Chapter 2: The Child with Familiar Eyes
Chapter 2: The Child with Familiar Eyes
Lily looked up shyly and hugged her worn stuffed bunny.
"My mommy says I have to stay here."
Sloane smiled for the guests.
"And good girls should always listen."
She reached out and gently untied the blue ribbon from Lily's braid.
The ballroom watched.
Some smiled politely.
Others looked uncomfortable.
No one spoke.
Sloane held the ribbon between two fingers as though it were something unclean.
"A maid's daughter shouldn't pretend to be a little princess."
She lifted the silver scissors from a nearby gift table.
Before Nora could cross the crowded ballroom—
Snip.
One long curl fell onto the marble floor.
Lily gasped.
Another snip.
Then another.
Tears rolled silently down the little girl's cheeks as her beautiful curls dropped around her tiny shoes.
The guests remained frozen.
Someone even laughed nervously.
Nora finally reached her daughter, falling to her knees.
"What have you done?"
Sloane shrugged.
"I improved her appearance."
At that exact moment, the ballroom doors opened.
Caleb Whitmore stepped inside.
He had expected congratulations.
Instead, he found silence.
Scissors.
A crying child.
And a lock of dark hair lying across the polished marble.
Then Lily lifted her face.
Those eyes.
Golden flecks dancing inside warm brown irises.
Exactly like Claire's.
His late sister.
His heartbeat quickened.
"What happened?"
No one answered.
Finally, Lily whispered through trembling lips,
"The pretty lady said girls like me don't deserve pretty hair."
Caleb slowly turned toward Sloane.
"You did this?"
Sloane forced a laugh.
"It was only a joke."
"No."
His voice became dangerously calm.
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"It was cruelty."
For the first time all evening, Sloane realized the room was no longer on her side.
