part 2
Part 2
For a second, I couldn’t move.
I just held her.
My beautiful little girl who had left home that morning with a crown braid wrapped around her head and dreams of playing Alice in the school play.
Now chunks of auburn hair clung to her dress.
The nurse stood frozen beside us, pale and furious.
“Emma,” I whispered, kneeling in front of her. “Honey, look at me.”
She shook her head violently.
“She said I stole it,” Emma sobbed. “She said Lily deserved it more. She locked the door. I tried to leave.”
Something cold slid through my chest.
“Who locked the door?”
Emma’s voice cracked.
“Aunt Jessica.”
The room went silent.
Principal Hoffman closed his eyes.
The nurse looked away.
Because everyone knew exactly who Jessica Brennan was.
My older sister.
The woman who had volunteered at the school for years.
The woman parents trusted.
The woman who had never accepted hearing the word "no."
I stood slowly.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
Emma's small hands trembled.
“Mrs. Parker asked me to bring costumes from Room 12. Aunt Jessica was there with Lily.”
My stomach tightened.
Lily.
Jessica’s daughter.
The girl who had lost the lead role of Alice after auditions.
“She shut the door,” Emma whispered. “Then she started yelling.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“She said I cheated. She said I embarrassed Lily.”
The nurse handed me a plastic evidence bag.
Inside were uneven chunks of auburn hair.
I stared at it.
Then Emma continued.
“She grabbed the art scissors.”
My hands began shaking.
“She told me if I couldn't be pretty anymore, nobody would want me to play Alice.”
The room exploded.
Not literally.
But emotionally.
The school counselor gasped.
The nurse swore under her breath.
Principal Hoffman slammed a hand against his desk.
And for the first time in my life, I understood what pure rage felt like.
Not anger.
Not frustration.
Rage.
The kind that burns so hot it becomes ice.
“Where is Jessica?” I asked.
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Hoffman cleared his throat.
“She left before we could stop her.”
Of course she did.
Because Jessica had spent her entire life running from consequences.
But this time was different.
May you like
Because this time she had hurt my child.
And there were witnesses.
