“He sent me packing without a dime and without any help. I was eighteen. I barely understood what was happening to me, much less what I was supposed to do next. And he told me, ‘If you’re old enough to make a baby, you’re old enough to figure out the rest.’”
“And now, apparently, he calls that the biggest mistake of his life. That mistake cost me any real shot at happiness. And yours too, if we’re being honest. Funny how a man can spend his life telling other people’s stories and still miss the one in his own house.”
Katie sat there stunned. She didn’t yet know who was right or wrong in the whole tangled family history. But one thing was clear: she needed to speak to Leonard Greene herself.
She rushed into school the next morning and flew past the principal’s office. Voices drifted from the faculty room through the open door. One of them was unmistakably the visiting journalist’s.
Katie walked straight in and stopped in front of him. “Katie Greene!” the literature teacher cried. “What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
“My name is Katie Greene,” she said evenly, as if she hadn’t heard him. “My mother is Susan Greene. Do those names mean anything to you?”
For several long seconds, Leonard said nothing. Then he slowly stood from the leather couch where he had been sitting with the principal and a few teachers. He cleared his throat, visibly rattled, and held out his hand. “Katie Greene,” he said. “I’m Leonard Greene. And if I understand this correctly… I’m your grandfather.”
“That’s right,” Katie said with a short nod. “And now I’ll leave you to your meeting. I just wanted you to know that the mistake you regret so much is living in a cramped apartment with a man who makes life miserable for everyone in it.”
“Maybe at this point in your life, there are still a few decisions left for you to make about your family. We’re not asking you for anything.” With that, Katie turned, walked out of the faculty room, and hurried down the stairs. For some reason she thought of Max standing on his hind legs begging for a scrap of cafeteria meatloaf, and the thought made her feel even worse.
The doorbell rang that evening just as Frank was finishing his vegetables and complaining, as usual, about the lack of meat. Her mother flinched. Katie walked to the front door and opened it. Standing there, exactly as she had guessed, was Leonard Greene holding a large bouquet of flowers…
