A woman dressed in white at my sister’s wedding and sat in her seat at the wedding table.

I knew the moment I saw her: this woman was trouble.

We were at my beautiful sister’s wedding reception.

She had just married a man who I didn’t particularly like because he didn’t treat her the way she deserved.

So I guess you could say he wasn’t in a very good mood.

Of course, I hid my attitude in front of my sister.

I gave an award-worthy speech as a bridesmaid.

I played my role well, because that’s what you do.

But then, this woman, a total stranger, pushed me over the edge.

I returned to the reception hall after being in the garden with the guests, then stopped dead.

A woman was sitting in my sister’s seat at the wedding table.

She was neither family nor friend of my sister.

I was talking animatedly (and very familiarly) with my new brother-in-law.

How disrespectful.

No one should sit in the wedding seat except the bride.

Especially since she was making the rounds, talking to the guests, while her husband should be doing the same with her.

Not entertaining a woman my sister didn’t know (apparently as a friend of hers from work), in her seat at her wedding.

As I started to walk towards the table, I noticed something worse.

She was wearing a tight-fitting white satin dress with very small laces.

That was it: his extremely poor form did not deserve any respect from me.

“That’s my sister’s seat,” I said, looking directly at her. (I added “bitch” in my head.)

She didn’t flinch. My brother-in-law didn’t say anything either.

“I don’t know who you are, but you shouldn’t attend a wedding dressed in white and then sit in the bride’s seat when it’s not your wedding,” I continued.

By then, the rest of the bridal party and a few other guests were looking at us.

The woman, without recognizing me, stood up and told my brother-in-law: “I’ll talk to you later.”

It took all my restraint not to retort, “Oh no, you won’t.”

When he left, my sister was returning to her seat.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I just reminded him that that was your seat,” I said with a wave of my hand, like it was no big deal, although it really was.

“I knew something wasn’t right.”

Later, my parents told me to “control myself” and “not be so emotional.”

“Leave it,” my dad advised.

“Don’t be aggressive,” my mom said.

But in my heart I knew something wasn’t right. It wasn’t just blatant rudeness and lack of social graces.

The woman’s familiarity with my brother-in-law at his wedding in my sister’s seat was not correct.

Even I wouldn’t have done that as a bridesmaid.

It felt like a deliberate move to publicly disrespect my sister.

My sister and I never talked about the incident until years later.

He hadn’t meant to bring it up to upset her.

I was pretty sure she would ignore my concerns as she was so in love with her husband.

But unfortunately, I was right to worry.

Two years later we discovered that the woman and my brother-in-law had been having an affair.

In a way, I was furious with myself for not speaking up and making my family listen.

The only thing my sister had now was a two-year marriage that had been a lie.

My beautiful sister was heartbroken but determined to make it work.

I wish she hadn’t, because her husband never changed his ways.

But I finally got to do what I didn’t do at the wedding: tell this homewrecker what I thought of her behavior.

I called her at her workplace.

I told him that my sister knew about it and that she was a terrible person for destroying my baby nephew’s family.

She didn’t care, of course.

I wish I had warned my sister not to trust her husband from the moment they got married.

That is why the wise advise: “Trust your instincts.”