When the gift shop that formerly occupied 214 E. Chatham Street in downtown Cary closed in December 2024, Christine Wells saw an opportunity.

The little blue house, a historic building, fit Wells’ vision for a high-end children’s clothing store. Two months later, she opened Littles of Cary, filling the shop with children’s apparel, toys, and accessories from brands including Jamie Kay, Noralee, Rylee + Cru, and Maileg.

Early reviews were glowing. Customers described the boutique as charming, and Wells as warm, sweet, and personable. In August 2025, Littles celebrated six months in business with a festival it called LOCHELLA. Cary Magazine profiled the business that September, identifying Wells by a different last name, Lucas, a name that does not appear in her business filings or court records. The article described how Littles had become a community fixture, fulfilling the mother of four’s lifelong dream of owning a children’s boutique.

“Wait ’til you see what we do for our one-year party,” she told the magazine.

Before that anniversary arrived, Littles began expanding. Wells opened Littles of Raleigh in the Village District in February. A Greensboro store was announced under the Littles name, though it later opened as Snuggle Bugs. Littles of Burlington followed in July. Wells also formed companies for two other planned stores, The Baby Cottage in Raleigh and Littles of Kiawah in South Carolina.

At the same time, vendors said they were trying to collect money, and customers said they were waiting for products that never arrived. Employees said they weren’t being paid, and lawsuits accumulated—at least four, according to records reviewed by The Line. One of the largest came from California children’s apparel company Rylee + Cru, which alleged that Littles hadn’t paid for more than $188,000 in merchandise. 

By the end of August, every Littles-related store in North Carolina was shuttered. The website was gone. The company’s social-media pages disappeared. The Cary building where it all began sat empty. 

The collapse might look, at first, like a small retailer growing too quickly. But Wells entered the business with an unusual history. Before Littles opened, she had two felony convictions involving financial crimes, multiple civil judgments against her that court records show were never paid, and a federal tax lien exceeding $63,000. Before the Cary store opened, members of children’s clothing Facebook groups were publicly warning one another about delayed shipments, payments, and refunds involving Wells.

The Line spoke with 49 vendors, customers, former employees, and contractors and reviewed court filings, legal notices, receipts, payment records, emails, text messages, and complaints submitted to the North Carolina Department of Justice. Some said they were eventually paid, sometimes after weeks or months of follow-up. Some customers received what they ordered, while others said they are still waiting for merchandise or refunds; some employees and contractors said they are still awaiting wages or payment for completed work.

Taken together, the records raise a question larger than why a children’s boutique failed: How was Wells able to open multiple stores amid mounting complaints?

Wells never answered questions from The Line directly. Instead, a law firm representing her sent a cease-and-desist letter. Wells was given a final opportunity and four more days to answer the allegations in this story. Through counsel, she disputed characterizations of her conduct as fraudulent, dishonest, or intentionally deceptive, but did not contradict any specific facts.

Beneath the Surface

Littles of Cary presented itself as a carefully curated boutique for families willing to spend more on children’s clothing and toys. Soon after its February 8, 2025, grand opening, however, at least one dispute was developing behind the scenes.

In April 2025, Brittany Windsor, an Atlanta children’s apparel showroom representative, filed a complaint with the NC DOJ alleging that three brands she represented had shipped merchandise to Littles of Cary without receiving payment. One of them, Terry Tots, was owed $1,788.39 from a February 20 order. Windsor alleged that Littles initiated electronic payments before merchandise was shipped, only for the payments to fail for insufficient funds. Repeated attempts to process the payments resulted in additional bank fees, the complaint states, and Wells later promised to send a cashier’s check that never arrived.

“I want to warn everyone that Littles of Cary is running a scam,” Windsor wrote in the complaint. “[Wells] has had goods in her store for almost 3 months from 3 different vendors that she has never paid for.”

Windsor also told the state DOJ that Wells had “ordered tens of thousands of dollars” in merchandise from approximately a dozen additional brands represented by the showroom before Windsor canceled those orders.

Three months later, Rylee + Cru sued Littles of Cary, alleging that the boutique had received more than $100,000 in merchandise without paying for it. The case was dismissed in December after Rylee + Cru failed to serve Wells and Littles before the deadline, though the company remained free to sue again. Rylee + Cru later said in court filings that it had held off on serving Wells because she kept assuring the company that payment was coming.

Outwardly, Littles still appeared to be thriving. LOCHELLA took place in August 2025, followed by the Cary Magazine profile. 

That fall, Wells hired Allyn Brennan, owner of Porch Perfect NC, to decorate the Cary store with pumpkins. Wells paid for that job, Brennan said, and later paid her in full for decorating the porch at Wells’ home. Problems began when Wells hired Brennan again to decorate for Christmas.

