Chapter 4
Nobody was rushing to make her comfortable.
Diane picked up her fork.
“The food is getting cold.”
Then she looked directly at Melissa.
“You’re welcome to eat it.”
Ethan tried to hide a smile.
Melissa looked down at the dinner she had insulted fifteen minutes earlier.
Slowly, she took another bite.
Nobody asked what she thought.
For the next ten minutes, dinner continued in careful silence.
Forks scraped against plates.
Glasses were refilled.
Scott asked Ethan about baseball practice.
Diane asked Sophie about school.
Nobody mentioned Melissa’s outburst.
Eventually, she put down her fork.
“Fine.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Fine what?”
“I’m sorry.”
The words sounded automatic.
She looked at Diane.
“Sorry I insulted your dinner.”
Diane waited.
Melissa frowned.
“What?”
“Anything else?”
Melissa glanced at me.
“And I’m sorry if Emily feels like I’ve been rude to her.”
Daniel gave a short, humorless laugh.
Melissa bristled.
“What now?”
“You didn’t apologize.”
“I literally just did.”
“You apologized for how Emily feels,” he said. “Try apologizing for what you did.”
Hearing that from Daniel mattered more than I wanted to admit.
For years, he had been kind to me privately and passive around his sister publicly.He hated conflict.
He loved his family.
May you like
Together, those things created an easy routine: I absorbed Melissa’s remarks, Daniel apologized afterward, and everyone returned for the next holiday as though nothing had happened.
Two weeks earlier, I had finally stopped accepting it.
