Chapter 6 - The Fall of AshfordTrevor’s face went paper-white under the crystal chandeliers. Sweat poured down his forehead as he reached frantically into his jacket for his phone.
"This is a lie!" Trevor shrieked, his voice carrying wildly into the quiet ballroom. "She's using a mobster to steal my business!"
Two uniformed Federal Marshals, flanked by state auditors, stepped out from the main hallway, moving directly toward Trevor and Harper.
"Trevor Ashford and Harper Lane," the lead marshal announced, holding open a federal arrest warrant. "You are under arrest for federal wire fraud and grand embezzlement under the RICO Act."
Harper let out a high-pitched, hysterical shriek, dropping her designer clutch bag onto the floor, pulling her arm away from Trevor as if he were poisonous. "It was Trevor's idea! He forged the signatures! I didn't know the money was stolen!"
"Harper! Shut up!" Trevor screamed back, his face contorted in wild, pathetic panic.
The marshals grabbed both of them, slapping heavy steel handcuffs around their wrists in front of four hundred high-society witnesses and dozens of flashing news cameras.
Trevor stumbled onto his knees on the marble floor, looking up at me with weeping, bloodshot eyes.
"Camilla! Please!" Trevor whimpered pathetically. "Tell him to stop this! I loved you for five years! We can fix this!"
I looked down at him from beside Adrian—feeling no hatred, no rage, only the weightless, sovereign clarity of a woman who had conquered her past.
"You never loved me, Trevor," I said softly, my voice clean and clear. "You loved my father's money. And today... you have nothing."
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The marshals dragged Trevor and Harper out through the double doors in chains, their frantic shouting fading into the cold night outside.
Adrian wrapped his broad arm securely around my waist, pulling me flush against his side, as the entire ballroom applauded our victory.
