Chapter 11 - AVA STOPPED WEARING YELLOW
Ava’s cast was purple.
She chose the color herself.
She refused yellow.
No yellow shirts.
No yellow crayons.
No yellow cups.
And absolutely no yellow boots.
Laura did not force her.
The damaged boot remained in police evidence.
Sometimes Ava woke at night crying.
“My phone.”
Laura would remind her.
“The police have it.”
“Daddy can’t get it?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Then Ava asked something Laura could not answer as easily.
“Is Daddy bad?”
Laura sat beside her.
“Daddy did bad things.”
Ava frowned.
“Is that different?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Laura thought for a long time.
“People are bigger than one thing they do.”
“But doing something wrong still matters.”
“Even if they love you.”
Ava looked at her cast.
“Daddy loves me.”
“I believe he does.”
“Then why did he scare me?”
Laura’s eyes filled.
“Sometimes people want control more than they know how to love safely.”
Ava did not understand all of it.
She did not need to.
May you like
She only needed to know one thing.
None of it was her fault.
