Chapter 5 - WHY VANESSA HATED AVA’S HAIRThe money explained the trust documents.
It didn’t explain the clippers.
That part was personal.
Vanessa and Laura had never met.
Laura died before Vanessa entered my life.
But Vanessa lived with a ghost anyway.
Photographs.
Stories.
Ava’s memories.
My own grief.
I tried not to compare them.
Sometimes I failed.
Once, after Vanessa redecorated the living room, Ava said:
“Mommy liked the yellow curtains better.”
Vanessa smiled.
Then cried in the bathroom.
I comforted her.
I should have noticed how often that happened.
Ava had Laura’s hair.
Thick.
Dark brown.
Long.
Vanessa hated it.
Not openly.
She suggested cuts.
Bobs.
Highlights “when she’s older.”
Anything different.
On the wedding day, Ava asked the stylist to braid it the way Laura used to.
Hannah helped find an old photograph.
The braid looked almost identical.
Vanessa walked in.
Saw Ava.
And something in her snapped.
She later admitted:
“She looked like Laura.”
I stared.
“So you shaved her.”
“I wanted the braid gone.”
“She is seven.”
“I know.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You knew her age. You stopped seeing the child.”
Vanessa started crying.
“I felt like everyone would look at the photos and see your dead wife.”
“And instead?”
She looked down.
“You made sure they’d see what you did.”
Silence.
That cruelty was not strategic.
Not Edward’s plan.
Not Gregory’s.
Hers.
Important distinction.
Adults love distributing blame when shame arrives.
May you like
Some parts were shared.
That part belonged to Vanessa.
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