Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5 — The Public Execution
The Hayes Country Club was a monument to old money and carefully curated public images.
The grand ballroom was bathed in sunlight, filled with round tables draped in crisp white linen.
Waiters walked through the crowd carrying silver trays of mimosas and caviar blinis.
The post-wedding brunch was supposed to be our grand debut as Mr. and Mrs. Hayes.
I arrived an hour late.
When I walked through the double doors, the room fell into a hushed, reverent silence.
I wasn't wearing white.
I was wearing a striking, tailored crimson dress that commanded the attention of every eye in the room.
My father walked beside me, his presence heavy and intimidating.
Across the room, standing near the ice sculpture, was Carter.
He looked terrible.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his smile was incredibly strained as he spoke to one of his uncles.
When he saw me, a look of desperate, pathetic relief washed over his face.
He thought I had come to forgive him.
He thought the Vance family's desire to avoid a public scandal had outweighed my personal pride.
He began walking toward me, parting the crowd with eager apologies forming on his lips.
Eleanor Hayes, his mother, intercepted him, flanking his side with a tight, victorious smile.
“Serena, darling,” Eleanor said loudly, ensuring the nearby guests could hear.
“We were so worried! Carter said you had a little wedding-night panic attack. It’s perfectly normal, dear.”
She reached out to hug me.
I stepped back, leaving her arms suspended in the air.
The nearby guests noticed. The murmuring stopped completely.
“I didn't have a panic attack, Eleanor,” I said, my voice projecting clearly across the silent room.
Carter’s smile faltered. “Serena, let's go talk in private—”
“I prefer to speak here,” I interrupted, stepping up to the small stage where the string quartet had been playing.
I grabbed the microphone.
A sharp squeal of feedback echoed through the ballroom, making several people wince.
Three hundred pairs of eyes were locked onto me.
“Good afternoon, everyone,” I said smoothly.
“I want to thank you all for attending the wedding yesterday. It was a beautiful event.”
I made eye contact with Carter. His face was draining of blood.
“However, I will be annulling the marriage today.”
A collective gasp echoed through the ballroom.
Eleanor dropped her champagne glass. It shattered on the marble floor.
“Serena, stop this right now!” Carter hissed, stepping toward the stage.
My father’s security team materialized from the crowd, forming a physical wall between Carter and the stage.
“Carter and I seem to have a fundamental disagreement on the definition of marriage,” I continued into the microphone.
“I believed it was a partnership of loyalty. Carter believed it was a funding opportunity for his extracurricular activities.”
I pulled a small remote from my clutch.
I had paid the AV team at the country club double their weekly salary to patch my iPad into the main projector screens meant for our childhood photo montage.
I pressed a button.
The two massive screens behind me flickered to life.
The audio blasted through the high-end club speakers.
“I’m in,” Lily’s voice echoed across the room.
The crowd watched in horrified silence as the video showed Lily dragging her suitcase into my foyer.
“It’s beautiful, Carter. You really hit the jackpot with this one.”
Carter let out a strangled, animalistic sound of pure panic.
“Turn it off!” he screamed. “Turn it off!”
But the video kept playing.
The entire ballroom listened as Carter's mistress outlined their plan to use my home, my money, and my trust.
I watched the faces of Carter's family.
His uncles looked disgusted. His business partners looked horrified.
Eleanor was covering her mouth, realizing her son had just detonated a nuclear bomb on their family’s reputation.
The video cut to the footage of Carter in the bedroom, handing Lily the water bottle, treating my marital bed like a cheap hotel.
I pressed the button again, cutting the feed and leaving the screens black.
The silence in the room was absolute. It was deafening.
I looked down at Carter.
He was trembling, his hands covering his face, a ruined, pathetic shell of a man.
“David,” I said into the microphone.
My lead attorney, David Sterling, stepped out from the crowd.
He walked up to Carter and slapped a thick manila envelope against his chest.
Carter instinctively caught it.
“You’ve been served, Mr. Hayes,” Sterling said loudly.
I placed the microphone back on the stand.
I walked down the steps of the stage, the crowd parting for me like the Red Sea.
No one whispered. No one judged me.
They were too busy staring at the corpse of Carter Hayes’s social and financial future.
My father met me at the doors, offering me his arm.
“Perfectly executed, Serena,” he murmured proudly.
“Thank you,” I replied, taking his arm.
I didn't look back as we walked out into the bright autumn sunlight.
The heavy mahogany doors of the country club closed behind me, sealing Carter inside the tomb he had dug for himself.
I took a deep breath of the crisp air.
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My house was empty. My bank accounts were secure.
And for the first time in a long time, my life was entirely, beautifully mine.
