“It shouldn’t matter to you who the father of my child is,” I said.
My father said, “Things would have been very different if you’d told us.”
Right.They’d never even let me call them Mom or Dad as that was too informal. I sighed. “You made it clear how you felt about me, and I only wanted Elon if he loved me for who I am.”
My mother blinked and stared at me quizzically. “But you’d have ended up exactly where you are now.”
Once again, my feelings hadn’t mattered. I shook my head. “How did you know where we lived?”
My mother took out a printed piece of paper. “Connecticut was in the news, and we were mailed a blog post.”
Father added, “And since we worked for Elon's parents, we knew his address.”
I read the article, which was accompanied by a picture of Elon and me kissing on the street yesterday. I held back a laugh as it felt unreal that the blogger had used the words "secret baby." It was definitely me in the picture, but the story was crazy. Elon had finished his call, so I handed him the printout.
He read the blog post and said, “Regina wrote this. It's a gossip site.”
He snapped a photo of the printout on his cell phone and attached it to a text. “Let me talk to Jeff for a moment.”
Jeff was the lawyer investigating the gossip that surrounded Elon's brother Warren. He was trying to discover who hated the Norouzi family. I guessed Elon was going to assign Jeff another case.
"Of course," I said to Elon then pivoted to face my parents. I folded my hands in front of me. “Look, Mother and Father, you didn’t want me. Let’s not pretend we were ever happy.”
My father said, “We raised you to take care of yourself.”
I could have pointed out that it was never okay to let your child go hungry but decided arguing was pointless. “Right. Well, I hope you enjoy retirement. It's time for you to leave now.”
My mother brushed against me. “Very well, but we hope one day you’ll forgive us and call us so we can meet our grandson.”
That would never happen. I might have forgiven them for their neglect, but there was no reason to let poison back into my life.
It would be better if we stayed apart. They had a condo. I had Elon.
I stood at the door and waited for them to go. After they left, I took a deep breath and turned back to Elon. My heart lifted. I even laughed.
He gave me a quizzical look. “Are you okay?”
I took his hands and hoped he understood why I was laughing. “I was half-afraid and, for one second, thought about fleeing the premises.”
His gaze narrowed. He looked so serious. “I was right here.”
I squeezed his hands. “I saw you standing guard in my corner. And in a way, I’m glad my parents showed up today.”
“You are?”
I went up on my tiptoes and then back down. “I thought I wasn’t good enough for you for a long time.”
“And now?”
A huge smile grew on my face. I had love. I had everything I'd ever wanted. “I can handle their ridiculous question with ease.”
“Good.”
I went to kiss him but then stopped. “The hard part is going to be explaining to Sam when he’s older why my parents aren’t in the picture. But I’m stronger now because I love you, and you love me. Sam will have us and your parents, who love him too.”
Elon wrapped his arms around me, and I was reassured without a word that all was fine. We were together.
“I still haven’t proved that I'm not trying to buy your love,” Elon said.
