I Went Back to the Day My Son Got His Silicon Valley Offer

My son, Kevin, had never been much of a student. My husband, Derek, always said it ran in the Parker family—no one on his side was ever good with books anyway. I saved every dollar I could and paid for Kevin to attend college. To everyone's surprise, he excelled in his job interview and received an offer from Nexora Systems in Silvercrest. My mother-in-law, Linda Morris, was thrilled. She demanded that I reserve a private room at a luxury hotel for the family to celebrate. When I returned to the celebration in this life, I pushed open the door to the private room and found everyone eating and talking. Linda sat at the head of the table, with Derek on one side and Kevin on the other. She had already picked the best pieces of meat from every platter and was still searching for more. "What took you so long in the restroom?" She rolled her eyes when I returned. "You've paid the bill, right?" In my previous life, Derek's family had claimed all the credit for Kevin's success. Everyone agreed that Derek had devoted himself to the family and deserved praise for how well Kevin had turned out, while they painted me as a useless freeloader who contributed nothing. I had been too excited and delighted by Kevin's job offer to care. Other people's opinions seemed unimportant as long as Kevin understood how much I had done for him. I never imagined that years of sacrifice had raised an ungrateful monster. Kevin treated me like a walking ATM just to keep Chloe happy—whose mother was Vanessa Moore, Derek's first love. It couldn't have been worse. To buy them a luxury condo in Bayhaven, I worked 7 days in a row and suffered a heart attack. After I collapsed, Kevin and Derek moved in with Vanessa and Chloe. I lay unconscious in the ICU while the doctor asked Kevin whether to continue the treatment and explained that the cost would keep mounting. Kevin answered coldly, "We don't have the money. Take her off life support." The memory sent a chill down my spine, and my whole body began to shake. I forced myself to focus. At that moment, Kevin stood with a glass in his hand, cleared his throat, and called for attention. "Today is already a wonderful day, but I have even better news to share."