After Megan’s parents kick her out at eighteen, she turns her back on her family. But one day, she drives back to her childhood home, only to discover that the house is in her name and her parents have been missing. Years later, she drives by again, only this time, she sees the old house decorated for the holidays. Are her parents back?
It’s been twenty years since I last spoke to my parents. Twenty years since they kicked me out for getting pregnant.
I was 18, young and terrified, but stubborn enough to stand my ground. I still remember my dad’s voice, the anger almost chilling me to my bones.
An upset girl sitting on her bed | Source: Midjourney
“If you leave with him, Megan, don’t bother coming back!” he yelled. “I don’t want to see you again! You’re a mess, and instead of choosing to be better, you’re choosing self-destruction.”
I left anyway.
That same night, my mom stood quietly at the door, her arms wrapped around herself, watching me go. She didn’t say anything; she just let me walk out into the cold.
A shouting man | Source: Midjourney
“That’s it? You’re not going to say anything? Mom, really?” I said.
She opened her mouth for a second. Instead of saying anything, she just went inside and closed the door.
They never forgave me.
But here I am, twenty years later. I’m thirty-eight, with three beautiful kids and a man who’s been by my side through it all. Evan and I were high school sweethearts, and when I got pregnant, I really thought that he was going to leave me.
An upset woman standing in a doorway | Source: Midjourney
“Why would I leave you?” he asked, holding the pregnancy test. “We’re in this together, Megan.”
“But what about your football scholarship to college? You’d give that up?” I asked.
“Of course, I would,” he said. “Let’s do this, Meg. You, me, and the baby!”
Just like that, I decided to tell my parents, which is how my father threw me out.
A teenage couple sitting on a bench | Source: Midjourney
Despite everything, we built a life. A really good life. And let me tell you, I don’t regret a single thing. Evan works hard, and our kids, Ella, Maya, and Ben, are everything I ever dreamed of.
If you had told my 18-year-old self that I’d still be with him two decades later, I would have laughed through my tears.
But here we are.
Happy.
Three children sitting together | Source: Midjourney
The last time I visited my parents’ house was five years ago. They had gone missing on a hiking trip in the mountains. It was supposed to be a short getaway, apparently.
Just a weekend.
But they never came back.
“I’m sorry, Megan,” our neighbor, Mr. Smith, said when I went over to ask about my parents. “You really didn’t hear about it? The incident?”
An older man standing in his doorway | Source: Midjourney
“What incident? What are you talking about?” I asked, an uneasy feeling taking over me.
“They went hiking, Megan. You know, the usual long weekend trips that they make? They left the keys here for me to feed the dog. But at the end of the weekend, they didn’t return.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
A couple hiking | Source: Midjourney
“When they didn’t come back, I reported it to the police, and a search party was sent out. The officers said that all they found were their abandoned backpacks on a cliff,” he sighed.
“No… bodies?” I asked, my voice threatening to break.
As strained as our relationship was, I always expected my parents to be here, at home. For them to always be within those four walls for when I needed them.
I always counted on them to be there for the day I decided to bring my children to meet them.
An upset woman standing on a porch | Source: Midjourney
And now?… they were gone.
“No, sweetheart,” Mr. Smith said. “No bodies, no footprints, nothing. They were just gone. They vanished without a trace.”
After that, it was all about getting the house signed over to me. I didn’t want to do anything with it, I just wanted to keep it there. I went to the police station and the detective signed off on the case as a cold case.
“Move on, Megan,” he said. “We’ve had no leads in years.”
The issue was proving that I was their daughter, luckily there was a clause in my father’s will, stating that everything would be mine if he and my mother passed.
For five years after, the house sat empty. I never had the courage to sell it, though. Something about letting it go felt wrong.
An empty house | Source: Midjourney
So, it just stood there, gathering dust and neglect, frozen in time like a ghost of the past I wasn’t ready to confront.
Until tonight.
It was Christmas Eve. And for reasons I couldn’t explain, I found myself driving toward the old place instead of getting the extra butter that Evan and I needed for the turkey the next day.
The house was abandoned and had been for the past five years. As I drove, I imagined exactly how it would look after all these years. I imagined the cracked front windows and the streaks of graffiti across the walls like battle scars.
