A Daughter's Deadly Deception by Jeremy Grimaldi

Author:Jeremy Grimaldi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2016-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

22

A Child’s First Deception

When Jennifer first walked through the doors of Scarborough’s Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School, she had little idea what to expect. She had no friends there and little experience making new ones. For the conservative and routine-orientated Jennifer, the change was unwelcome at first. She might have adored the buzz and vibrancy of the place, but she felt lonely and timid, the two vulnerabilities the fourteen-year-old dreaded showing the most. However, Jennifer, like her father, never made a habit of shrinking from challenges. And, while she might have been nervous, she battled her inner fears, determined to find her way. Although she spent years in a tight-knit circle of like-minded friends, she also regularly engaged with adults, especially coaches and teachers, and developed a confidence in conversation and a keen sense of how to speak to people, at least those who didn’t intimidate her. Those who knew her during those nascent years described her as a run-of-the-mill grade nine student, one who didn’t stand out in a crowd. She was humble, quiet, and soft-spoken.

“At five foot seven inches, she was taller than most of the other Asian girls at the school, and pretty but plain,” friend Karen Ho later wrote. “She rarely wore makeup; she had small, round wire-frame glasses that were neither stylish nor expensive.” She was not overly fashion-conscious along with many others in the late 1990s. Jennifer wore her long jet-black hair in a variety of braids and ponytails. In social situations she maintained her composure with constant eye contact, an unassuming and overtly friendly person, and what Karen called her trademark “high-pitched laugh.” Ho further remarked on Jennifer’s intensity, which shaped so many of her relationships, pursuits, and interactions throughout her life. “In conversation,” Ho wrote, “she always seemed focused on the moment — if you had her attention, you had it completely.”

Another friend, who simply identifies himself as J.B., tells me that while many girls at the school manipulated their Catholic uniforms in provocative ways, rolling up the skirts at the waist and unbuttoning their dress shirts, Jennifer preferred bulky sweaters and black pants. The former piano player, who first met Jennifer at age twelve, describes the school as very multicultural with a large contingent of Asians, who made up roughly 60 percent of the school, meshing with Italians, Indians, and African Canadians, who made up the other 40 percent. “There was no segregation; none whatsoever,” J.B. says, explaining how that culture at the time stood in stark contrast with another nearby high school.

Like many grade nine students, Jennifer found it difficult to make close friends right away. But she was spared having to eat her lunch alone because of her constant companion — music. It was the band that provided her with the trusted inner social circle she had always longed for. And it was in this inclusive environment where she was immediately surrounded with students of similar upbringing, most of them from Asian backgrounds. She played the flute. The band

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