I sat with that in the quiet of the service corridor, and I found that the specific shape of the betrayal was almost worse than its size.

It would have been one thing — a familiar thing — to be left off the guest list because I embarrassed them.

I had absorbed that kind of wound my whole life; I had a callus over it.

But this was different.

This was not carelessness or snobbery.

This was a plan.