Chapter 4

The engagement party was supposed to be cancelled.

Mark insisted on having a "farewell get-together" instead.

He said it was for "our friends," to say goodbye to me properly.

I knew it was for Jessica. A way to introduce her, to normalize her presence.

The party was at our apartment. It felt crowded, alien.

Mark was charming, solicitous towards Jessica, who clung to his arm.

She wore a new dress, something expensive.

Then, the "mishap."

Jessica was "helping" clear some glasses near the bookshelf where I kept a few of David' s things.

Including his firefighter' s helmet, the one he wore for years, slightly dented, soot-stained. A sacred object to me.

There was a sudden crash.

Jessica cried out, stumbling back.

David' s helmet lay on the floor, a large, fresh crack running down one side. A delicate ceramic figurine David had given me as a child, which sat beside it, was shattered.

"Oh my god, I' m so sorry!" Jessica wailed, tears welling in her eyes. "I just brushed against it... it was so wobbly!"

It hadn' t been wobbly. I' d dusted it that morning.

Mark rushed to her side. "Are you okay, honey? Don't worry about it, it was just an old helmet."

"Just an old helmet?" My voice was dangerously quiet.

Jessica' s friends, a clique from the Guard, quickly surrounded her.

"Poor Jessica, she' s so upset."

"It was clearly an accident."

"Sarah, don' t make a scene. It' s just a thing."

Mark turned to me, his face hard. "Yeah, Sarah. It' s done. Let it go. Jessica feels terrible."

He put his arm around Jessica, pulling her close, glaring at me.

My brother' s helmet. Cracked. By her. And he defended her.

The humiliation was a cold weight in my chest.

The sympathy in the room was all for Jessica, the clumsy victim.

I was the cold, unfeeling one, upset over "just a thing."

I looked at Mark, at Jessica' s tear-streaked, triumphant face.

There was no point in saying anything. They wouldn' t hear it.

I nodded slowly. "You' re right. It' s just a thing."

My composure was absolute.

Inside, my escape plan became an urgent, burning need.

This charade would end. Soon.