Chapter 3
Ava began seeing a child therapist three days later.
Dr. Melissa Grant explained something Donato did not like.
“You cannot investigate her.”
“I’m her father.”
“That is why you cannot investigate her.”
He frowned.
Melissa continued.
“She will try to give you answers that make you feel better. Children do that with parents they depend on.”
“What do I ask?”
“About how she feels. Not what Selena did.”
Donato followed the instruction.
Badly at first.
Then better.
Melissa used toys.
Drawings.
Pretend meals.
A small dollhouse.
During one session, Ava placed the mother doll outside the house.
Then put a second woman inside.
Melissa asked:
“Who’s that?”
“Selena.”
“And this one?”
“Mommy.”
“Why is Mommy outside?”
Ava shrugged.
“Selena says Mommy stuff goes away.”
Donato was watching through a one-way panel.
He stopped breathing.
Melissa did not react.
“What Mommy stuff?”
Ava picked up a tiny toy picture frame.
“Pictures.”
Then a toy blanket.
“Blue blanket.”
Then she touched her own wrist where the restored bracelet would eventually go.
“Jewels.”
The statement was not treated as proof by itself.
Melissa made that clear later.
“Children blend memory, interpretation, and adult language.”
Donato understood.
Still, he returned to the estate and walked into Ava’s nursery.
Several framed photographs were missing.
He knew the room well enough to notice immediately.
One had shown Isabella holding newborn Ava.
Another was a family photograph from Ava’s first Christmas.
A third was only Isabella.
“Where are they?”
The housekeeper, Nora Wells, looked uncomfortable.
“Storage.”
“Why?”
“Mrs. Cross asked us to simplify the room.”
“When?”
“About a month ago.”
“Did I approve that?”
“No.”
“Did Ava?”
Nora looked surprised by the question.
“No.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Mrs. Cross said the room was being transitioned before the wedding.”
Again.
That word.
Transition.
Donato walked to a low cabinet.
The blue blanket Isabella had used when Ava was an infant was gone too.
Nora told him it had been boxed with other “early childhood items.”
But Ava still slept with it sometimes.
“It wasn’t too small,” Donato said.
“No.”
“Then why remove it?”
Nora lowered her voice.
“Mrs. Cross said Ava needed to stop living in a memorial.”
Donato looked toward the empty space where Isabella’s photograph had been.
May you like
The birthday gift was suddenly no longer an isolated object.
Selena had been removing reminders of Ava’s mother before she tried to destroy the one Donato had just given back to her.
