Chapter 2
The wedding guests were sent home.
Food was donated where possible.
Vendors were paid for legitimate work already completed.
Nobody was told to blame Lily.
Victor made that rule explicit.
His older aunt complained that canceling a Bellandi wedding thirty minutes before the ceremony would become gossip for years.
Victor answered:
“Then people can gossip about the adults.”
Lily would not carry it.
Serena left the estate under attorney supervision after police completed their initial work.
Nora stayed.
That evening, Victor found Lily sitting on his bed with a towel wrapped around her hair.
“You don’t have to hide it.”
Lily kept the towel on.
“It’s ugly.”
Victor sat beside her.
“Who told you that?”
“Serena.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“Before she used the clippers?”
Lily nodded.
“She said flower girls have to match.”
“Match what?”
“Pictures.”
Victor felt anger rise again.
He controlled it.
“What did Nora say?”
“Nora said my hair was fine.”
“And then?”
“Serena told her to get out.”
Nora had refused after Lily started crying.
That explained why she was still inside when Victor arrived.
The next morning, Rebecca began reviewing wedding finances.
Serena had been given broad planning authority.
That itself was not suspicious.
The wedding involved more than two hundred guests, security, transportation, a luxury venue setup, florists, musicians, photographers, designers, and accommodation for relatives.
Victor had hated organizing it.
Serena loved it.
So he delegated.
Too much.
The family office had approved almost $1.4 million in wedding-related spending over eight months.
Victor had authorized the total budget.
He had not reviewed every vendor.
Rebecca found a company called Vale Image & Lifestyle LLC.
Sole owner:
Serena Vale.
Victor stared at the name.
“I knew she had a consulting company.”
“What does it do?”
“She styled charity events before we met.”
“How much has your family office paid it?”
Rebecca turned the page.
“Approximately $386,000.”
Victor looked up.
“For what?”
“Image consulting, vendor coordination, bridal publicity, guest-brand management, and private family presentation.”
He almost laughed.
“Guest-brand management?”
“Apparently your relatives require branding.”
“Several require muzzles.”
Rebecca ignored that.
Some payments were legitimate.
Serena really had coordinated vendors.
She had negotiated discounts.
She had redesigned event materials.
But large amounts were unsupported.
One invoice charged $58,000 for “minor family presentation consulting.”
Minor.
As in child.
Victor looked toward Lily’s bedroom.
“Did I approve that?”
“Not specifically.”
“Who did?”
“Shared family-office administration.”
Another vague authority channel.
Rebecca continued.
“The photography invoices Nora found both route through Serena’s company.”
Victor frowned.
“So she was marking up the photographer.”
“Possibly.”
“By seventy-six thousand dollars?”
“Possibly more.”
The first financial problem now had shape.
May you like
Serena had been using wedding-image expenses to move money through her own company.
But that still did not explain why she would shave a four-year-old’s hair minutes before marrying the man paying the bills.
