Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

I manufactured a disgusting story in my mind and then punished you for it as if it were the truth.”

Chloe listened to her speech silently, keeping her expression calm.

“You made me feel dirty and ashamed on a night when I was just trying to survive,” Chloe told her directly.

Nancy lowered her head as tears streamed down her face.

“I know I did, and I am deeply sorry,” Nancy wept.

“I don’t need you to spend the rest of your life feeling guilty about it,” Chloe said firmly.

“I just need you to never tear down another vulnerable woman the next time you see a situation you don’t understand, simply to entertain people at a dinner table.”