An abandoned house with an overgrown garden | Source: Midjourney
I imagined the weeds swallowing the flower beds that my mother used to love, and the wooden porch, which was most likely splintered and sagging under the years of neglect.
When I pulled into the driveway, my chest tightened at the sight of the house.
It was decorated.
Not just randomly decorated, but beautifully decorated. The old garlands of twinkling lights my dad used to string along the eaves were glowing softly against the evening sky.
Christmas decorations on an old house | Source: Midjourney
There was a faded wreath with little bells, which hung crookedly on the front door. There were the familiar plastic candy canes lining the path to the house.
I even recognized the same wooden reindeer we used to set up every December. They were all old and chipped but still standing proudly on the lawn.
My heart raced as I stepped out of the car. How could this be?
Wooden reindeer on a lawn | Source: Midjourney
Who would have done something like this? No one lived there. No one had for years.
As I walked around, I saw a little generator on the porch. It was hooked up to the lights, fueling them among the rest of the desolate house.
The decorations looked exactly the way my dad used to do them. The same lights, the same setup. A lump formed in my throat. It was like stepping back into my childhood, as if time had rewound itself.
A connected generator | Source: Midjourney
Even if it was just for one night.
I had to know who was behind this. I needed to know if it was real or if it was in my head.
The front door was slightly ajar. I hesitated for a moment, my pulse quick and uneven, before gently pushing it open.
Inside, the house smelled of dust and memories, but the living room…
The front door of an empty house | Source: Midjourney
The living room took my breath away.
A Christmas tree stood by the fireplace, just like the ones from my childhood. It was decorated with mismatched ornaments and too many strands of tinsel. The stockings were hung on the mantel, and beneath the tree were a few wrapped presents, tied with fraying ribbons.
And then I saw him.
A man hunched by a fireplace | Source: Midjourney
A figure sat in front of the fireplace, hunched slightly, silhouetted by the glow of the dying fire.
I couldn’t stop myself. The word slipped from my lips before I could think.
“Dad?” I called.
The figure stirred and turned slowly toward me, the firelight flickering across his face.
It wasn’t my dad.
It was a young man in his mid-thirties, I think. His dark hair was tousled, and his face was shadowed by exhaustion. He wore a threadbare coat, and his cheeks were pink from the cold.
But as soon as I saw him, I knew exactly who he was.
“Max?” I whispered.
A close up of a man | Source: Midjourney
His eyes widened, and a small, embarrassed smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You remember me? Megan?”
Of course, I remembered him.
He used to be the little boy who lived next door, the one with the messy hair and a toothy grin. But then, he couldn’t have been older than me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
A smiling young boy | Source: Midjourney
Max glanced around the room.
“I’ve been staying here. Just for the winters, Megan,” he admitted. “It’s the second year now.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“I don’t really have anywhere else to go,” he said, holding his head.
A shocked woman | Source: Midjourney
It took me a minute to process what he was saying.
“Max, are you homeless?” I asked.
He gave a small nod.
“Yeah,” he said. “My adoptive parents, the Smiths? They kicked me out, actually. It was after you came around about ten years ago, and my dad told you about your parents. I’ve had some rotten luck, and I guess they just didn’t want to care for me anymore. It’s hard, you know? Finding work. I was between friends for a while… but even they got tired.”
A man sitting next to a fire | Source: Midjourney
My chest tightened at his words.
He glanced around the room, a smile playing on his lips.
“I remembered how your dad used to decorate the house. You guys had the nicest house in the neighborhood. When I was walking around for old time’s sake, I saw that the house was still empty. And I made myself at home… I found the decorations in the basement.”
A basement | Source: Midjourney
We were both quiet for a while.
“Why didn’t you get rid of the place?” he asked me.
“I don’t have any good answers,” I said. “I just wanted to keep it the way it was.”
Max nodded.
A man sitting next to a fire | Source: Midjourney
“I’m sorry if I shouldn’t be here,” Max said. “I just… had nowhere to go. No parents to turn to for the holidays, and honestly, I didn’t think anyone would mind.”
Something broke inside me at that moment. I had been through everything Max had just described.
“Come home with me,” I said. “Nobody should spend Christmas alone. And anyway, I have three kids who will need distracting from the pile of Christmas presents at home.”
