“Adam and I were already broken up. I went to a bar, I met a guy, and—” she shook her head. “Well, I guess I had a one-night stand. And that one-night stand led to Irie.”
They didn't say anything, so Paige continued.
“And I hadno ideawho that guy was, or how to track him down. And that's why I couldn't tell you the truth. I wassureI'd never find him. All I knew was his first name and the city he lived in. Until the other day, when he suddenly came back into my life.”
Her parents looked at Irie again as she teed up and took another swing at her ball. “Are you telling us that her father is …?”
“Yes.” Paige nodded. “It's Lance.”
She filled them in on all the missing pieces of her story with Lance. She watched their faces while she told them the story, expecting their expressions to cruelly twist with shock and disgust and outrage at her past behavior. But they listened calmly, intently, and their features began to soften with a sympathetic understanding.
“Aren't you mad?” Paige asked. “Aren't you ashamed of me?”
Mom and Dad looked at each other.
Dad spoke first. “We're notmad,sweetheart.”
Mom finished his thought. “But we are disappointed that you felt you couldn't be honest with us.”
“I don't blame you. I'm so sorry for that. I just didn't know what else to do. I felt so trapped by my situation.”
Dad reached for her hand and held it. “It's okay, Paige. You made a mistake, and over the course of your life, trust me, you're going to make plenty more. It's what you do,how you respond to those mistakes, that really counts. You could've taken the easy way out, but you didn't. You chose the hard way. Your Mom and I see how much you do for Irie, and what a wonderful mother you are to her, and we are very, very proud of you.”
She didn't feel like she deserved his kind words, but she forced herself to accept them anyway. “Thank you.”
“But to be honest withyou,” Mom began, “as time went on, we started having doubts whether Adam was really her father or not.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, first of all, Irie doesn't look anything like him. But second and more importantly, if he really wasthe father, I always thought you'd be trying alotharder to reach him or his family.”
Paige gulped. “Yeah …”
“In fact, I reached his grandmother.”
“Wait, what? You did?”
“I had to do something! Do you really think I'd happily watch you struggle and suffer as a single parent while that boy did nothing?”
Paige hid her face in shame. “Ugh.”
“His grandmother said he would call her from time to time to check in. I told her about Irie, and she was shocked, but she said she'd relay the message next time he called. A few weeks later, she reported to me that Adam knew about Irie but you hadn't even tried to contact him about her.”
Paige bit her lip. That was always the one obvious hole in her alibi, wasn't it?
“Plus, Adam had heard through the grapevine that the baby wasn't his, that you were sleeping with some new boyfriend. So he didn't think it was his.”
“So you knew I was lying the whole time? Why didn't you say anything?”
She shrugged. “I tried to bring it up as best I could, but you always got defensive when I did. So I figured you'd tell us when you were ready.”
“Welp … I'm officially an idiot.”
Dad shook his head. “You're not an idiot. You were embarrassed and ashamed. The only thing that matters now is that you've found her father.”
Mom smiled. “I wondered if he was her dad the second he walked in.”
Paige groaned. “Really? Seriously?”
