"I was ready to punish my little girl for shaving her sister’s head on prom morning, but then she pressed play on a pink recorder and exposed the boy we had trusted with our house key."
Chapter 1: Prom Morning
Kayla’s scream tore me out of sleep at 6:13 a.m.
I ran down the hallway so fast my shoulder hit the doorframe.
My oldest daughter stood in the bathroom under the bright vanity lights, both hands pressed to her head. Her prom dress hung in the bedroom behind her, still inside its plastic cover.
But her blonde hair was gone.
It lay across the floor in soft ruined clumps. On the rug. In the sink. Across the pale tile like someone had tried to erase her overnight.
Kayla looked at me through the mirror, shaking.
“Mom,” she whispered. “My hair.”
My husband, Daniel, found Reese in her bedroom.
Our eight-year-old sat on the edge of her bed in unicorn pajamas. The electric razor was on the nightstand beside her. A pink tape recorder rested in her lap.
Her face was pale.
But she did not look sorry.
“Reese,” I said, trying not to scream. “What did you do?”
May you like
She looked up at me with huge, wet eyes.
“I saved her the only way I could.”
