Mom and Elizabeth looked at me blankly. Dad said, “This is the craziest damn thing I’ve ever heard. When your life is ruined, don’t come crying to me.” Then he stood up and said, “Charles, shall we?” Mr. Saxton looked at Amelia and said, “Did you even consider what this would do to Robby’s poll numbers?”

I’ll admit, I had to stifle a laugh at that one as they retired to Dad’s study, as usual. Mason grabbed his plate so quickly I was surprised the food didn’t fall off, said, “Bro, you’re on your own with this one,” and ran off behind them. I’d figured this would be a lot for them—the two most hands-off fathers of all time and a man in his late thirties who still let his mom cook all his meals—to take in. But I didn’t need their approval.

“Amelia, please,” Elizabeth pleaded again.

She just shook her head. “Mom, look. I have spent my entire life thinking that I would never feel a baby growing inside of me. And now, here I am, single, alone, jobless, and, frankly, needing to find my place in the universe. I can’t explain how I know I’m supposed to do this. I just do. I’m thirty-five years old, and this is a decision I’m allowed to make.”

Mom and Elizabeth shared a look that wordlessly said we were both ill-behaved children.

This wasn’t over. Far from it, in fact. I knew that. But we had done it. We had told the truth. I had taken a stand for my wife today. I had fought the good fight. And now it occurred to me that I had forgotten one major piece of this puzzle: I had told my family. Now I had to tell Greer’s.

Greer JUNE 11, 2012

TODAY WAS, DEFINITIVELY, THE BEST day of my life. I had told Parker over and over again that I didn’t want an elaborate proposal, just something simple and easy and us. And what I love most is that he knew me well enough to ignore me.

I was in New York to help him pack, and, while my father was thrilled that I had been there so much over the past fourteen months while Parker and I had been dating, he was already grumbling. Now that Parker’s moving to Palm Beach, you’ll never want to come here anymore and Who’s going to take over all your New York accounts?

But I was so happy to have my love with me all the time that I couldn’t even be upset by his grumbling. He looked down at his watch and said, “Well, I guess we aren’t getting any work done today anyway. May as well not starve to death, too.”

I smiled sweetly at him and said, “Why, yes, Daddy, I would love to go to lunch with you.”

When we pulled up to Michael’s, it hit me how long it had been since I had eaten there. Maybe even that lunch where my editor and I were talking about my first book deal. That lunch where I met Parker. I smiled just remembering it.