Tessa, a 25-year-old marketing coordinator, reflects on a childhood abruptly ended by her parents’ divorce, specifically her father Evan’s affair with a colleague named Dana. Her younger brother, Owen, once a kind and joyful child, became withdrawn after their mother discovered Evan and Dana on the couch. Tessa vividly recalls her mother’s heartbreak, the shattered ceramic pot, and the weeks of screaming, crying, and unanswered pleas for reconciliation. Despite her mother’s desperate attempts to save their 22-year marriage, including counseling and heartfelt letters, Evan moved in with Dana three weeks after serving divorce papers, leaving a profound impact on Owen, who whispered, “Does Dad love her more than us?”

A year after the divorce, Evan casually invited Tessa and Owen to his wedding with Dana, a backyard ceremony at Dana’s sister’s house. Tessa’s disbelief was met with Evan’s insistence that it was a “new chapter” for all of them. Owen initially refused to attend, stating he wouldn’t watch his father marry “the woman who ruined our family.” However, relentless pressure and guilt trips from their grandparents about “forgiveness” and “family unity” eventually coerced Owen into agreeing, though Tessa sensed an unsettling determination in his quiet compliance.

Two weeks before the wedding, Owen had asked Tessa to order itching powder from Amazon, claiming it was for a prank on school friends. Distracted by work, Tessa, despite a strong premonition about Owen’s true intentions, didn’t question him further. She later admitted she “didn’t say no. I didn’t ask him to explain. I didn’t stop him.” Her inaction stemmed from her profound sorrow over her mother’s silent suffering and a deep-seated desire for someone to experience even a fraction of the humiliation and pain her mother had endured.

On the wedding day, Owen, dressed immaculately, appeared unnervingly calm. About an hour before the ceremony, he innocently offered to hang up Dana’s wedding jacket, which she gratefully handed him. He disappeared for five minutes and returned, calm and empty-handed. During the ceremony, Dana’s radiant smile slowly faltered as she began to twitch and scratch uncontrollably, her skin turning red. By the vows, she was frantically tugging at her jacket, eventually bolting from the ceremony, clearly in distress. Owen remained perfectly still, watching with a blank expression, and later noted that Dana didn’t cry, but would “remember feeling humiliated and out of control. Just like Mom remembers finding them together.”

In the aftermath, Dana reappeared in a casual dress, her mood broken, and the rest of the ceremony felt rushed and awkward. Evan, confused, asked Tessa about Dana’s “allergic reaction,” to which Tessa vaguely suggested possibilities without admitting anything. Two weeks later, Evan refused to speak to them, and Dana’s family branded them “evil children.” Their grandparents demanded an apology, but Tessa refused to apologize. She acknowledges not directly planning Owen’s act but also not stopping it, concluding that in a world where her mother’s pain was dismissed, her inaction felt justified. Tessa grapples with whether her choice not to intervene makes her a “terrible person,” but ultimately, she remains unrepentant, still feeling no guilt for Owen’s act of justice.