“She would say she sent money when she did not,” Brennan said. “She would promise to send it the next day, and I wouldn’t receive anything. I would follow up, and she would make an excuse or send a portion of the amount owed.”

Brennan said she spent more than 18 hours installing the holiday decorations and then several months trying to recover the cost of the materials and her labor. She offered Wells a payment plan, which Wells declined, Brennan said. Payments began arriving only after Brennan threatened to make the dispute public on social media.

Even as businesses were struggling to collect money from the Cary store, Wells was preparing to open another. She formed Littles of Raleigh LLC in December 2025. 

The next month, Rylee + Cru brought the case again, filing a new federal complaint alleging that Wells and Littles had received $188,346.17 in merchandise without paying for it. The company said that payments were repeatedly promised, attempted credit-card payments were reversed or failed, and Wells continued offering assurances while seeking additional inventory.

Wells was personally served with Rylee + Cru’s new complaint on February 3, 2026. She did not file a response. On February 7, Littles of Raleigh opened in the Village District.

On February 19, another company filed suit against Wells and her Cary operation—the business-financing company 8fig, which said she owed them $30,968.80. A settlement signed that day said Littles and Wells had defaulted on a future-revenue purchase agreement. According to a later complaint by 8fig, Wells did not pay it.  

Children’s clothing company Viverano Organics also filed a complaint with the NC DOJ in July 2026 regarding the Raleigh store, saying it delivered merchandise under commercial payment terms, but Littles had not paid two February 2026 invoices totaling $2,502. 

Viverano representative Karan Garg said in the complaint that Wells wrote that payment had been sent by wire transfer, but that follow-up verification showed no wire transfer had been completed.

After Viverano notified Wells that the payment had not been transferred, Wells emailed the company to acknowledge what she described as a “discrepancy or processing problem” and said she wanted to resolve it quickly, according to the complaint. Viverano Organics said it sent multiple secure payment links, but the balance remained unpaid. The company canceled all unshipped orders, closed Littles’ account, and suspended future business.

Still, Littles kept growing. Wells formed Littles of NC LLC in March 2026. In May, Friendly Center, the popular open-air mall in Greensboro, announced that Littles of Greensboro was coming (the store was renamed Snuggle Bugs before it opened). Littles of Burlington was also preparing for a summer opening.

Then, on June 10, 2026, Carolina Design & Construction sued Wells over unpaid contracting work at the Raleigh store. Columbia Village District LLC, the owner of the building, was also named in the complaint to enforce a lien against the property. The contractor would later obtain a default judgment for $32,336.48. The landlord is fighting the part that applies to it, saying it was not involved in hiring the contractor. 

On the same day that lawsuit was filed, Wells formed Littles of Kiawah LLC in South Carolina.

Customers were also waiting. Ashton Choros said she prepaid nearly $400 to Littles of Raleigh for a Maileg Mouse House, a popular, customizable wooden dollhouse, on June 13. When it did not arrive, she contacted Wells, who said the product had arrived in the store that day and would be shipped. Weeks later, Choros followed up, and Wells confirmed that it was mailed. Choros twice asked for a tracking number, but did not receive one. The delivery date came and went, and Wells said she would follow up with tracking information. A month after Choros had placed the order, Wells told her she had issued a refund and would expedite shipping of another Mouse House. 

Choros filed a complaint with the state DOJ on August 10, seeking a refund. She said she has still not received either the merchandise or a refund.

At that point, the store Choros ordered was already gone. According to a sworn statement from the landlord’s lawyer, the landlord, Columbia Village District, took possession of the storefront following nonpayment under the lease on July 13. 

Two days after the landlord took possession of the Raleigh store, Wells signed an agreement with BridgeLift Capital, a New York company that lends businesses cash up front in exchange for a share of their future sales. BridgeLift paid Littles of Raleigh $13,000 in exchange for $19,487 in future revenue. Under the agreement, BridgeLift would receive 25% of the business’s income until it received the money.

According to a lawsuit BridgeLift filed August 19, it attempted its first scheduled withdrawal two days after the agreement was signed, which was returned for insufficient funds. BridgeLift alleges that later attempts were also unsuccessful, and it never received any of the $19,487.

That same month, Littles of Burlington opened, followed by Snuggle Bugs in Greensboro in August. Both closed by the end of the month.

‘It’s Not Fair’

Inside the remaining stores, payroll problems were mounting.

Chakyra Oliver worked at the Burlington store for less than a month. She provided records to The Line showing that she was unable to cash a payroll check dated August 4. A bank notice accompanying the check said that it or prior checks deposited had been returned unpaid.

When Oliver texted Wells to inform her that the check had bounced, Wells responded that it was a certified check and “can’t bounce,” according to screenshots of the text conversation reviewed by The Line. The funds had been deducted from the business account when it was issued, Wells wrote, and offered to include Oliver on a call with the bank. The following day, Wells texted Oliver that the bank had confirmed that the check had not been deposited, and said she had canceled it and promised to send the money along with Oliver’s remaining wages.

