“He doesn’t want to see you,” her father said.

“His parents called us,” her mother said.

“I love him,” she said. “He wants to be with me.”

“You are only fifteen,” her mother said. “He doesn’t want to see you.”

“You slept with him, and now you are pregnant,” her father said.

“I love him,” she said. “We are having a baby.”

“You are too young!” her mother said.

“He is too young,” her father said. “He doesn’t want to see you.”

“I love him,” she said. “We will be very happy.”

“My poor baby,” her mother sobbed.

“Go to your room,” her father said. “You will never see him again.”

She went to her room. Later, she apologized to her parents and offered to make dinner so that they could be one happy family again.

“We are sorry this has happened to you,” her mother said.

“But of course we must take you to the clinic to terminate your pregnancy,” her father said.

She brought her parents each a glass of wine and bid them relax while she cooked. When dinner was ready, she called them to the table and served them the lasagna casserole she had made.

“This is delicious,” her mother said, taking a bite.

“We are sorry you cannot see him any more, but you will find someone else,” her father said, gobbling the lasagna on his plate and getting seconds and then thirds. Even her mother had a second helping.

Later, she watched while her parents staggered and fell to the floor, confusion in their eyes as their bodies became paralyzed, their breathing labored.

She stood over them, looking down at them as their hearts fluttered and rattled in their chests, their lips turning blue, their eyes filled now with fear.

“I love him,” she said to them. “He loves me. He loves our baby. We will be together.”

As her parents lay dying on the wood floor next to the dinner table, she went to the kitchen and carefully wrapped in foil the second lasagna casserole she had cooked. She stepped over her parents and went out the front door with the covered dish.

She would go to his house. She would say sorry to his parents as she had to her own, and then she would offer them the special apology dinner she had made, just for them.

She would be together with him and their baby.

She loved him.

* * *