Michael always promised the same thing. “Mom, I’ll never leave you. You’ll always have me.”

He drove me to every appointment, waited in the lobby with a coffee, and made sure I got home safely. I truly believed we had found our rhythm.

Then came Caroline.

He met her at a work seminar, I think. Their romance moved quickly — too quickly for my comfort. Within months, he was talking about rings and wedding dates. His eyes lit up whenever her name popped up on his phone. You know the way a boy looks at something shiny, he can’t stop staring at it? That was my son around her.