Chapter 4
Nora told Victor why she had kept the duplicate photography invoice.
It was not the first strange bill she had found.
For four months, wedding supplies arrived at the estate under one vendor name and appeared in family-office records under another.
A flower installation cost $19,000 from the florist.
Serena’s company billed $31,000.
A bridal-suite furniture rental cost $7,800.
Serena billed $18,500.
Custom guest gifts cost $24,000.
Family-office charge:
$51,000.
Markups were not automatically fraudulent.
Event coordinators charged fees.
Serena could legitimately earn money.
The problem was disclosure.
Her wedding-planning agreement capped coordination fees at twelve percent.
Several markups exceeded one hundred percent.
And some duplicate invoices described services no one could verify.
Nora noticed because she signed for deliveries.
She saw actual packing slips.
Then she saw Serena throwing away vendor receipts before replacing them with cleaner versions for the wedding office.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Victor asked.
Nora lowered her eyes.
“I tried to tell Mr. Caldwell.”
Victor’s estate manager.
“What happened?”
“He said Serena was managing wedding finances.”
“That wasn’t his call.”
“No.”
“Did you try again?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Victor looked at her.
“What did you say?”
“That I wanted five minutes with you before the ceremony.”
“Who heard?”
“Serena.”
Victor went quiet.
Nora continued.
“She asked what I needed to discuss.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing.”
“Did she threaten you?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“She smiled.”
Victor waited.
“And said?”
“‘After today, staff problems go through me.’”
Rebecca looked up.
“After marriage.”
“Yes.”
Serena had assumed becoming Victor’s wife would automatically make her Nora’s boss.
It would not.
Victor’s household staff were employed through a management company with written reporting lines.
But he had never explained that clearly because he assumed everyone understood.
Another form of informal power.
Another mistake.
Nora continued.
“Then she told me to stay away from Lily during pictures because I make her clingy.”
Victor frowned.
“Was Lily clingy?”
“She’s four.”
Fair.
Nora had been Lily’s familiar adult after Victor’s wife, Anna, died two years earlier.
She was not a replacement mother.
But Lily trusted her.
Serena resented that sometimes.
Victor had dismissed it as normal adjustment.
Then Rebecca asked:
“Did Serena know you had copies of the receipts?”
Nora hesitated.
“She saw one in my hand.”
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
So on the day before the wedding Serena knew a household employee had begun preserving evidence of questionable vendor billing.
And Serena knew that employee wanted to speak with Victor before the ceremony.
The financial motive was becoming stronger.
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Still, cutting Lily’s hair remained irrational if Serena’s main goal was getting through the wedding without scrutiny.
Unless getting through the wedding was no longer her goal.
