The gown was shredded. The satin skirt was slashed in jagged lines from waist to hem. The lace sleeves hung in tatters. Pearls I had sewn on individually were scattered across the carpet like drops of milk.It looked as though someone had attacked it with a blade, deliberate and merciless. Lily was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. “Grandma, who would do this? Why?”
I sank to my knees beside her, my heart in pieces. For a moment, all I could do was stroke her hair and whisper soothing words, though I felt anything but calm.
Rage, sorrow, disbelief, they all churned inside me at once. Who could be so cruel as to destroy a bride’s gown just hours before her wedding?
The family erupted into chaos. Lily’s mother, Anne, accused the caterers of mishandling things. Her father suspected a jealous cousin. The bridesmaids whispered theories. But I knew, as I looked at the clean, sharp slashes in that fabric, that this wasn’t an accident. Someone wanted to stop this wedding.
The first suspicion fell on Hannah, the groom’s ex-girlfriend. She had shown up at the rehearsal dinner uninvited the night before, her eyes red from crying, her words slurred with drink.
