My Predator Cousin Made Out With Every Boyfriend at Family Weddings.

I watched them dance. I watched Amber lean in close and say something I couldn’t hear. I watched Marcus’s expression remain neutral.

My sister Emma appeared beside me: “What’s she doing?”

I replied: “Being Amber. Want me to go interrupt?”

I said: “Not yet.”

After what felt like an eternity but was probably only two minutes, Marcus excused himself and walked back to me. Amber stood in the middle of the dance floor, looking frustrated.

I asked: “What did she say?”

He replied: “She asked if we’d met before. I told her I had one of those faces. She asked where I worked exactly. I told her the county building on Fifth Street.”

He paused: “Then she asked if I wanted to get some air later.”

My stomach dropped: “She propositioned you?”

He said: “Subtly, but yes.”

I asked: “What did you say?”

He replied: “I told her I was exactly where I wanted to be.”

Emma snorted: “I like this guy.”

The rest of the reception passed in a blur. Amber kept watching us from across the room.

Her boyfriend Brandon looked increasingly annoyed at being ignored. My mother kept giving me thumbs up from her table, clearly delighted I’d finally brought someone to a wedding.

Around 10:00, I went to the bathroom. When I came out, Amber was waiting in the hallway.

She said: “We need to talk.”

My heart started pounding: “About what?”

She replied: “About Marcus. I know who he is, Megan.”

I said: “He’s my date.”

She countered: “He’s my probation officer.”

There it was, out in the open. I could have denied it; I could have pretended I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I was tired of pretending.

I said simply: “Yes, he is.”

Amber’s face went white, then red: “Are you insane? Do you know what you’ve done?”

I asked: “Bringing him here, you mean? Bringing my date to a family wedding? I don’t see the problem.”

She snapped: “He could violate my probation for this!”

I replied: “For what? You haven’t done anything wrong. You’ve been on your best behavior all night.”

I stepped closer to her: “Unless you’re planning to do something wrong, like maybe trying to kiss my date?”

Amber’s mouth opened and closed: “You—this is entrapment!”

I said: “It’s not entrapment. It’s just me bringing someone to a wedding. Someone who happens to know about your criminal record.”

I let that sink in: “The record you’ve been hiding from everyone.”

She whispered: “You can’t tell them.”

I replied: “I don’t need to tell them. You’re terrified they’ll find out on their own.”

I smiled; it felt cruel and good at the same time: “How does it feel, Amber, being the one who’s uncomfortable for once?”

She threatened: “I could tell everyone what you did. That you brought my probation officer here to humiliate me.”

I said: “Go ahead. Explain to our entire family why you have a probation officer. Explain the credit card fraud. Explain why you’ve been lying to everyone for six months.”

She stared at me, and for the first time in my life, I saw real fear in Amber’s eyes. She whispered: “Why are you doing this?”

I replied: “Because of Tyler and Chris and David and every other time you decided to destroy something I cared about just because you could.”

My voice was shaking now: “You made me think I was crazy. You made me doubt myself. You took three relationships from me and smiled while you did it.”

She said: “They wanted to kiss me.”

I replied: “No, they didn’t. I’ve had years to think about this, Amber, to replay every single incident. And you know what I realized?” “You waited until they were drunk. You isolated them. You manipulated them. And then you blamed them afterward.”

Tears were running down her face now, streaking her makeup: “I didn’t mean—”

I cut her off: “Yes you did. You meant every bit of it.”

We stood there in the hallway, years of resentment and hurt between us. Finally, Amber asked: “Are you going to tell everyone? About my record?”

I replied: “I thought about it. Really thought about it. No. That’s not why I brought Marcus here.” “I brought him so you’d feel what I felt. So you’d spend one night knowing someone could ruin your reputation with one sentence. So you’d be too afraid to try your usual routine.”

She asked: “So this was just revenge?”

I replied: “This was justice.”

I walked past her back toward the reception. Behind me, I heard her crying quietly.

Marcus was waiting for me by our table. He asked: “Everything okay?”

I said: “Yeah, I think it finally is.”

The rest of the night was actually fun. I danced with Marcus, with my sister, and with my dad.

I drank champagne and ate wedding cake and laughed at my uncle’s terrible dance moves. Every time I looked at Amber, she was sitting at her table not talking to anyone, looking small.

Moving Forward

Around midnight, Marcus and I left. We walked out to the parking lot together, and I realized the night was ending.

I said: “Thank you. Really, for everything.”

He replied: “You keep thanking me.”

I said: “Because I mean it.”

He smiled: “Want to know a secret? I had fun tonight. Even with all the weirdness with your cousin, I had fun.”

I said: “Me too.”

He hesitated: “So, would you want to do this again sometime? Without the ulterior motives and revenge plots? Just dinner or something?”

I stared at him: “Are you asking me on a date?”

He replied: “I believe I already went on a date with you tonight. I’m asking for a second one.”

I asked: “Isn’t that ethically complicated, since I’m connected to one of your probationers?”

He noted: “Amber Westbrook’s probation ends in four months. I can wait four months.”

My heart did something complicated in my chest: “You want to wait four months to take me to dinner?”

He replied: “I want to do this right. And doing it right means waiting until there’s no possible conflict of interest.”

He pulled out his phone: “But there’s nothing stopping us from being friends in the meantime. Friends can text, right?”