{"id":17513,"date":"2026-05-08T02:08:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/?p=17513"},"modified":"2026-05-08T02:08:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:08:37","slug":"the-moment-they-were-discarded-was-the-moment-everything-changed-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/?p=17513","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey thought they were sending her away. They were ending themselves.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

He Threw Out My Son\u2014Then Learned Who Signed His Future<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

The first thing I noticed was the luggage.<\/p>\n

Two hard-shell suitcases sat beside the bench near the entrance to Grant Park with a kind of stillness that made my chest tighten before I had fully parked the car.<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t placed the way luggage looks when someone is waiting for a cab or a rideshare.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

They weren\u2019t angled toward the curb, ready for movement.<\/p>\n

They sat upright and untouched, as if whoever had set them there had decided they no longer belonged to a home.<\/p>\n

Then I saw my son.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ethan was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, staring at the pavement.<\/p>\n

He looked like a man trying to hold himself together by refusing to look up.<\/p>\n

Beside him, my granddaughter Lily rested against his arm with her stuffed rabbit dangling from one hand.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Her curls were tangled.<\/p>\n

The knees of her little leggings were dusty.<\/p>\n

She was too quiet.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I killed the engine, stepped out, and felt something cold move through me.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthan?\u201d<\/p>\n

He lifted his head slowly.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

His eyes were red, and his jaw was so tight I could see the tension jump beneath his skin.<\/p>\n

But Lily saw me first.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrandma Nora,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

There are kinds of relief that should never come from a child.<\/p>\n

What I heard in her voice was not delight.<\/p>\n

It was rescue.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I crossed the distance between us in seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethan laughed once, but there was no humor in it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It was the sound a person makes when humiliation has gone so far it no longer fits inside the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cClaire\u2019s father happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

I glanced at the luggage.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s Claire?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt her parents\u2019 lake house,\u201d he said flatly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout us.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Lily pressed her face into his side.<\/p>\n

He swallowed hard and kept going.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard Whitmore said I\u2019m not good enough for his family.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Said Claire married beneath her.<\/p>\n

Said I was raised by a waitress in a one-bedroom apartment and that I\u2019ll never belong in his world.<\/p>\n

Then he said Lily would have a better future if Claire stopped pretending this marriage was between equals.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had heard many cruel things in my life.<\/p>\n

Some were said loudly.<\/p>\n

Some were dressed up in polished voices and expensive suits.<\/p>\n

Richard Whitmore\u2019s words landed in the second category, which somehow made them filthier.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Claire?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

Ethan stared at the street instead of me.<\/p>\n

That told me the answer before he opened his mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said her father was harsh, but realistic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen she asked me to leave before the dinner guests arrived.<\/p>\n

Her mother packed Lily\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n

Richard had a driver take us into the city and drop us off here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a moment I said nothing.<\/p>\n

My anger did not rise fast.<\/p>\n

It rose deep.<\/p>\n

Because Richard Whitmore was right about exactly one thing.<\/p>\n

I had been a waitress once.<\/p>\n

I had raised Ethan in a one-bedroom apartment with a temperamental radiator, cracked linoleum, and a kitchen so narrow I could touch both walls if I stretched my arms.<\/p>\n

I had worked double shifts, taken night classes, and learned how to count every dollar before I learned how to keep any of them.<\/p>\n

But that had never been the whole story.<\/p>\n

Men like Richard only look at the part of a woman\u2019s<\/p>\n

life that makes them feel taller.<\/p>\n

They never bother asking what she built after they stopped paying attention.<\/p>\n

I crouched in front of Lily and brushed a curl off her damp cheek.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cSweetheart, how about some hot chocolate?\u201d<\/p>\n

She nodded without lifting her head.<\/p>\n

Then I stood and picked up one of the suitcases.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cGet in the car,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Ethan blinked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cGet in the car, Ethan.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew my voice well enough to hear the steel in it.<\/p>\n

Once they were inside, I stepped around the front of the car, pulled out my phone, and called my assistant.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cMara,\u201d I said, \u201cmove Mr.<\/p>\n

Whitmore\u2019s meeting up.<\/p>\n

Tell the board I\u2019ll be there in thirty minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

And have the family suite at Bennett House prepared immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I slid into the driver\u2019s seat, Ethan was looking at me in a way he hadn\u2019t since he was sixteen and had realized his mother could be both loving and terrifying in the same breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat meeting?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I pulled away from the curb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one your father-in-law thinks will save his company.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stared at me.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ethan knew what I did, but he had never used it as leverage and I had raised him not to.<\/p>\n

