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Fifteen minutes later, I was holding my mother’s hand while she lay there in her bed.

“What’s going on, Son? What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Sobriety looks good on you, Mom,” I said.

“It doesn’t feel very good, but thank you,” she said.

“Sweetheart,” my father warned.

“It was just a joke. Now talk to me. What is this news you have for us?” she asked.

“I don’t really know where to start, so I guess I’ll come right out and say it. You guys remember Ana? From high school?”

“The girl you dated. Sure,” my father said.

“What about her?” my mother asked.

“Well, I recently found out that before the two of us parted ways when I went to Harvard, she got pregnant,” I said.

My mother’s face fell, and my father scooted his chair closer.

“Ana was pregnant?” my father asked.

“How pregnant?” my mother asked.

“Probably a couple months. I’m not really sure,” I said.

“You have a child and you didn’t tell us?” my father asked.

“I didn’t know until a week ago,” I said.

“Wait. Ana hid this from you?” my mother said. “I knew that girl was no good. You thought she was all innocent and nice because of the family she came from, but I knew she was bad news.”

“Mom, don’t get yourself worked up. It’s not like that,” I said.

“What do you mean it’s not like that? She hid your child from you. She robbed us of being grandparents!”

“Mom, come on. I’m not going to continue to talk with you if you’re going to act like this,” I said.

“Do you have a son or a daughter?” my father asked.

I looked over at him before I smiled.

“A son. Brody. He’s eight,” I said.

“Oh, that’s just great. We’ve had a grandson who’s been in L.A. all this time and we didn’t even know about it! That woman is bad news, Tyler. Don’t tell me you’re rekindling something with her,” my mother said.

“If I was, it wouldn’t be any of your business. And it isn’t what you think it is. The day we broke things off, I said some mean things to her—things that made her decide to keep her pregnancy from me,” I said.

“Like what, Son?” my father asked.

“None of that matters. She was pregnant with your child and you had a right to know.”

“And now I do. Dad, I told her I was glad I was going to the other side of the country and getting away from her,” I said.

“You said that to her? Why?” he asked.

“We were both on edge and she wasn’t talking to me about her college plans. I thought maybe she didn’t want to keep seeing me after we graduated, and I was hurt. It turned out that she didn’t have any plans after she graduated other than—well, being pregnant and raising a child,” I said.

“Oh, great. A girl who didn’t have any college plans to begin with is the mother of my grandchild.”

“You’re going to stop working yourself up or I’m not going to do what I had planned on doing,” I said.

“What do you mean, Son?” my father asked.

“I want you guys to meet him. I want him to meet Mom. But she has to calm down.” I turned to my mother. “You have to calm down, Mom.”

“I have a grandson,” she whispered.

“You do. He’s a good kid, smart. Loves sports. Loves school. Loves the outdoors.”

“Sounds like he’s all boy,” my father said.

“A lot of this situation is my fault. I missed the signs. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking on those last couple months we were together: her mood swings, her not feeling well, headaches, not eating much. Things I didn’t see back then because I was eighteen and too preoccupied with my own future to pay attention to her,” I said.

“It was her decision to hold this back from you. She’s ultimately responsible,” my mother said.

“But I didn’t help matters by telling her in anger that I was glad to get away from her, Mom.”

That seemed to silence her, and she released her grip on my hand.

“I never did like that girl,” she said.

“And I never knew why. She’s grown into a phenomenal businesswoman. You know that store Curvy Belle?”

“I do. I’ve bought your mother several things from there,” my father said.

“She’s the owner and operator,” I said.

“She’s what?” my mother asked.

“Yeah. She’s the one who founded it. She’s the one who runs it. I don’t know what you didn’t like about her in high school, but she’s a good woman today. Stable. Self-sufficient. Intelligent. A great mother to Brody.”

“That’s great, Tyler. That’s—that’s really great,” my father said.

“Both of us have a responsibility in what’s happened. But when I came back to town, she told me about him, so now I’m trying to get to know my son. And I’d like him to get to know his grandparents.”

My father’s eyes misted over as my mother sniffled.