Chapter 7 - The Vendor Nobody Questioned
Vance Heritage’s outside counsel began reviewing Solenne Creative.
Adrian recused himself from final decisions where my marriage could create the appearance of bias.
I appreciated that.
Julian called it theater.
The independent directors called it governance.
Solenne had received $1.4 million in Vance Heritage contracts over two years.
That number sounded enormous until finance broke it down.
Serena’s firm handled event design, property openings, seasonal installations, influencer dinners, and several destination weddings.
Most of the work was real.
Employees liked her team.
Clients liked the results.
This was not a fake vendor created solely to siphon money.
Again, reality resisted making my enemy simple.
The problem was pricing.
Solenne’s margins had risen sharply after Julian joined the preferred-vendor committee.
Several change orders were approved without competitive review.
Not automatically improper.
But worth examining.
One Santa Monica property paid Solenne $82,000 for a launch originally budgeted at $51,000.
A Palm Springs activation increased from $110,000 to $176,000 after Julian approved “scope expansion.”
Serena’s company documented the additional work.
The question became whether Vance Heritage received fair value and whether Julian’s personal relationship compromised approval.
Then finance found personal reimbursements.
Two hotel stays.
One chauffeured car.
Several dinners.
Julian had coded them as vendor-development expenses.
Serena attended.
“Were other vendors present?” outside counsel asked him.
“Sometimes.”
Records suggested otherwise.
None of that proved the dress stunt.
It created motive for secrecy.
Lily had seen them together.
If she told me, the marriage could expose the affair.
The affair could expose the undisclosed vendor conflict.
The conflict could trigger review of Julian’s approvals.
Serena had much more to lose than a damaged gown.
My brothers reacted differently.
Adrian became colder.
Miles wanted Julian out immediately.
Graham kept arguing that the company needed the review completed before employment decisions.
Nolan said almost nothing.
Theo spent the weekend building Lego with Lily.
That helped me more than the corporate conversations.
Lily had started asking strange questions.
“If adults lie, do they always get arrested?”
“No.”
“Does Serena have to buy me a dress now?”
“No.”
“Does Uncle Julian hate me?”
That one stopped me.
“I don’t know what Julian feels.”
“He called me a brat.”
“He did.”
“You always said bad words don’t mean someone doesn’t love you.”
I sat beside her on Adrian’s sofa.
“Sometimes people love us and still behave in ways that make them unsafe to be around.”
She thought about that.
“Like Aunt Serena?”
“Maybe.”
“Like Uncle Julian?”
I hated the question.
“Right now, yes.”
Lily nodded.
Children sometimes absorb the answers adults spend years resisting.
The second evidence layer came from Solenne’s own accounting.
The emerald gown had been purchased through Serena’s company as a promotional wardrobe expense.
Half its cost had already been reimbursed through a designer collaboration.
Solenne’s insurer would likely cover much of the remaining loss if the claim was legitimate.
Serena’s $10,000 demand against Lily made almost no financial sense.
Unless money was never the point.
Then outside counsel found a message in Julian’s Vance-issued email from three weeks before the event.
Serena had written:
Claire’s kid is becoming a problem. She watches everything.
Julian replied:
She’s eight. Stop giving her importance.
Not proof of framing.
But no longer innocent context.
I read the email three times.
Then I called Priya.
“File.”
She did not ask what I meant.
“Divorce?”
May you like
“Yes.”
That was the decision I had spent a week trying not to make.
