“Dear James,” it began. “I know you might not believe what I’m about to say, but it’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time. Your father and I have had our struggles, but one thing we’ve always agreed on is that family comes first. It hasn’t always been easy, and sometimes, in trying to hold onto that belief, we’ve made mistakes. Please understand that everything we’ve ever done has been with the hope of keeping our family together.”

I looked up at her, bewildered, and she nodded for me to keep reading.

“All your life, we’ve put pressure on you to be the perfect son, to fulfill every expectation we had. But James, perhaps we never stopped to think about what you wanted. We’ve been so caught up in our image of family that we didn’t see how it might be breaking you.”