Chap­ter 4 begins with a grow­ing sense of dis­com­fort as my six­ti­eth birth­day nears. The air in Moss­dale feels thick with ten­sion, and the behav­ior of my fam­i­ly and the towns­peo­ple grows increas­ing­ly errat­ic, as though they’re all hid­ing some­thing from me. Nor­mal­ly, my broth­ers and their part­ners love orga­niz­ing grand cel­e­bra­tions, espe­cial­ly for birth­days, trans­form­ing what would be a sim­ple occa­sion into a lav­ish event filled with elab­o­rate feasts, extrav­a­gant gifts, and tow­er­ing cakes. How­ev­er, this year, the atmos­phere feels different—there’s a strange under­cur­rent of anx­i­ety and secre­cy sur­round­ing the usu­al fes­tiv­i­ties. What was once a day to mark the pass­ing of time and enjoy the com­pa­ny of loved ones had some­how shift­ed into a far more wor­ri­some spec­ta­cle, leav­ing me won­der­ing if my fam­i­ly had planned some­thing that I wasn’t meant to know about.

My sus­pi­cions begin to grow when Hol­ly and Kairos, two key mem­bers of the fam­i­ly, van­ish for an entire day under the pre­tense of run­ning errands. Their unex­plained absence only adds to my unease, as the night before my birth­day approach­es. I try to sleep, but a rest­less feel­ing keeps me wide awake, sens­ing that some­thing isn’t right. When I ask Rag­nar about Holly’s where­abouts, he gives me a vague response, men­tion­ing that she’s not feel­ing well, but his words do lit­tle to reas­sure me. Instead, they only serve to deep­en the grow­ing anx­i­ety in my chest. The more ques­tions I ask, the more I real­ize that no one is will­ing to be trans­par­ent with me, and this only fuels the sense that some­thing is being hid­den. The uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing the plans for my birth­day begins to take on a life of its own, height­en­ing my dis­com­fort and leav­ing me feel­ing iso­lat­ed.

When the morn­ing of my birth­day final­ly arrives, I head to Ragnar’s house, hop­ing to uncov­er some answers, but chaos greets me at the door. His son Mav­er­ick is hav­ing a melt­down over a bro­ken toy, and Rag­nar dis­miss­es the tantrum as just a tem­po­rary phase. How­ev­er, I can’t shake the sense that the fam­i­ly is hid­ing some­thing much big­ger. Despite my repeat­ed attempts to get to the bot­tom of the prepa­ra­tions for my birth­day, Rag­nar and the oth­ers dis­miss my con­cerns, brush­ing them aside as if I’m over­re­act­ing. Rag­nar insists that it’s just a sim­ple birth­day cel­e­bra­tion and noth­ing more, but my gut tells me oth­er­wise. There’s some­thing dark lurk­ing beneath the sur­face of the day, and I can’t ignore the feel­ing that the cel­e­bra­tion is mere­ly a façade for some­thing far more sin­is­ter.

By noon, the entire town has gath­ered by the riv­er for what appears to be the start of a grand cel­e­bra­tion. A mas­sive par­ty tent has been set up, over­flow­ing with food, drinks, and music, and the sounds of chil­dren play­ing add to the fes­tive chaos. Hol­ly approach­es me, a know­ing smile on her face, and asks me to close my eyes for a sur­prise. Though hes­i­tant, I trust her and com­ply, my heart rac­ing as I won­der what’s about to hap­pen. She leads me to the cen­ter of the tent, and with every step, I can’t help but feel a sense of dread mixed with antic­i­pa­tion, as though I’m walk­ing toward some­thing I’m not pre­pared for.

When the scarf is final­ly removed, I am con­front­ed by an unex­pect­ed sight: a gigan­tic cake, so large that it dwarfs every­thing around it. Before I can ful­ly process what I’m see­ing, the top of the cake bursts open, and a stun­ning woman emerges, jump­ing out and shout­ing, “Hap­py Birth­day, Bran­thor!” The crowd around me erupts into cheers, and I stand frozen, unable to under­stand what’s hap­pen­ing. The woman, dressed in a breath­tak­ing gown, is intro­duced as my bride, a shock­ing rev­e­la­tion that turns my world upside down. This extrav­a­gant sur­prise, some­thing I had nev­er antic­i­pat­ed, leaves me speech­less. I had thought I was mere­ly attend­ing a typ­i­cal birth­day cel­e­bra­tion, but this sur­re­al twist chal­lenges every­thing I believed about my family’s inten­tions. I find myself caught in a whirl­wind of con­fu­sion, strug­gling to com­pre­hend how my sim­ple mile­stone birth­day had been trans­formed into an over­whelm­ing spec­ta­cle, leav­ing me ques­tion­ing the deci­sions that had been made on my behalf.

As the shock of the moment set­tles over me, I real­ize the enor­mi­ty of what has just hap­pened. The woman before me, her pres­ence so grand and unex­pect­ed, is now my bride, and I have no idea how to react. The peo­ple around me, includ­ing my broth­ers and their part­ners, seem to be watch­ing with bat­ed breath, wait­ing for my response. The cel­e­bra­tion, once a source of minor anx­i­ety, has now tak­en on a life of its own, and I am left to grap­ple with the real­iza­tion that my future may no longer be in my hands. What I had hoped would be a sim­ple day mark­ing my aging and reflect­ing on my past has instead turned into a con­vo­lut­ed and bewil­der­ing turn of events, forc­ing me to recon­sid­er every­thing I thought I knew about my fam­i­ly, my role in Moss­dale, and the life that had once seemed so cer­tain. This bizarre twist of fate will undoubt­ed­ly change the course of my life, and I am left to won­der how much of what I thought I want­ed will ever be the same again.