Part 2: I paid for my mother’s entire 70th birthday celebration, only to find my three children serving food and scrubbing tables while my parents smiled and said, “That’s how they learn their place”—so I decided the party was over.

On the drive back to their home in Cherry Creek, the atmosphere in the SUV was quiet, but it was no longer heavy. Thomas stopped at their favorite artisan burger joint—a place his parents always looked down upon as "common"—and bought his children double-bacon burgers, thick strawberry milkshakes, and extra-large fries.

They sat in a corner booth, eating hungrily. Thomas watched his children, noticing the faint bruises on Samuel’s forearm and the red irritation on Rebecca’s knees from the abrasive carpet.

"Tell me everything," Thomas said gently, resting his hands on the table. "I want to know what happened from the minute I dropped you off at their house this morning."

Samuel swallowed a bite of his burger and looked down. "Grandpa took our phones right away. He said kids shouldn't have screens when they're supposed to be serving their elders."

"And then?" Thomas pressed, keeping his voice calm, though anger flared again in his gut.

"He told us that we were freeloaders," Rebecca said softly, her voice trembling slightly. "He said that because you had us with three different women and couldn't keep a wife, we were going to grow up broken unless he broke us first. He said you were too soft, and that we owed our entire existence to his bloodline."

Thomas squeezed his eyes shut, his hands balling into fists beneath the table. The sheer malice of it took his breath away. To say that to a fourteen-year-old girl, an innocent ten-year-old boy, and a seven-year-old child.

"Grandma told me my mommy didn't want me," Jacob whispered, clutching his milkshake with both hands. "She said my mommy ran away because I cried too much, and that Dad was stuck with me."

Thomas leaned across the booth, gathered Jacob into his arms, and held him against his chest. "That is a vicious lie, Jacob. Look at me." He pulled back and looked directly into his youngest son’s tear-filled eyes. "Your mother died when you were an infant because she was very sick. She loved you more than her own life, and she fought every single day to stay with you. Don't you ever, ever believe what that woman said. Do you hear me?"

Jacob nodded vigorously, burying his face in Thomas’s neck.

Thomas looked across at Rebecca and Samuel. "And the same goes for both of you. Your mothers and I made mistakes as partners, but having you three was the greatest blessing of my entire life. We co-parent with respect, we love you unconditionally, and no one—not even your grandparents—has the right to treat you like second-class citizens."