The tear raced higher.
RIPPP.
A collective gasp swept across the beach.
Someone clapped a hand over their mouth.
Another person burst out laughing before quickly trying to disguise it as a cough.
My brother-in-law’s shock finally wore off.
“Oh… oh no…”
He fumbled to end the Instagram Live, and dropped his phone onto the sand.
A collective gasp swept across the beach.
I checked the Live on my phone.
The screen was full of laughing emojis and comments from people who’d witnessed the whole thing.
Only then did Diane notice the horrified expressions staring back at her.
She checked her phone.
The color drained from her face.
The screen was full of laughing emojis.
Diane marched toward me, her phone shaking in her hand.
“How could you do this to me?!”
“Do what, Diane?” I asked calmly. “I didn’t put that outfit on your body.”
Her phone buzzed.
She glanced at the screen, and her face crumpled.
The beach went silent.
I turned to Dylan, who was staring at his feet like a scolded boy.
Diane marched toward me
“And you,” I said quietly. “Four days. Four days of your mother tearing me apart, and you sat there. Silent.”
“I didn’t want to start anything,” he mumbled.
“You didn’t want to start anything, but you were happy to let her finish me.”
Diane tried to pull the fabric closed.
“This is your fault. All of it.”
“I didn’t want to start anything,”
