She had a whole night to reconsider and she used it to escalate.

That was the moment, I think, that any lingering hope in Brandon died for good — not the candle, but this, the proof in his mother’s own hand that she was not going to stop, that there was no version of enough humiliation that would satisfy her, that she would keep doing this to Holly every holiday for the rest of her life if we let her.

You can forgive a person one cruelty as a bad moment.

Two identical cruelties, a day apart, with a night to think in between, is not a bad moment.