“Cute outfit,” my sister said into the microphone, eyes glittering under ballroom chandeliers that pretended to be stars. “Did you forget to update your badge?” Laughter rippled polite and poisonous across the twenty-year reunion as if cruelty were a game we’d all agreed to play. I smoothed a plain navy sheath and let the room believe what it wanted. Milbrook Country Club had polished itself patriotic—a small U.S. flag by the podium, red-white-blue florals at each table, a slide show of earnest