Chapter 21
Lily asked to meet Serena when she was thirteen.
Victor said no.
Immediately.
Lily stared.
He closed his eyes.
“I need to think.”
“Better.”
Not much.
Dr. Grant asked Lily why.
“I want to see if she says same things.”
“As the letters?”
“Yes.”
“Why does that matter?”
Lily thought.
“Paper easy.”
Victor disliked that answer.
Because it was true.
Serena had followed every restriction.
No direct contact.
No family pressure.
No gifts.
No attempts to use Nora.
No social-media statements about Lily.
She lived in another state.
Worked.
Continued therapy.
None of that created entitlement.
It did remove some immediate concerns.
The meeting happened three months later.
Neutral office.
Forty minutes.
Victor in the next room.
Rebecca present in the building.
Serena entered with short hair.
Not the style Victor remembered.
Different.
Thirteen years older.
No Bellandi jewelry.
No wedding-world performance.
Lily noticed her hair first.
“You kept it short.”
Serena looked surprised.
“Yes.”
“Because Dad?”
“No.”
“Sure?”
Serena thought.
“At first, maybe partly.”
Good.
Not polished.
Then:
“Now because I like it.”
Lily nodded.
Same idea.
Hair could change meaning.
She asked:
“Did you think I was ugly?”
Serena looked at her.
“No.”
“You said I ruin pictures.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I had decided what the wedding was supposed to look like.”
“That doesn’t answer ugly.”
“No.”
Serena corrected herself.
“I thought your hair did not fit the image I wanted.”
Lily frowned.
“That sounds same.”
“It probably felt the same to you.”
“Yes.”
Serena nodded.
No defense.
Lily asked:
“Did you really love Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Then why use me?”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“Because I believed his love for you was the fastest way to make him lose control.”
Victor heard through the adjoining audio connection.
The answer still hurt.
Good answers sometimes did.
Lily continued.
“Did you want him to hurt you?”
“I wanted him to do something frightening on camera.”
“Same?”
“Not exactly.”
“But maybe.”
“Yes.”
Lily looked down.
“So you used yourself too.”
Serena became quiet.
“Yes.”
That mattered.
Her plan had not only treated Lily’s fear as leverage.
It had treated Serena’s own safety as something to gamble for financial power.
Fear.
Image.
Money.
All converted into assets.
Lily asked:
“Do you want to see me again?”
Serena took time.
“Yes.”
“Can’t ask.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
The meeting ended after thirty-six minutes.
No hug.
No touch.
Outside, Victor stood.
“How are you?”
Lily shrugged.
“Hungry.”
He almost laughed.
Then:
“Anything else?”
“She told truth.”
“You think?”
“Yes.”
“Do you forgive her?”
Lily looked at him.
Victor immediately regretted the question.
“That was not my decision.”
“No.”
Lily smiled slightly.
May you like
“You talk a lot.”
Apparently some things survived every chapter.
