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Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. My boyfriend Ethan was meeting my family for the first time. Sophie, my childhood best friend, held out her hand and blinked playfully at him. "Everyone got a gift except me. Don't I get a little bribe for my stamp of approval?" Everyone laughed. Ethan smiled at her. "Fair point. I guess you do." Then he handed her the ring I had picked out for our engagement. My hand froze around my fork. Before I knew it, I was reaching for the velvet box. "Sorry. He gave you the wrong one." Ethan pressed my hand down, his fingers tightening around mine. "She likes it. Let her keep it." I pushed down the anger and shock rising in my chest. "That's the ring you bought to propose to me. You want to give it away because she likes it?" He didn't even blink. "A ring and a necklace are both jewelry. There's no real difference." My brother Nate looked up. "Emma, do you have some kind of problem with Sophie?" Dylan gave a cold laugh. "Come on. Isn't it obvious?" I pulled my hand away and stepped back. "Fine. She can keep the ring." They all relaxed. "And I'm done with all of you." While I waited for dinner, a notification appeared in a four-person group chat that had been quiet for months. Sophie: [We should all get together for Thanksgiving. It has been forever since we've seen each other.] My older brother, Nate Carter, and our childhood friend, Dylan Parker, responded immediately. As they excitedly discussed plans, I scrolled up and realized the last time I had said anything in the chat was the previous Christmas. I still remembered that night. Nate had stopped by my room that morning and asked me to book tickets to the annual holiday light festival so the four of us could go together. When I asked in the group chat which time slot everyone wanted, no one replied, so I booked the eight o’clock entry. That evening, I kept asking when they would arrive. The festival eventually closed, but none of them ever showed up. I found out the next day tha
