Dinner was a study in torture.
They sat in the formal dining room, under the crystal chandelier. Robert sat at the head, Elena to his right. Tesse and Valor were seated across from each other.
The table was too small. The room was too quiet. Every time Tesse looked up, she saw Valor. He was staring at his plate, pushing a piece of steak around with his fork. He hadn't taken a bite.
"So, Tesse," Robert said, pouring wine for Elena. "Valor tells me the senior class is planning a big trip this year. Are you involved in that?"
Tesse gripped her fork until her knuckles turned white. "No. I'm focusing on my studies."
"She's top of her class," Elena added proudly, reaching out to touch Robert's hand. "She's hoping to get into Columbia."
"Impressive," Robert nodded. "Valor is looking at business schools. Maybe he can pick your brain about study habits. He used to be quite the student, but he's been a bit... distracted this past year."
Valor dropped his fork. It clattered loudly against the china.
"Sorry," he muttered, not looking up.
"Are you okay, son?" Robert asked, frowning. "You're pale."
"I'm fine," Valor said tightly. He looked up, and his eyes met Tesse's.
There was so much in that look. Regret. Horror. Confusion. And beneath it all, a terrible, aching longing that he had tried to bury.
*You,* his eyes said. *It had to be you.*
*Don't,* Tesse's eyes replied. *Don't you dare.*
"It's just a headache," Valor said, looking away.
"Maybe it's the weather," Elena suggested kindly. "It's getting stormy out."
"So," Robert continued, oblivious to the psychic warfare happening across his table. "We were thinking about the wedding in August. A small ceremony in the garden. And we were hoping... well, since you two are going to be family..."
*Family.*
The word hung in the air like a guillotine blade.
Tesse felt bile rise in her throat. Family. Step-siblings.
If her mother married Robert, Valor would be her brother. Her stepbrother. They would live in the same house. They would share a bathroom. They would have holidays together.
The boy she had loved, the boy who had crushed her, the boy she had spent a year excising from her soul like a tumor—he wasn't going away. He was moving in.
"We were hoping you two could stand up for us," Robert said. "Valor as my best man, and Tesse as Elena's maid of honor."
Tesse dropped her napkin. She stood up abruptly. The chair legs screeched against the hardwood floor.
"I need to use the restroom," she said. Her voice was shaking.
"Oh, of course, honey," Elena said, concerned. "Down the hall, second door on the left."
Tesse didn't wait. She turned and walked out of the room, her heels clicking fast, like a heartbeat.
She found the bathroom, locked the door, and leaned against the sink. She stared at herself in the mirror. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and terrified.
"Breathe," she whispered. "Just breathe."
But she couldn't breathe. The walls were closing in. The scent of cedar and lemon was suffocating.
A knock on the door. Soft. Hesitant.
"Tesse?"
It was Valor.
"Go away," she hissed at the door.
"Tesse, please," he whispered. "We have to talk."
"There is nothing to talk about," she said, gripping the edge of the sink. "Go back to dinner, Valor."
"I didn't know," he said through the wood. His voice was ragged. "I swear to God, Tesse, I didn't know it was you. My dad just said 'Elena and her daughter.' I didn't know."
Tesse unlocked the door and threw it open.
Valor stumbled back. He looked wrecked. His tie was loosened, his hair messy where he had run his hands through it.
"You didn't know," Tesse repeated, stepping into the hallway. She kept her voice low, a furious whisper. "Does it matter? Do you realize what this is? Do you realize what a nightmare this is?"
"I know," Valor said. He looked at her, his eyes searching her face. "I know it's a nightmare for you. Being stuck with me."
"It's not just that," Tesse said, tears of frustration stinging her eyes. "It's that I finally got free. I finally stopped thinking about you. I finally stopped caring. And now... now you're going to be at breakfast. You're going to be in the living room. You're going to be *family*."
"I won't be," Valor said quickly. "I can... I can go away to college. I'll go far away. California. Or Europe. I won't be here."
"You're missing the point!" Tesse snapped. "It's not about geography! It's about the fact that our parents are in love, and we are the wreckage left behind!"
Valor leaned back against the wall, sliding down slightly. He looked defeated.
"I missed you," he whispered.
The words were quiet, barely audible over the sound of the rain starting to tap against the roof.
Tesse froze. She looked at him—really looked at him. She saw the lines of exhaustion around his eyes. She saw the way his hands were shaking.
"Don't," she said. "Don't do this."
"I have to say it," Valor said, looking at the floor. "I tried to respect your space. I stayed away for a year. I thought... I thought if I gave you time, maybe one day we could be friends again. But not like this. Not as... siblings."
He looked up at her, and his expression broke her heart in a way she didn't think was possible anymore.
"I never stopped thinking about you, Tesse. Every day. When I saw you in the hall... when I saw you walk past me like I didn't exist... it killed me. And now... now I have to watch you be someone else's daughter, in my house, and I can never tell you how sorry I am because it's too complicated."
"It's too late," Tesse said. Her voice was softer now, sadder. "It's not complicated, Valor. It's too late."
"Is it?" he asked. He took a half-step toward her. "Is it really?"
"Yes," she said firmly. She stepped back. "My mother is happy. Your father is happy. We are not the protagonists of this story, Valor. We are the collateral damage."
From the dining room, laughter drifted down the hall. Robert and Elena, clinking glasses, planning a future built on the ruins of their children's past.
Tesse straightened her dress. She wiped the corner of her eye.
"I'm going back in there," she said. "I'm going to eat my steak. I'm going to smile. And I'm going to be happy for my mother."
She looked at Valor one last time.
"And you are going to do the same. Because that is the only choice we have left."
She turned and walked back toward the dining room, leaving Valor alone in the hallway, trapped between the girl he had lost and the family he was about to gain, while the storm outside finally broke, drowning the world in rain.