A pile of presents under a Christmas tree | Source: Midjourney
Max’s eyes widened, and for a second, he looked like that same little boy from all those years ago, the one who had been desperate for someone to care.
Now, sitting in my living room, watching my kids get to know someone from my past, I realize what I need to do.
Evan and I have some savings. It could be enough to do the house up properly. Once it’s fixed, Max can live there. He can rent out a couple of rooms to boarders if he needs the extra income. It’s not much, but it’s a start, and I know it will give him a chance to get back on his feet.
I put my cup of hot chocolate down on the coffee table. I was getting excited.
House renovations in progress | Source: Midjourney
I don’t know if my parents would approve of the plan, but it doesn’t matter. That house doesn’t belong to their memory anymore. It’s time to give it a new purpose.
And who knows? Maybe the money we make from it will go toward Ella, Maya, or Ben’s college fund someday.
What would you have done?
A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney
If you’ve enjoyed this story, here’s another one for you |
I Dropped My Naughty Kids at My Parents’ Home — I Was Shocked When They Were Good as Gold When I Picked Them Up
When Cara and her husband get an invitation to an adult-only party, they welcome the break from being parents of three for a few hours. Thankfully, her parents are ready to save the day and babysit the kids. But when Cara and Jason go back to fetch the kids, they’re shocked with the change in their behavior.
“Are you sure that the kids will be okay?” my husband, Jason, asked me as I went through my closet trying to find something to wear.
A woman looking through her closet | Source: Midjourney
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “They will be absolutely fine with my parents.”
“It’s just that you know how they can be,” Jason said. “The kids, not your parents. They’re a handful.”
“They’ll be fine,” I repeated.
A close-up of a smiling man | Source: Midjourney
But my husband wasn’t wrong.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
Lorenzo Lamas from ‘Falcon Crest’: Age, height, family, children, net worth
You could say Lorenzo Lamas was always destined to become an actor. His parents worked in the industry, and it didn’t take long before he entered it himself.
Lamas has starred in classics such as the television series Falcon Crest and the legendary film Grease. Still to this day, the California native is working as an actor – and at 65, he looks terrific!
However, Lamas’s life has had its ups and downs, and he’s gone through some rather tough times. Here’s all you need to know about Lorenzo and the many struggles he’s overcome.
One was getting over the fact that his son had an affair with his ex-wife.
Even as a young kid, Lorenzo Lamas’s stars had aligned where acting was concerned.
Born Lorenzo Fernando Lamas on January 20, 1958, in Santa Monica, California, he was raised by his mother Arlene Dahl, an American actress of Norwegian descent, and his father Fernando Lamas, an Argentinian who worked as an actor and director.
Lorenzo Lamas – early life
Lorenzo grew up in the fashionable area of Pacific Palisades, California. At age two, his parents divorced, and eight years later, he moved to New York with his father.
Lorenzo has often drawn upon the fact that his family comes from different parts of the world. He once starred as Dracula in a Halloween production of the famous Bram Stoker novel and had no problem at all adopting a different accent.
“I grew up with a man who had a voice like Dracula and every other bigger-than-life character you could ever think of in my father,” he told the New York Times in 2007. “I take a little bit from him to do the accent. I’ve also done four movies in Bulgaria.”
While Lorenzo was transitioning from a kid into a young man, his father had a pretty wild lifestyle. According to Lorenzo, his father had “been with every woman.” Yet as a child, he adored him.
“I idolized my father, especially as a young boy. He was bigger than life. He commanded the room. He’d done everything, seen everything,” he told Fox. “It’s pretty heady stuff to grow up with.”
“He was Latin, he was very judgmental, he thought a woman’s place was in the kitchen. He just happened to marry a woman who was a top ten box office star of the ’50s, and she retired to serve him!”
First work in acting
Lorenzo’s father married actress Esther Williams in 1969, a year after their move to “The Big Apple,” and life for Lorenzo got tough at times. For example, when Esther’s children visited, Lorenzo wasn’t even allowed to sleep in the house!
“He was many things, but he was also fair, so if he wasn’t going to allow another man’s children in his house, then he couldn’t allow me in the house,” he recalled.
