Chapter 1 - The $10,000 Dress
My husband was shouting at my eight-year-old daughter when I found them.
I had been gone from the courtyard for less than six minutes.
Long enough to walk upstairs at my family’s Montecito estate, find Lily’s cardigan, and return to the annual Vance Foundation summer dinner.
When I came through the arched entrance, Lily was standing near the stone staircase with tears running down her face.
Julian was three feet from her.
Serena Blake stood beside him in a champagne-colored cocktail dress.
Behind Serena, hanging over the back of a chair, was the emerald couture gown she had worn earlier that afternoon.
A section along the lower side had been cut open.
“Ten thousand dollars,” Julian said.
I stopped.
“What?”
He pointed at Lily.
“Your daughter destroyed Serena’s dress.”
Lily shook her head violently.
“I didn’t.”
Serena folded her arms.
“I found her upstairs right beside it.”
“Mom, she—”
Julian cut Lily off.
“She lies every time she gets caught.”
That sentence registered before anything else.
Every time.
My husband had been Lily’s stepfather for three years.
She had never been caught destroying anyone’s property.
She had never cut up a dress.
She once lied about brushing her teeth.
That was the criminal history Julian apparently had in mind.
“Let her talk,” I said.
“Claire, this isn’t complicated.”
“Then it can survive thirty seconds of explanation.”
Serena gave a soft laugh.
“She was jealous.”
“Of what?”
“Me.”
I looked at her.
Serena was thirty-two.
Lily was eight.
“She’s a child.”
“Children notice more than you think.”
Something in the way Serena said it made me look at her differently.
Lily tried again.
“Mom, I saw—”
Julian stepped toward her.
“Enough.”
Lily recoiled.
I moved between them.
“Do not step toward her like that.”
Julian’s face hardened.
“Pay for the dress or take that brat and get out.”
I stared at the man I had married.
The word brat did more than the ten-thousand-dollar demand.
Lily’s biological father had died when she was two.
Julian had known that when we met.
He had known how cautious I was about bringing a man into her life.
He spent two years winning her over slowly.
Pancakes shaped like animals.
Soccer practice.
Science-fair glue disasters.
He once sat on our bathroom floor at two in the morning because Lily had the flu and refused to let me stay awake alone.
Now he was looking at her as though she were an obstacle.
“Pick up your things,” I told Lily.
Julian laughed.
“You’re really leaving over this?”
“I’m leaving because you just threatened my child.”
“I demanded accountability.”
“From an eight-year-old you haven’t even listened to.”
Serena stepped closer.
“Claire, don’t be dramatic. She ruined something that costs more than most people’s cars.”
Lily buried her face against my side.
“Mom, she tore it.”
I felt her shaking.
“Who?”
Lily pointed.
“Serena.”
Serena laughed again.
“That’s pathetic.”
My eyes dropped to the small evening bag hanging from her wrist.
It had opened slightly.
Silver sewing scissors protruded from the top.
A tiny strip of emerald sequined fabric was caught at the hinge.
Lily saw me notice.
Serena did too.
She immediately grabbed for the bag.
“Serena.”
A male voice came from behind me.
My oldest brother, Adrian, had stepped into the courtyard.
He had been speaking with donors near the driveway.
Now he was looking directly at her hand.
“Take your hand away from that bag.”
Julian moved toward me.
Two estate security officers stepped between us.
“This is my wife,” Julian snapped.
“And this is our family property,” Adrian said calmly. “You’re not pushing past security.”
Julian tried anyway.
One guard caught his arm and stopped him.
I lifted Lily.
She wrapped both arms around my neck.
“Claire!” Julian shouted.
I kept walking.
“Pay ten thousand dollars—or take that brat and get out!”
His words followed us down the stone steps.
Lily pressed her face against my shoulder.
I pulled out my phone.
Our sibling group chat was still pinned beneath my mother’s old photograph.
Five brothers.
Five names.
I typed one sentence.
I need all of you at the estate. Now.
Adrian’s reply came first.
Already here.
Miles:
Twenty minutes.
Graham:
On my way.
Nolan:
What happened?
Theo:
Is Lily safe?
I answered only Theo.
She is now.
Then I looked back toward the courtyard.
Serena was no longer smiling.
May you like
Julian was still arguing with security.
And Adrian was staring at the emerald thread caught inside Serena’s scissors as if the damaged dress had just become the least important thing at the party.