The problem was not that my son didn\u2019t know who I was.<\/p>\n

The problem was that Richard Whitmore never cared enough to find out.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

My professional name was Bennett, my maiden name, the name under which I had built every restaurant, every hotel, every contract.<\/p>\n

Ethan had his late father\u2019s surname, Cole.<\/p>\n

Richard heard that name and assumed the story was small.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

He met me twice in flat shoes and plain blouses and decided I was exactly what he wanted me to be: evidence that his family stood above mine.<\/p>\n

He had never connected quiet Nora Bennett to Bennett House Hospitality.<\/p>\n

He would.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

When we pulled under the black awning of Bennett House on Michigan Avenue, two doormen came forward at once.<\/p>\n

One took the luggage.<\/p>\n

The other opened Lily\u2019s door with gentle formality.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cWelcome back, Ms.<\/p>\n

Bennett,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ethan froze.<\/p>\n

Inside, the lobby glowed in soft amber light.<\/p>\n

Polished marble reflected the chandeliers overhead.<\/p>\n

Someone was playing piano near the bar, and the scent of warm bread drifted from the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Lily, who had been trembling with exhaustion, lifted her head for the first time when the concierge crouched to her height and asked if she wanted marshmallows with her hot chocolate.<\/p>\n

Mara met us by the private elevator.<\/p>\n

Efficient, immaculate, and never wasteful with words, she handed me a leather folder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suite is ready.<\/p>\n

The board is assembled.<\/p>\n

Mr.<\/p>\n

Whitmore has asked twice whether you\u2019re still coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethan looked from Mara to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMom\u2026 what is this place?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMine,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

His expression changed, not into greed or amazement, but into something sadder.<\/p>\n

Understanding.<\/p>\n

He finally saw the size of the assumption Claire\u2019s family had made.<\/p>\n

He also saw that Claire had let them make it.<\/p>\n

Upstairs, Lily was settled into the family suite with warm milk, cookies, a plush blanket, and one of the executive staff nannies who could make any frightened child feel safe within minutes.<\/p>\n

When she wrapped her arms around my neck and asked, \u201cAre we staying here tonight?\u201d I kissed her forehead and told her<\/p>\n

yes.<\/p>\n

She whispered, \u201cOkay,\u201d with the kind of trust that broke me and steadied me at the same time.<\/p>\n

Then Ethan and I took the private elevator to the forty-second floor.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Claire was standing near the windows when the doors opened.<\/p>\n

Her mascara had run.<\/p>\n

She looked as if she had been crying for some time, but tears after cowardice never impress me.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Richard Whitmore stood near the boardroom with a presentation folder under his arm, wearing a navy suit that probably cost more than my monthly rent back when I was waiting tables.<\/p>\n

He turned with irritation already loaded on his face.<\/p>\n

Then the receptionist stood and said, clear and professional, \u201cGood evening, Ms.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Bennett.<\/p>\n

The board is ready for you at the head of the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s eyes moved from me to Ethan, then back again.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

He looked behind the desk and saw the bronze plaque on the wall.<\/p>\n

NORA BENNETT \u2014 FOUNDER AND CHAIRWOMAN.<\/p>\n

His face lost all color.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Claire covered her mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthan\u2026 your mother is Nora Bennett?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethan didn\u2019t answer her.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The boardroom doors opened, and every person inside rose to their feet as I entered.<\/p>\n

I took my seat at the head of the table.<\/p>\n

Richard remained standing for a second too long, like a man whose mind had failed to keep pace with reality.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cPlease sit, Mr.<\/p>\n

Whitmore,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

He sat.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I folded my hands over the folder in front of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we discuss your financing request, I have a question.<\/p>\n

When you decide a man isn\u2019t good enough for your family, do you usually leave him and his child on a public bench, or was today a special gesture?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The room went so quiet I could hear the low hum of the ventilation.<\/p>\n

Richard cleared his throat.<\/p>\n

\u201cMs.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Bennett, I believe there has been a personal misunderstanding\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing misunderstood about it,\u201d Ethan said, standing behind me.<\/p>\n

His voice was calm now, which made it more devastating.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cYou told my wife I married above my station.<\/p>\n

You had your wife pack Lily\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n

Then you sent us away before your guests arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire flinched as if the words had struck her.<\/p>\n

Richard tried a smile that belonged in a negotiation, not a reckoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmotions were high.<\/p>\n