“So my roommate was a Rolls Royce. I had a key that let me in the backdoor where there was a guest bathroom. But I came from military school, so living in a garage in Beverly Hills was plush to me. I had shared a urinal with 30 guys for the last four years. Looking back, I know that’s not normal. I know that I would never do that to my kids. I run my three teenage daughters around like a chauffeur.”
Lorenzo Lamas attended private school and graduated from the Admiral Farragut Academy in 1975. Instead of staying on the East Coast, he decided to leave for his home state of California.
Though his father could be a strict man, he always encouraged his son to follow his dreams and backed him wholeheartedly in pursuing his dreams of becoming an actor. Lorenzo enrolled at Tony Barr’s Film Actors Workshop. In 1977, he got his first minor role in television, starring in two episodes of the show Switch.
While cultivating his acting talent, Lorenzo also found that he had a tremendous interest in martial arts. He got in shape – and later on, earned black belts in both taekwondo and karate.
Lorenzo Lamas in ‘Grease’
Now, getting roles in bigger productions often takes time for most actors. Some have to try out at hundreds of auditions to get one part; others have to wait years, maybe even decades, to land their first role in a more significant Hollywood production.
For Lorenzo Lamas, however, this wasn’t the case. In 1978, he was cast as the good-looking stud “Tom Chisum” in the legendary film Grease, featuring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. He played the boyfriend of Olivia Newton-John’s character, “Sandy”. That said, he initially wasn’t chosen for the part.
Steven Ford – son of former President Gerald Ford – was considered for the role, but was reportedly too nervous to play “Tom”. The part had no dialogue, but that didn’t bother Lorenzo when he got the gig.
People probably knew that the film had potential at the time, but even so, it’s safe to say that Lamas secured himself an extraordinary place in film history with his relatively small credit in Grease.
“I’m amazed by the longevity. It keeps finding new generations of people,” he told Studio 10.
Lorenzo had dark hair at the time, but the producers thought he looked too much like a “T-Bird” to star as Sandy’s boyfriend. As a result, they dyed his hair lighter – something that he didn’t mind at all.
“I would have dyed it green, fuchsia, anything,” he told People.
At the time, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were already stars. For Lorenzo Lamas, it was a dream come true just to meet them. What made the whole thing even better, was that Olivia Newton-Jon had been Lorenzo’s childhood crush.
Became a star on ‘Falcon Crest’
“I was 19. It was only the third thing I’ve ever done. And I was at the Paramount lot, meeting my childhood crush, Olivia Newton-John, and Mr. Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta. So I was kind of in a complete zombie state, to begin with,” Lorenzo recalled.
He explained that he had all her albums, and in high school, he and his friends even had routines dancing to her albums. When they finally met, Lorenzo was almost knocked off his heels.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off her,” he told Studio 10.
Grease was, of course, a big deal for Lorenzo and a fantastic opportunity when looking back. Naturally, though, it wasn’t quite a breakthrough since he only appeared in a few scenes.
In 1981, he got the role of Lance Cumson on Falcon Crest. The nighttime soap became a huge success, with Lamas starring alongside Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman for 228 episodes.
Wyman portrayed Lamas’ grandmother on the show – at that time, she was a massive Hollywood star. Lamas had problems with illegal substances at this point in his career, until one day on set, Wyman had enough of his behavior
Became a star on ‘Falcon Crest’
“I was 19. It was only the third thing I’ve ever done. And I was at the Paramount lot, meeting my childhood crush, Olivia Newton-John, and Mr. Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta. So I was kind of in a complete zombie state, to begin with,” Lorenzo recalled.
He explained that he had all her albums, and in high school, he and his friends even had routines dancing to her albums. When they finally met, Lorenzo was almost knocked off his heels.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off her,” he told Studio 10.
Grease was, of course, a big deal for Lorenzo and a fantastic opportunity when looking back. Naturally, though, it wasn’t quite a breakthrough since he only appeared in a few scenes.
In 1981, he got the role of Lance Cumson on Falcon Crest. The nighttime soap became a huge success, with Lamas starring alongside Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman for 228 episodes.
Wyman portrayed Lamas’ grandmother on the show – at that time, she was a massive Hollywood star. Lamas had problems with illegal substances at this point in his career, until one day on set, Wyman had enough of his behavior
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