"What? Take your name? Irvin, have you lost your mind? Letting your daughter take someone else's surname! Your father would kill you!"
She kept going on about ancestral traditions, how children must take their father's name.
My mother took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.
"Brooklyn Cobb, times have changed. Children taking their mother's surname is perfectly common now. Greta Pruitt is our only daughter—we just want something to carry on our family too."
My mother-in-law scoffed, looking my mother up and down with disdain.
"Oh, carry on? How noble that sounds! You just couldn't produce a son yourself, so now you want to steal our Cobb family's grandson to take care of you in your old age? Not a chance!"
"You—how can you say such things!" My mother was shaking with anger. My father quickly steadied her, his face like thunder.
Fury surged through me. I turned to Irvin, who was shrinking into the corner, and shouted:
"We agreed the second child would take my name! What is your mother playing at?"
Irvin's eyes darted away, stammering for what felt like forever. "W-well, why don't we ask Marcia what she thinks?"
I couldn't believe my ears.
He wanted to put this decision on a child?