Fashion-obsessed Samara finally has the life she’s always dreamed of: A high-powered job with legendary designer Antonio Mota. A new home in sunny California, far away from those drab Jersey winters. And an intriguing love interest, Brandon, a wealthy investor in Mota’s fashion line. But it’s not long before Samara’s dream life begins to turn into a living nightmare as Mota’s big fashion show approaches and the pressure on her turns crushing. Perhaps that’s why she begins hearing voices in her room at night—and seeing strange things that can’t be explained away by stress or anxiety or the number of drinks she’s been consuming...
Samara loves to work in the archives. The room has become her second office, a place she can take a temporary breather from work drama. No Antonio screaming her name with urgency, every small thing a catastrophe to be fixed by her.
Alone, she can write and be inspired by the clothes themselves.
And play.
She pulls out a beaded sleeveless garment with a fringed skirt. The gown is meant to depict the horrors of war, to make the wearer appear to be bleeding. She undresses, locates the zipper, and climbs in. As Samara adjusts the skirt, something pokes her. A needle perhaps, or a clothing tag documenting its placement in Antonio’s timeline. She tugs at the fabric and tries to find the culprit.
“Ouch.”
Samara quickly takes the dress off to find a long scratch on her right hip. A bubble of blood emerges. Samara presses down on the injury with her thumb. In her underwear, she flips the garment inside out, looking for any loose pins. Goose bumps cover her bare legs. Samara walks under the ceiling’s light fixture to take a closer look.
There it is. A lone pin sticks out, but there’s something else. Inside the gown Samara finds a black thread sewn along a seam. A word is stitched with a letter P prominent. She starts to decipher the other letters, trying to guess what word they form.
“Piedad,” she says loudly. The letters are uneven and child-like, stitched by someone with little skill. The thread on the stitches is definitely not the same one used on the rest of the gown. She repeats the name again. “Piedad.”
Antonio has never mentioned a Piedad when he talks about his family history. It’s only ever been about Ramona and the fierce warrior figure she was. Samara pulls another dress from the same period. It takes her a while but finally, she locates the name again. Piedad. She pulls out another blouse and there it is, the name hidden under a pocket. And in a pair of slacks. And a skirt. Antonio is going to have a fit when he finds out how his archives are being ruined. Who did this?
“Someone’s getting fucked,” she says.
As she puts her clothes back on, she remembers how she was the last person to visit the archives last night. She’d examined some of the same pieces and found nothing wrong with the clothes then. Thinking it through, the only workers who would have had the opportunity to slip into the archive and do this without being seen would be the seamstresses.
Samara opens the red door and stares out to the women hunched over their sewing machines. Half of them are working on fulfilling current orders. Others concentrate on samples Antonio wants made for the February show. There’s no way Samara will take the blame for destroying the archives. No, this will not land in her lap, but she must proceed delicately. She can’t just start accusing her co-workers.
Samara leaves the Library and returns to her office to think through her options. While answering emails, she considers what course of action to take. Should she go straight to Antonio or confront the seamstresses first? Samara takes her chances on the latter.
Excerpt from Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera, copyright © 2024. Used by permission of Del Rey, an imprint of Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Photo credit: JJ Geiger
Lilliam Rivera is a MacDowell fellow, a screenwriter, and an award-winning author of nine works of fiction: a forthcoming horror book, four young adult novels, three middle grade books, and a graphic novel for DC Comics. Her books have been awarded a Pura Belpré Honor, been featured on NPR, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, and multiple “best of” lists. Her novel Never Look Back is slated for an Amazon movie adaptation.
Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam has also written for the episodic podcast series Love in Gravity, which was recently nominated for a GLAAD.
Her short fiction and personal essays have appeared in various literary journals and publications including Tin House, New York Times, Buzzfeed Books, and The Washington Post. She has been a featured speaker in countless schools and book festivals throughout the United States and is on faculty at Hamline University and University of Nevada, Reno.
A Bronx, New York native, Lilliam currently lives in Los Angeles.
