THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO…“Any questions?” Paul Richmond asked, facing the class. Nobody raised their hands. Everybody seemed disinterested in the class. They were all chatting and looking through their pagers. It was a typical college student attitude. Paul Richmond shook his head and reached for his bag. “Very well, we shall continue from where we stopped in our next class,” he said. The whole class rose from the seats immediately to leave the theater. “And read pages 56 to 77, for the term paper,” he added but he knew nobody had heard him. His voice had been buried in the ruckus caused by the students leaving the classroom. Paul grabbed his luggage and cursed under his breath. He hated his job but he needed it. He thought that teaching young college students would be a good thing, but it turned out to be one of the worst decisions he had made. He would have been better off with High school teenagers. Maybe they would have been worse than them. Who knew”“Umm…Professor Richmond?”

Paul Richmond stormed into the hospital and rushed towards the hallway. He had heard that Lauren was on the verge of giving birth. He was both mad and hurt. Why would she rather go into the emergency room alone than call him? It didn’t make any sense. Arlene wasn’t around anymore which meant that she was all alone. She was an orphan with no parents and had been taking care of herself ever since she got into college. Paul hadn’t learned that until a few months ago. That had made him feel worse. He had indeed ruined her life and there was no way he could come back from this. All he had to do was hope that Lauren would end up forgiving him if he was doomed to feel this guilt forever. It had been nine months since the time he had spoken to her and Arlene just outside the vice Chancellor’s office. Lauren had told him she never wanted to see him again a couple of times after that day, but he had stuck around making sure that she barely had any complications. Paul hadn’t told her that her

Paul Richmond barged into the hospital making his way through the hallway in a hurry. He was just told that Lauren had finally returned after going missing for over two days. Paul was infuriated, but all he hoped was that she was still with the baby. He could remember being dumbfounded after finding out that she had fled the hospital with their son, Rylan. He couldn’t understand what would prompt that move. They had agreed to take care of the child together when they moved to Texas together, but it seemed like she had other plans in her mind. What had she done, and where had she gone?Paul was going to find out soon. He arrived at the door of Dr. Meyers’ office and knocked on it impatiently. “Come in,” a muffled voice ordered. Paul gripped the doorknob and swung open the door stepping into the office. In the office sat Lauren. She was sitting before the desk with Dr. Meyers looked directly at her. They seemed to be having a conversation before his interruption.Lauren turned slo

LOS ANGELES, PRESENT DAY. Rylan was shaken as he stared at the floor. Hearing his father’s side of the story had truly opened his eyes. It seemed everybody had a different perspective on the story, but he would have loved to hear it from his mother’s mouth. He wasn’t going to be that gullible to his father. There is every possibility that his father could be trying to manipulate him. Rylan didn’t care if it was paranoia knocking on his door. He wasn’t going to let somebody who had been absent throughout his life change the way he thought about his mother. He refused to believe that his mother would give him away like that after Paul had promised them a happy home in Texas. Why would she choose to hand him knelt to Arlene rather than move to a new city with him? Maybe she didn’t love him anymore? Maybe she hated him so much. It could be understandable. Paul had told him that she hated him because he had ruined her life with the pregnancy. Rylan couldn’t help but feel like a problem

“Please sign here and here,” Leah said, pointing at the dotted line on the paper. Edward McCullough clenched his jaws before holding the pen down to the dotted line. His eyes went to Rylan who was sitting relaxed by his desk. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Rylan had been so thoughtful to give them back the company. Something they had never expected. But it came with a price. A price that could be costly. A price that was quite embarrassing considering everything they had gone through. It was crazy that they had come to do it. But there was no other choice. It was either this or nothing. And Edward knew which he was choosing. In the office sat Karen and Eve. They all looked nervous as they waited for Edward to sign the papers. Karen was having second thoughts about this. What if everything went wrong after this? What if Rylan was playing them again? He had done so countless times over the last few months, and what’s to say that he couldn’t again?Rylan had accepted to give