Chapter 10 - The Pendant Explained Why Bianca Had Become Cruel Toward Lila
There had been smaller incidents before the wedding.
I had missed their meaning.
Bianca criticized Lila’s strawberry-blonde curls because they looked “messy.”
Natalie had the same hair.
She disliked a blue sweater Lila wore constantly.
It had belonged to Natalie’s family.
She once moved Natalie’s framed photograph from the living room into a hallway.
When I objected, Bianca said:
“I just think our home should make room for the future.”
At the time, it sounded like insecurity.
Now it looked like erasure.
Lila resembled Natalie more every month.
Same coloring.
Same expressions.
Same habit of narrowing her eyes when studying something.
Bianca had spent years constructing a life in which Natalie belonged to the past.
Then she moved into a house where Natalie remained visible through her daughter.
The pendant brought the two worlds together.
Bianca’s old betrayal.
Natalie’s memory.
The evidence box.
The daughter who physically resembled the woman Bianca could never fully escape.
None of that excused the assault.
It explained the emotional pressure Bianca had chosen not to confront honestly.
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Instead, she turned resentment toward the smallest person in the room.
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