“Something drastic?” Rachel guessed, glancing over as Joshie brought a cappuccino out for the model and took her back into the salon. She turned to check the appointment book and saw the girl’s name-Emma Malden-and then saw the note written beside it, just as the girl’s father offered the information.

“She wants to get her hair cut for Locks of Love,” he told her, looking a little sheepish at his next admission. “Her mother doesn’t want her to, so I brought her.” The two facts hit her simultaneously. This was Nina Malden’s daughter-the name and dark tresses were far too much to be coincidence-and she wanted to get her hair cut off for charity. As a hairdresser, Rachel was familiar with Locks of Love and had collected a great deal of hair for the organization over the years so they could make it into wigs for disadvantaged kids whose medical diagnosis left them humiliatingly without any, either temporarily or permanently. She’d done it with a vague sort of sensitivity in the past, but never with any real empathy. Not until now.

“How much do you want taken off?” Rachel inquired, glancing toward the back and catching a glimpse of Nina Malden in the mirrors. She was swinging one very expensive Jimmy Choo pump at the end of her silk stocking foot, a black stylist cape draped around her neck, obscuring her Vera Wang suit. She was thankfully still perusing a magazine, still distracted. Good.

“All of it.” The girl finally spoke up and Rachel heard the steel in her voice. Must get that from her mother, she surmised, seeing the dark flash of Emma Malden’s eyes, the hard set of her jaw.

“Well, I don’t think we have to shave you bald.” Rachel smiled and went over to where they were sitting, touching the girl’s hair. It was beautiful, healthy, and she’d been growing it out a long time. “You have a good eighteen inches here at least, even if we just give you a cute little pageboy cut.” Rachel used her hands to indicate the line at the girl’s jaw.