I almost got out of the car. I wanted to walk over and tell him. I wanted to yell at him, to blame him for being so careless with his life. But I didn’t. I just sat there and watched him sweep the dirt into a small pile.

I drove home and started calling the vendors. I canceled the florist. I canceled the hall. The woman at the bakery was very nice about the deposit, though she sounded confused.

My son is staying at a hotel near his office. His fiancée has deleted her social media accounts. The wedding is off, and my family is broken. I won the battle to save them from a genetic disaster, but I lost my son in the process. I am sitting alone in my kitchen, looking at the two empty water glasses on the counter, waiting for the phone to ring.