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eyes were pinched and hard, a look I’d never seen. A look that emboldened me and terrified me at the same time. I was amazed she had remained silent. I’m amazed I didn’t leap across the table at him.
    “It’s not about money,” I said. “It’s much, much too late for that. Maybe if you’d come to us before Angelina was born…”
    “I didn’t know,” Moreland said, his voice rising with anger, but not at us. He looked at his son with pure contempt. “Garrett was out of the country with his mother for several months. He never told us anything about it. If he had, we wouldn’t be here now.”
    Melissa said to Garrett, “Where were you?” Her voice was leaden.
    Garrett didn’t seem to realize she was talking to him.
    “He was in the Netherlands and England visiting relatives,” Moreland answered for him. “Kellie’s extended family and just being tourists. We learned of this,” he gestured to us, “only two months ago.”
    In my peripheral vision, I saw Garrett roll his eyes.
    “Did you know she was pregnant?” Melissa asked Garrett.
    Garrett looked at Melissa with a half smile and shrugged in a way that said, “
What ever.
”
    I leaned forward in my chair until I had Moreland’s attention, and said, “This is not about you. It’s not about your son. It’s not about us. This is about Angelina and what’s best for her.” Trying to drive a wedge between father and son.
    Moreland paused a long time before saying, “It is about the baby, I agree. But the baby is part of my family, our family, despite my son’s behavior. The baby is our blood and our responsibility, not yours. We must right this wrong.”
    It was later when I realized Moreland, the entire time he was in our home, never once said “Angelina.” Always
the baby.
    I looked at Garrett. He was ignoring us, his eyes fixed on Melissa, who had caught him this time and stared back. The intensity of their gaze seemed to sizzle through the air. I couldn’t stand it another second.
    “Garrett,” I said.
    Nothing.
    “
Garrett.
”
    Slowly, he turned his head toward me. Contemptuous.
    “I have to ask you a question.”
    He raised his eyebrows.
    “Do you really want to be a father? Do you really want to change your life right now? Do you realize how much work it is to be a father, to care for and support a baby?”
    Moreland spoke for him once again. “Kellie and I will raise the baby. She will be our granddaughter and our daughter. Garrett will go to college to become a lawyer or a doctor, and when he’s married and has a home, he will take the child in with him.”
    “I asked Garrett,” I said.
    “He has nothing to say about it,” Moreland said, heat in his voice. “We have discussed this in our family, and that is the way it will be.”
    Garrett watched me as his father spoke to read my reaction.
    “So where is your wife in this?” Melissa asked Judge Moreland. “Why didn’t she come with you?”
    “She was too uncomfortable,” Moreland said, tight-lipped.
    “She doesn’t want to meet us?” Melissa asked, bitterness in her voice.
    Moreland flushed and looked at his shoes. “She’s embarrassed.”
    It sounded like a lie.
    He changed the subject, saying, “I’d like to see the baby.”
    Melissa said, “She’s asleep.”
    “I won’t wake her.”
    Melissa looked to me with horrified desperation.
    “Maybe it would be best not to see her now,” I said.
    “I want to see her. I want to see what she looks like,” he said firmly.
    Standoff. And no one spoke for a full minute. My insides churned, and I realized the palms of my hands were icy cold and dry. The confidence I’d had when the meeting began was gone. It seemed as though the room we sat in had tilted slightly and become unfamiliar.
    Melissa sighed. “I’ll take you up there.”
    “Are you sure?” I asked. Were we conceding anything? I wasn’t sure. Maybe Melissa thought if Moreland saw Angelina asleep in her crib, in her room, in our house, he would