Chapter 2: This Wasn't the First Time
Meliora pressed her hand to her cheek and stared at me like I was the one who had done something wrong.
"You hit me over a haircut?"
"Over our four-year-old daughter," I said.
"Look at her."
Kerensa was still shaking behind my legs, one hand touching the bare side of her head.
She wasn't crying anymore.
She had gone quiet in that way that's worse than crying.
Meliora picked up her bag from the counter.
"I was fixing it.
She wouldn't sit still and it came out uneven.
I was trying to make it match."
"By shaving it all off?"
"It's hair.
It grows back.
You're acting like I hurt her."
I looked at Kerensa.
Then back at Meliora.
"When did this start?"
"What?"
"This.
Her being afraid of you."
Meliora went still.
Something shifted behind her eyes — not guilt, something colder than that.
"She's not afraid of me."
Kerensa's small hand tightened around my leg.
She didn't say a word.
She didn't have to.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from my neighbor, Linda.
Three words:
*This wasn't the first time.*
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What Linda had seen through that window changed everything.
Click the link below to read the full story — and find out what had really been happening to Kerensa.
