Chapter 3 - The Dresses They Thought Were Hers
Emily slept badly.
At 6:42 the next morning, she woke to voices in the hallway.
Marlene.
Victoria.
They were arguing quietly.
Emily remained still.
“She has the folder,” Marlene whispered.
“I know.”
“Then get it.”
“I will.”
“What if she read it properly?”
Victoria gave a sharp laugh.
“Emily never reads anything properly.”
Emily stared at the ceiling.
Something old and painful moved through her.
For years, her mother had said versions of that sentence.
Emily never understood business.
Emily was too emotional.
Emily was impractical.
Emily could not handle money.
Emily should leave serious decisions to Lucas.
She climbed silently out of bed.
The folder was beneath her mattress.
Her suitcase stood by the wardrobe.
Inside were six dresses.
Three were inexpensive.
Two were designer pieces Emily had bought secondhand.
The sixth was special.
A pale silver gown Alexander had given her for the rehearsal reception.
Victoria had never seen it.
Emily took out the legal folder and slipped it beneath the lining of her handbag.
Then she left the room to shower.
Twenty minutes later, she returned.
Her bedroom door was open.
Emily stopped.
The suitcase lay on the floor.
Empty.
For one suspended second, she did not understand.
Then she saw the scissors.
Victoria stood in the center of the room holding Emily’s silver gown.
Half the skirt had been cut away.
Marlene held another dress.
Lucas stood by the doorway.
“Mom,” he said. “Enough.”
Victoria ignored him.
Emily could not move.
“What are you doing?”
Victoria looked at her as though Emily were the one behaving strangely.
“Preventing embarrassment.”
“You cut my clothes.”
“You were planning to wear this?”
She held up the silver dress.
“To Lucas’s rehearsal photographs?”
“It’s a dress.”
“It screams for attention.”
Emily stared at her mother.
“You went through my suitcase.”
Marlene smirked.
“Don’t be dramatic.”
Victoria tossed the gown onto the floor.
“I asked you for one thing. Be invisible.”
She picked up another dress.
Emily stepped forward.
“Put that down.”
Victoria cut straight through the bodice.
Lucas swore.
Emily flinched.
Something inside her broke.
Not because of the dress.
Because of how easily Victoria did it.
How natural cruelty seemed in her hands.
She cut.
Dropped.
Cut.
Dropped.
Marlene laughed.
By the time they moved downstairs, the confrontation had become theater.
Victoria dumped what remained of the suitcase across the foyer.
Marlene crushed the ivory dress beneath her heel.
The insults came.
Loser.
Pathetic.
Desperate.
Embarrassment.
Emily knelt.
She gathered the pieces.
And the doorbell rang.
When Alexander stepped inside and asked who had done that to his wife, Emily finally saw something she had never witnessed before.
Fear on Victoria Carter’s face.
Then Alexander handed Emily the envelope.
Seven million eight hundred thousand dollars.
Her trust.
Her money.
Her mother’s signature.
“What is this?” Emily whispered.
Alexander turned to the silver-haired man standing behind him.
“Mr. Grant.”
Attorney Nathaniel Grant entered carrying a leather case.
He had represented Hale Meridian for nearly two decades.
He placed another folder on the foyer table.
“Emily,” he said, “your father created an irrevocable trust in your name shortly before your eighteenth birthday.”
Emily felt dizzy.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I know?”
Grant looked toward Victoria.
“Because notice was redirected.”
Lucas moved forward.
“What does that mean?”
“It means correspondence from the trustee was rerouted to an address controlled by Mrs. Carter.”
Victoria recovered enough to speak.
“That is absurd.”
Grant opened the file.
“Over eight years, funds were repeatedly withdrawn through documents bearing Emily’s authorization.”
Emily looked at Victoria.
“I never authorized anything.”
“We know,” Alexander said.
“How?”
He handed her a forensic report.
“The signatures aren’t yours.”
Victoria laughed.
Sharp.
False.
“This is insane.”
Alexander looked at Marlene.
“Would you like to hear the part involving you?”
Marlene stopped smiling.
Alexander removed another page.
“Three hundred and twenty thousand dollars transferred from Emily’s trust to Brooks Events Group.”
Marlene’s wineglass froze halfway to her mouth.
Emily turned toward her aunt.
“You took money too?”
Marlene stammered.
“That was a family loan.”
“No,” Grant said. “It was categorized as an educational expense for Emily.”
Silence.
Emily stared at the shredded dresses around her feet.
Suddenly they seemed unimportant.
“What happened to the rest?”
Alexander answered.
“Your mother used your money to keep Carter Family Holdings alive.”
Lucas went pale.
“What?”
“And,” Alexander continued, “to finance this wedding.”
Sophia appeared at the top of the staircase.
Everyone turned.
She had heard enough.
“How much of my wedding,” she asked quietly, “was paid for with stolen money?”
No one answered.
Sophia looked at Lucas.
“Lucas?”
His face collapsed.
“I didn’t know.”
Victoria snapped.
“This family needed liquidity.”
Emily looked at her.
“So you stole from me.”
“I protected this family.”
“You forged my name.”
“I protected your inheritance from your own incompetence.”
Something changed in Alexander’s face.
Emily touched his arm.
Not yet.
She wanted Victoria to keep talking.
Victoria did.
“You would have wasted it.”
Emily almost smiled.
There it was.
The truth beneath every insult.
Not that Emily was worthless.
That Victoria needed her to believe she was.
Because a daughter who knew her value might ask where her money had gone.
Then Nathaniel Grant said the sentence that changed the morning again.
“There’s another problem.”
Victoria turned.
Grant lifted the wedding venue contract.
“Hawthorne Estate has not received its final payment.”
Lucas frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
Grant looked at Alexander.
Alexander looked at Emily.
Emily understood.
“Hale Meridian owns Hawthorne.”
Victoria’s face hardened.
Alexander nodded.
“Since last month.”
Lucas whispered:
“Are you canceling my wedding?”
May you like
Alexander replied:
“That depends entirely on what happens in the next twenty-four hours.”