Family matters can become unfortunate.<\/p>\n

Surely we shouldn\u2019t let a private disagreement interfere with a strategic partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

I opened the folder in front of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrdinarily, I would agree that business should not hinge on private disagreements.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the board, this decision does not.<\/p>\n

Our due diligence has already raised serious concerns about your company\u2019s debt exposure, labor complaints, vendor litigation, and leadership turnover.<\/p>\n

Your behavior tonight simply answered the only outstanding question we had left.\u201d<\/p>\n

I slid a document across the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharacter risk,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

His hand shook when he picked it up.<\/p>\n

The chief financial officer on my left spoke next.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Bennett House Hospitality as operating partner, our recommendation is to decline the Whitmore Harbor acquisition entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another board member nodded.<\/p>\n

Then another.<\/p>\n

Richard looked around the table and realized the ground was gone beneath him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be serious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very serious,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of this? Because of some emotional display?\u201d<\/p>\n

I leaned back in my chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.<\/p>\n

Because any man who thinks dignity<\/p>\n

is measured by income, and any executive who believes cruelty can be hidden behind polished silverware, is a liability to every employee, guest, and partner he touches.<\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t lose this deal because I\u2019m angry.<\/p>\n

You lost it because today you showed us exactly who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

He turned to Ethan then, as if my son might save him from the consequence of humiliating him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthan, say something.<\/p>\n

Tell your mother this is being blown out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ethan looked at him with a steadiness I had not seen in weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter sat on a park bench with a suitcase because you didn\u2019t want us visible when your guests arrived.<\/p>\n

Nothing about this is out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Claire finally spoke.<\/p>\n

Her voice shook.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad\u2026 stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

He snapped toward her.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in that instant I watched Claire understand something that should have been obvious long before.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Her father did not merely believe in status.<\/p>\n

He believed in obedience.<\/p>\n

He had expected her to sacrifice her husband for comfort and smile while doing it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

She looked at Ethan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I signed the final page and passed it to legal counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meeting is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard stood too fast.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cMs.<\/p>\n

Bennett, please.<\/p>\n

We can discuss terms.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

We can correct whatever offense\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

I rose as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou still think this is about learning my name.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

You knew enough when you saw a tired man, a little girl, and two suitcases.<\/p>\n

That should have been all the information any decent person required.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Security appeared at the door before I had to ask.<\/p>\n

Richard left the room in a silence far uglier than the one he had forced on my son.<\/p>\n

Claire followed Ethan out into the hallway.<\/p>\n

I gave them space, but not so much that I couldn\u2019t hear the truth when it was finally spoken.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthan, please listen to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI panicked.<\/p>\n

I thought if I argued with him in front of everyone it would get worse.<\/p>\n

I thought I could fix it after dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethan\u2019s laugh was softer than before and sadder.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou let our daughter be taken to a park bench so your father wouldn\u2019t be embarrassed before dessert.<\/p>\n

What exactly did you think you were fixing?\u201d<\/p>\n

She started crying again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was wrong.<\/p>\n

I know I was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded once.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.<\/p>\n

You were.\u201d<\/p>\n

She reached for his hand.<\/p>\n

He stepped back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe part of me still does.<\/p>\n

But love without courage isn\u2019t enough for a marriage.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s nowhere near enough for a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the moment I knew my son had come back to himself.<\/p>\n

That night Ethan and Lily stayed in the family suite.<\/p>\n

I sat with Lily until she fell asleep with her rabbit tucked under her chin and a smear of cocoa still at the corner of her mouth.<\/p>\n

Then I joined Ethan in the sitting room, where he stared out at the city lights and looked older than he had that morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know they thought so little of us?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

I answered honestly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew Richard did.<\/p>\n

I prayed Claire didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

He closed his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept thinking if I ignored it, if I was patient enough, if I proved myself over time, he\u2019d stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMen like that don\u2019t stop when you prove your worth,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey stop when they lose the right to define it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next morning, I called a family attorney.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ethan called his school principal and took leave for the week.<\/p>\n

Claire sent fourteen messages before noon.<\/p>\n

The first five defended panic.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The next three blamed her father.<\/p>\n

The last six were apologies.<\/p>\n

Ethan read every one and answered none.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Within two weeks, he filed for divorce.<\/p>\n

Claire did not contest it.<\/p>\n

What happened to Richard after that was not revenge.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It was gravity.<\/p>\n

