Chapter 2 The Reason They Came

After that, I said goodbye to Connor and left for the city where I would attend college.

Other than going to class, I spent every spare moment working part-time jobs and internships.

I never went home once, and I never contacted those two people.

By working my way through school, I made it through all four years of college and landed an early job offer from a major company before graduation.

In this unfamiliar city, I had finally found a place where I belonged.

…

I was in my apartment, scrolling through the news on my phone, when urgent knocking shattered the silence.

I frowned and looked through the peephole. The frown on my face deepened.

There were two people standing outside.

The man wore a studded leather jacket. His hair was dyed silver-gray and tied into a little topknot.

The woman wore tight leopard-print pants and heavy smoky eye makeup.

They were my rock-and-roll parents, whom I had not seen in four years. They did not look any older. If anything, they looked even trendier than they had four years ago.

After hesitating for a moment, I opened the door.

The instant it swung open, the sharp smell of alcohol mixed with cigarette smoke rushed inside.

The moment my mom saw me, she plastered on a fawning smile. "Oh, Lucas, it really is you! Your dad and I searched forever before we found this place. The streets in a big city are so hard to figure out."

Without waiting for an invitation, they squeezed past me and walked in.

My dad took off his sunglasses and looked around my tiny apartment.

His eyes finally lit up when they landed on the employee badge from my company sitting on the table.

"Lucas, I heard you got a full-time offer before you even graduated. The pay must be pretty good, huh?"

I stood by the door with my arms crossed, staring at them coldly. "What are you doing here?"

My mom dropped onto the couch and crossed her legs.

"Listen to you. What kind of thing is that to say? Can't parents come visit their own son? We haven't seen you in four years, and somehow you've become even less stylish. You definitely didn't inherit your dad's or my fashion sense.

"You were young and hotheaded back then, talking about cutting ties with us. We never took it seriously. Young people lose their tempers. That's normal. So when we heard you'd made something of yourself, we came to see how you were doing."

"Exactly." My dad leaned against the wall and even tried to light a cigarette.

One sharp look from me made him quietly put it away.

"Don't hold what happened back then against us. We were just trying to toughen you up.

"Look at you now. You're independent and capable. That's all thanks to our free-range parenting. If we hadn't pushed you, would you have gotten into a company like this?"

I looked at how completely convinced they were that they were right and felt nothing but disbelief.

Four years had passed. They had not changed at all. They were still living in a world of their own.

"Finished?" I pointed at the door. "If you are, then leave. You're not welcome here."

When they saw that I was not buying any of it, my mom rolled her eyes.

My dad cleared his throat, putting away his carefree attitude, though his eyes still darted around uneasily.

"Lucas… we actually came because there's something important."

"What is it?"

"Well… your dad had a physical a while back, and they found something." My mom picked up where he left off. For once, her tone turned serious. "It's late-stage liver cancer."