Chapter 1
Victor Bellandi canceled the wedding before anyone walked down the aisle.
He did not order Serena Vale dragged from the estate.
He did not ask his security men to frighten her.
He called the police.
That shocked his family almost as much as the sight inside the bridal suite.
Four-year-old Lily Bellandi sat on a sofa wrapped in a blanket while Nora Ellis, the twenty-eight-year-old maid who had shielded her, stayed beside her.
One side of Lily’s hair had been shaved close above the ear.
There was no cut to her scalp.
No bleeding.
No serious physical injury.
But every time she heard an electric hum from elsewhere in the enormous house, she covered her head with both hands.
Victor noticed.
He hated himself for noticing only after it had happened.
A pediatrician examined Lily privately.
Then a child-safety officer interviewed Nora.
Serena sat in another room with her lawyer.
Her wedding gown was still on.
One wide strip had been shaved through the front of her carefully styled blonde hair.
Victor did not pretend that part had been necessary.
He had already disarmed her.
Lily had already been behind him.
Then Victor grabbed Serena, forced her onto the vanity stool, and retaliated.
His attorney, Rebecca Sloan, told him exactly what that meant.
“You protected Lily when you took the clippers.”
“Yes.”
“You retaliated when you used them on Serena.”
“Yes.”
“Do not confuse the two when police ask.”
“I won’t.”
That distinction mattered to Victor.
Lily had just watched one adult attack her with clippers and another answer by doing the same thing back.
If he turned his anger into righteousness simply because he was her father, he would teach the wrong lesson.
The police preserved the bridal-suite footage.
Victor gave them everything.
No missing minutes.
No private family version.
No threatening witnesses.
Then Nora asked to speak with him.
“Sir, there’s something else.”
Victor looked at her.
“About Lily?”
“Maybe.”
That answer changed the room.
Nora reached into the pocket of her apron and removed a folded receipt.
“I found this yesterday.”
It was an invoice from an upscale Manhattan wedding photographer.
Victor recognized the company.
He had personally approved its $85,000 contract.
But this invoice was different.
An additional $42,000 charge.
Description:
Private family-image correction package.
Victor frowned.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who approved it?”
Nora pointed.
Serena Vale.
Victor looked toward the hallway.
“Why did you have this?”
“It was in the bridal-suite trash.”
“Why keep it?”
“Because there’s another invoice for the same service in the wedding office.”
Victor stared at her.
“Another forty-two thousand?”
“No.”
Nora swallowed.
“One hundred eighteen.”
Victor went still.
The same photographer.
The same wedding.
Two versions of an unusual service.
May you like
And Serena had just attacked Lily while saying the child would ruin the wedding pictures.
For the first time, Victor wondered whether the photographs were more than a cruel excuse.