On August 7, Oliver filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor over unpaid wages. She said she filed because she was not sure she would ever be paid. That same day, she received a direct deposit covering the first pay period, which had been due July 30, but she continued texting Wells about the remainder.

Wells replied that the remaining amount would be paid on the company’s next scheduled payday and told Oliver she had given the same response to the Department of Labor. Oliver said she ultimately received everything she was owed, but later than expected.

“The entire situation makes me hurt and angry for those who have been affected,” Oliver said. “We all work in order to supply for ourselves, and even our families. It’s not fair to take from those who have helped build your business and invested so much time.”

Former employee Alli Fogg is still waiting. She said she is owed more than $1,200 for work at the Burlington store and additional shifts in Raleigh. She filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor on August 6.

After calling Wells and leaving a voicemail, Fogg was added to a group text with Wells, her store manager, and a third person, whom Fogg said she had never met or spoken with, on August 9. In the chat, Wells and Fogg go back and forth about the status of a check, cash, and direct deposit, with Fogg telling the group her direct deposit had not arrived. Fogg asked for documentation showing payment had been initiated, and Wells sent a photograph of a laptop screen purportedly showing a payment deposit.

As of September 8, Fogg said she still had not been paid.

Morgan Brown, who publicly documented her attempts to collect for a balloon installation at Littles of Burlington on Facebook, received her full balance and a late fee after weeks of attempts. Others were not so lucky. A contractor said it was never paid for more than $14,000 in fixtures, and a children’s apparel company said it was left with more than $35,000 in unpaid merchandise. Neither wanted to be named, with one citing concerns about adverse impacts on their business.

Before Littles

Wells’ legal problems did not begin with Littles.

As the court does not hold physical records older than 10 years, the specifics in some of the cases listed are not available.

In 2010, Wells pleaded guilty in Alamance County to felony forgery. She received a suspended sentence and probation. Court records show multiple probation violations between 2012 and 2017, with judges at times imposing periods of active jail time.

There were also civil complaints. In 2014, Joseph A. Walton IV sued Wells in Wake County for money owed. A judge entered judgments totaling more than $5,000 before interest.

In 2016, Tradewinds Investment Group LLC, a Raleigh-based financial institution, sued Wells for money owed. Another judgment was entered for $6,059.22; the records show no payments credited to Wells. 

In 2018, Alice B. Isley sued Wells in Wake County for unpaid rent and won a $4,050 judgment, plus court costs and interest. Isley later obtained a court order allowing the sheriff to seize Wells’ property to satisfy the judgment, but the sheriff reported finding no property to take. Court financial records show no payments credited toward the judgment.

Then, in June 2020, Wells pleaded guilty in Wake County to felony larceny by employee. An arrest warrant alleged that while working for Tejvi Lash Inc., a franchisee of Amazing Lash Studio, Wells embezzled and converted $25,041.34 between August and October 2019. She received probation with a suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. A later probation-violation report showed that $12,868 remained unpaid as of 2025.

In April 2024, the Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against Wells in Wake County for $63,625.96 covering unpaid federal income-tax assessments for 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.

By then, Wells was buying and selling children’s clothing online. In 2024, an administrator of a Facebook resale group issued a “buyer beware” warning, saying multiple members had reported long shipping delays and refunds that often required administrator intervention.

Mounting Debts, Legal Troubles

The last Littles location, Burlington, was cleared out at the end of August.

Wells told at least one employee that the store was closing temporarily for HVAC repairs. The next day, the store was emptied of its inventory and fixtures. 

The closure came as Wells appeared to be looking toward South Carolina. Wells formed Littles of Kiawah LLC in June, and South Carolina records list her as the company’s organizer and registered agent, with 205 Gardners Circle on Kiawah Island as its designated office. Wells used the former address of Littles of Cary as her organizer address.

That store has not opened.

On August 27, a federal judge granted Rylee + Cru’s request for a default judgment against Littles of Cary, awarding $184,242.23 in damages, plus interest. The court gave Wells until September 17 to submit additional briefing on whether she should also be held individually liable. Without a response, the judgment is scheduled to take effect on September 18.

Carolina Design & Construction has obtained its $32,336.48 default judgment against Wells. The judgment remains unpaid. BridgeLift’s case is still pending. 

The February settlement with 8fig did not end that dispute. In a second complaint filed September 2 in New York, 8fig alleges that Littles of Cary and Wells paid none of the settlement balance. The company is now seeking $46,253.40.

Back on East Chatham Street, the blue building where Littles began is now vacant—waiting for someone else with a vision for what the space could mean for downtown Cary. 

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