Chapter 24 - THE SCAR
Leo’s cheek scar became almost invisible.
At thirty, he still touched the spot when anxious.
One morning his own daughter, Emma Hall, asked:
“Why do you do that?”
He paused.
“Something hurt there when I was little.”
“Like a boo-boo?”
“Yes.”
“Did Grandma Rebecca kiss it?”
“Probably.”
He did not tell a four-year-old about larvae.
Not yet.
Age-appropriate truth was still truth.
Leo married a teacher named Claire Benson.
Before they had children, he worried constantly about becoming controlling.
Claire told him:
“You check the windows three times.”
“That’s safety.”
“You also check whether I checked.”
“That might be anxiety.”
Therapy helped.
When Emma developed a rash, Leo photographed it from four angles and then panicked that he was behaving like Greg.
The pediatrician said:
“Taking a photo for comparison is ordinary. Inventing symptoms for profit is not.”
Leo laughed.
The difference sounded obvious outside trauma.
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Inside it, ordinary parenting could feel morally dangerous.
He learned.
