Chapter 3 - Serena’s Scissors
The emerald gown belonged to Serena.
That part was straightforward.
It was a limited-run designer piece she had purchased for $9,850 before tax.
She had worn it for the first half of the Vance Foundation event because her company, Solenne Creative, designed the floral and visual installations.
Around five-thirty, she changed into the champagne dress.
At six-fifteen, she claimed Lily had destroyed the emerald gown.
The timing mattered.
So did the scissors.
Adrian did not confiscate them.
He had the estate security manager, Ben Kline, photograph the bag exactly as it appeared while Serena stood there with counsel on the phone.
The scissors were hers.
Serena admitted that.
“I work in events. Of course I carry sewing scissors.”
Fair.
The strip of emerald sequined material attached to them was harder to dismiss.
“I tried to trim the damaged section after Lily cut it.”
That was a possible explanation.
I hated that.
I wanted the clue to be definitive.
It wasn’t.
Neither was the damage.
The side panel had a clean cut through several inches of fabric.
A child could have done it.
An adult could have done it.
The gown did not contain a label reading SERENA LIED.
Reality was irritatingly uninterested in providing one.
Ben collected statements from staff still at the estate.
One bartender had seen Lily go upstairs.
A florist saw Serena follow about five minutes later.
Nobody saw the cutting.
One event assistant remembered Serena asking earlier where the emergency sewing kit was kept.
Again, normal at a formal event.
Nothing was clean.
Julian returned to our Santa Barbara house that night.
I did not.
Lily and I stayed at Adrian’s guesthouse.
My brothers rotated in and out until after midnight.
Not because I needed guards.
Because none of us wanted Lily to wake in a strange room without someone familiar nearby.
At two in the morning, she did.
I found her sitting upright in bed.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
“Is Uncle Julian mad?”
“Probably.”
“At me?”
“That isn’t your problem tonight.”
She looked down at her hands.
“I shouldn’t have gone in that room.”
My chest tightened.
“You were looking for my charger.”
“But she said I was spying.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“Then you didn’t do anything wrong by walking through an open door.”
Lily thought about that.
“I saw them kissing before.”
My body went completely still.
“Who?”
She looked confused by the question.
“Uncle Julian and Serena.”
The words came out like weather.
Ordinary.
Devastating.
“When?”
“At the Palm Springs hotel.”
That had been two months earlier.
Vance Heritage had opened a renovated property there.
Julian attended for three days.
Lily and I drove down for the final night.
“Where?”
“Behind the pool building.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her eyes widened.
“I did.”
I stared at her.
“When?”
“In the car.”
Then I remembered.
Lily had said:
“I saw Uncle Julian hugging Serena weird.”
I laughed.
I told her adults hugged friends.
Julian was sitting beside me.
He laughed too.
Later, he told me Lily had become unusually possessive since our marriage and sometimes exaggerated interactions between adults.
I accepted that explanation.
I wanted our family to work.
So badly that an eight-year-old handed me a warning and I turned it into jealousy.
“Mom?”
I realized I had stopped speaking.
“I’m okay.”
I wasn’t.
“Did you see them kiss any other time?”
I regretted the question immediately.
Lily shrank slightly.
“You don’t have to answer that.”
“At the estate.”
“Tonight?”
“Before the dress.”
My heart began pounding.
“Where?”
“The library.”
Lily had been passing the half-open library door while looking for me.
Julian and Serena were inside.
Kissing.
Arguing.
Lily ran upstairs.
Then she found Serena cutting the emerald gown.
The sequence suddenly looked very different.
I called Adrian at 2:23 a.m.
He answered on the second ring.
“What happened?”
“Lily says she saw Julian and Serena together before the dress incident.”
He did not swear.
He did not threaten murder.
He asked:
“Do you want me to come over?”
“Yes.”
May you like
Then I added the sentence that made my voice crack.
“I think my husband knew Serena was framing her.”
