Cassiopée’s father Ryan

Cassiopée’s father Ryan is a deeply compromised parental figure: he loves his children, yet repeatedly fails to recognize or oppose the harm inflicted within his household. His passivity toward Ella allows domestic conflict to become permanent, and his eventual slap against Cassiopée transforms emotional neglect into direct violence. The decisive consequence is not reconciliation but departure: Cassiopée leaves the house crying, while Ryan is left with the belated regret of a parent who acted only after losing his daughter’s trust.

Family Position and Emotional Blindness

Ryan is Cassiopée’s father and the parent through whom the family’s fractures are most clearly organized. Cassiopée experiences the household as tumultuous, largely because Ella criticizes her, behaves as though everything is owed to her, and makes no serious effort to build a healthy relationship with either Cassiopée or her younger brother Theo. Ryan knows that his children are distant from him, but knowledge does not become self-examination. He is distressed by their withdrawal without confronting the conditions that produced it.

From Cassiopée’s perspective, Ryan sees nothing and does nothing to discover who Ella really is. His affection therefore becomes suspect. When he embraces his children and kisses their foreheads, the gestures are presented as sincere expressions of love from his side, but Cassiopée reads them as insignificant and hypocritical. The contrast is central to his characterization: Ryan is not indifferent to his children, yet his love remains passive, and passivity protects the household’s aggressor more effectively than open hostility would.

The Household Conflict

Cassiopée’s hostility toward Ella is not an isolated disagreement. Theo, who was only two when Ella entered the family after Ryan’s divorce, has also witnessed repeated disputes between Ella and Cassiopée. During the troubled weekend at Ryan’s home, Cassiopée spends much of her time in her room or in the garden with Theo because he would rather remain with her than share a room with Ryan and Ella. Their alliance makes Ryan’s parental failure visible: the children seek refuge from the family structure in each other.

Ryan feels bad about the distance between himself and his children, but he does not reconsider his role in creating it. Cassiopée waits for a decisive moment that might finally make him react, while already imagining that she will not be present to tell him that she had warned him. This expectation gives his later intervention an ironic quality. Ryan does react, but only after the conflict has crossed into irreversible damage, and his reaction is directed against the child who names the problem rather than against the person she accuses.

The Slap and Cassiopée’s Departure

The immediate crisis begins when Cassiopée announces that she intends to go to Santa Fe for a project. Ryan asks why she is going there, while Ella reacts with panic and attempts to stop the conversation from proceeding. Cassiopée confronts Ella openly, challenging the threat of another slap and accusing her of exploiting Ryan while he remains blinded by her words. Ryan interrupts by calling Cassiopée’s name, but he does not resolve the underlying conflict or protect her from Ella’s hostility.

Before Cassiopée can say more, Ryan strikes her. The sound of the slap fills the room, and Ella briefly widens her eyes before smiling slightly. That reaction intensifies the moral clarity of the scene: Ella receives confirmation of her power, while Ryan immediately regrets what he has done after meeting his daughter’s tearful gaze. His regret does not undo the violence. Cassiopée answers him coldly, saying that he has made her task easier, then leaves the house without waiting for further explanation.

Outside, Cassiopée breaks down in tears as Theo calls after her. Dorcas Peters and Shelby Anderson witness her distress and learn what happened. Dorcas Peters immediately embraces her, while Shelby Anderson initially does not know how to respond; the two women then draw Shelby Anderson into the embrace as well. The journey toward the Ellensburg station thus becomes a movement away from Ryan’s house and toward the protective friendship Cassiopée can actually rely on.

A Failed Parental Authority

Ryan’s authority depends on the appearance of family unity, but the narrative repeatedly shows that he cannot sustain it through protection or accountability. His affectionate greeting briefly presents him as a caring father, yet Cassiopée’s mistrust exposes the gap between tenderness and responsibility. He wants closeness without confronting Ella, and he wants peace without questioning the arrangement that makes peace impossible.

The slap is therefore more than a moment of temper. It is the final expression of Ryan’s refusal to hear Cassiopée on her own terms. When he intervenes, he reproduces the power imbalance already governing the household: the daughter who protests is punished, while Ella’s conduct remains structurally protected. Ryan’s instant regret signals that he understands the harm, but understanding arrives too late to function as protection.

Narrative Significance

Ryan embodies the difference between loving someone and acting in their defense. His children’s distance is not caused by an absence of feeling alone; it grows from the repeated experience that his feelings do not produce safety. In this respect, his relationship with Cassiopée contrasts with the forms of care elsewhere in the story that depend on physical presence, clear recognition of harm, and active protection.

His role also sharpens the book’s larger concern with violence and responsibility. Jungkook Jeon is taught by Dong-hyun that a man must never cry, a command that disciplines vulnerability through shame and violence. Ryan represents a quieter failure: he does not impose the same explicit rule, but his silence and inaction allow harm to continue. When he finally uses force, the result is not restored authority but the collapse of the father-daughter bond. Cassiopée’s departure makes that collapse concrete, leaving Ryan not with a repaired family but with the consequences of having mistaken affection for care.