Three weeks after my son’s wedding, the wedding coordinator called and told me, “Sir, I recorded something awful. Come alone, and do not tell your children.”

Then Ethan said the words that made the room tilt around me.

“Once the house and accounts are moved, we can put him somewhere managed. He won’t fight us. He still thinks we’re his family.”

Claire reached for the laptop, but I lifted my hand.

“Let it play.”

There was a pause in the recording. Then Vanessa gave a soft laugh.

“He paid for the wedding and still doesn’t know he wasn’t invited into the future.”

I stared at the screen.

Everything inside me became still.

Claire whispered, “Mr. Carter, I’m so sorry.”

I rose slowly from the chair.