Once Bennett House withdrew, the banks reviewing Whitmore Harbor pulled back as well.<\/p>\n

Reporters started asking why a major hospitality operator had exited so suddenly.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Then old vendor complaints resurfaced.<\/p>\n

A former employee filed a public workplace claim.<\/p>\n

His board forced him to step aside before the quarter ended.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

By autumn, the lake house had been quietly listed for sale.<\/p>\n

Claire moved out of her parents\u2019 home three months later and rented a small apartment in the city.<\/p>\n

For the first time in her life, she paid her own bills without her father smoothing the edges of consequence.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

She began therapy.<\/p>\n

She wrote Ethan a letter instead of another text.<\/p>\n

It was the first message she sent that did not ask to be rescued from the result of her own silence.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In that letter, she wrote: I didn\u2019t become my father in one day.<\/p>\n

I became him every time I called cruelty realism because it was easier than being brave.<\/p>\n

Ethan showed the letter to me but said nothing for a long time after.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

When mediation began, Claire did not ask for the impossible.<\/p>\n

She admitted what she had done.<\/p>\n

She agreed that Lily would live primarily with Ethan.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

She asked for the chance to be a mother who earned trust back slowly, instead of demanding it because of biology.<\/p>\n

It was not forgiveness.<\/p>\n

But it was, at last, honesty.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A year later, Ethan had a small townhouse not far from Lily\u2019s preschool.<\/p>\n

It was warm, lived-in, and full of ordinary things that feel priceless when peace returns: crayons on the kitchen table, tiny shoes by the door, a casserole cooling on the stove.<\/p>\n

Claire picked Lily up on Wednesdays and alternate weekends from that house, never from Richard\u2019s.<\/p>\n

She had cut her financial dependence on her parents completely.<\/p>\n

She and Ethan were civil, careful, and permanently changed.<\/p>\n

Richard Whitmore saw Lily only under conditions Ethan approved, and not often.<\/p>\n

Pride had cost him too much to let humility come easily.<\/p>\n

One evening, as I helped Lily build a blanket fort in the living room, she asked me, very seriously, \u201cGrandma, were we bad when Grandpa Richard made us leave?\u201d<\/p>\n

I sat down on the floor beside her so fast my knees protested.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, sweetheart.<\/p>\n

Not even a little.<\/p>\n

Some grown-ups get confused and think money tells them who matters.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re completely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

She considered that, then nodded and handed me her stuffed rabbit like she had accepted a treaty.<\/p>\n

Later, after she was asleep, Ethan stood at the kitchen counter and said, \u201cYou know what hurts the most? It wasn\u2019t Richard.<\/p>\n

He was obvious.<\/p>\n

It was Claire calling him realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was right.<\/p>\n

Cruelty is easy to spot when it arrives with<\/p>\n

a sneer.<\/p>\n

The deeper danger is the person who watches it happen, understands exactly what it is, and still chooses comfort over courage.<\/p>\n

I had been a waitress.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I had lived in a one-bedroom apartment.<\/p>\n

I had raised my son with tired hands, secondhand furniture, and more determination than certainty.<\/p>\n

None of that was shameful.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The shame belonged to the people who saw those facts and mistook them for a measure of worth.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I still think about that bench in Grant Park.<\/p>\n

About Lily holding her rabbit by one ear.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

About Ethan staring at the ground because looking up would have meant admitting someone he loved had failed him in public.<\/p>\n

Richard Whitmore discovered who I was that day, yes.<\/p>\n

But that was never the part that mattered most to me.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

What mattered was that my son finally discovered who he was without their approval.<\/p>\n

And if there was a red flag in that whole story bigger than the lake house, bigger than the insult, bigger even than the suitcases left beside that bench, it was this: the moment Claire called humiliation realistic, she told us exactly how much of her soul she was willing to surrender to stay comfortable.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know whether she deserved forgiveness.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Some days I think remorse should count for something.<\/p>\n

Other days I remember a little girl waiting beside luggage that looked abandoned and think love that folds under pressure was never love sturdy enough to build a life on.<\/p>\n

What I do know is this: a person\u2019s beginning can explain them, but it should never be used to reduce them.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

And anyone who confuses humble origins with small value eventually learns the most expensive lesson of all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He Threw Out My Son\u2014Then Learned Who Signed His Future The first thing I noticed was the luggage. Two hard-shell suitcases sat beside the bench near the entrance to Grant … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,22,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-inspiration","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17514,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17513\/revisions\/17514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readinstory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}