“I don’t know. She won’t answer.”
Mark’s voice went tight. “I’m leaving work now. Call me the second she shows up.”
An hour passed. Then another. I sat beside the front window with my phone in my hand, staring at the driveway so hard my eyes hurt.
Lily kept asking where Leo was. I kept telling her he’d be home soon.
But I didn’t believe it.
When Brenda finally pulled into the driveway at 2:30, I was outside before she even turned off the engine.
Leo climbed out of the back seat crying. He had something small and golden clenched in his fist.
One of his curls.
The rest was gone.
In its place was a rough, uneven buzz cut that looked like it had been done out of anger, not care.
I just stared at him, unable to process what I was seeing.
“Leo… sweetheart… what happened to your hair?” I asked, kneeling down.
He looked up at me with swollen red eyes. “Grandma cut it, Mommy.”
Brenda got out of the car as calm as could be, brushing off her hands like she’d just finished a chore.
“There,” she said. “Now he looks like a real boy.”
Something snapped inside me.
“You took my son out of school without my permission and cut his hair?”
“Oh, don’t be dramatic, Amy. It’s just hair. It’ll grow back.”
“You lied to his school. You told them there was a medical emergency.”
“Well, there was. He looked ridiculous. That needed to be fixed.”
I stepped closer. “You had no right—”
“I’m his grandmother. I have every right to make sure he’s being raised properly.”
“Get off my property.”
Brenda blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Get. Off. My. Property. Now.”
“Amy, you’re being completely unreasonable—”
“You kidnapped my son and assaulted him—”
“I did no such thing! I took him for a haircut!”
“Without permission! You took him from school under false pretenses and cut his hair against his will! That’s assault!”
Brenda’s face went red. “You are being absolutely hysterical. Mark will hear about this.”
“Good. He’s on his way home right now.”
I took Leo inside and locked the door behind us. Through the window, I watched Brenda stand in the driveway for a long moment before getting back in her car and driving away.
Inside, Leo was sobbing on the couch. Lily sat next to him, holding his hand, staring at his butchered hair with wide eyes.
“Mommy,” Lily whispered. “Why did Grandma cut Leo’s promise?”
I knelt in front of both of them and pulled them close.
“I don’t know, baby. But Daddy’s coming home and we’re going to fix this.”
Leo held up the single curl he’d saved. “I wanted to keep it for Lily.”
My heart broke.
Mark Comes Home
When Mark got home twenty minutes later and saw our son’s head, he stopped in the doorway.
All the color drained from his face.
He knelt in front of Leo and touched the jagged little patches as gently as if they could break.
“Leo,” he said quietly. “What happened?”
