she is living with Isabelle in the Montebianco townhouse in France. This is known because Bert tells that part of her story in the present tense: “I have done my best to protect her, and yet, it is becoming impossible to hide her” (343) Bert says of Isabelle. The rest of the novel is told in hindsight though there are places where Bert indicates what she has realized about her experiences in hindsight. For instance, she describes her encounter with Jabi: “I understand now that this attack was much bigger than Jabi and me, or even the Montebianco family...