Chapter 7 - The Unraveling
Pandemonium broke loose. Investors began shouting, realizing their money was gone. Women gasped. Camera flashes from the local press, who had been invited to cover the charity event, began going off like strobe lights.
Richard Whitmore didn't even try to run. He collapsed into a chair on the stage, clutching his chest as two agents hauled him to his feet and violently slapped handcuffs onto his wrists. The king was dead.
Grant, however, panicked.
He jumped off the side of the stage, shoving past a waiter, sending a tray of champagne glasses crashing to the floor. He lunged toward Vanessa, grabbing her arm.
"Vanessa, we have to go! Now!" he yelled, his face slick with sweat.
Vanessa ripped her arm out of his grasp with violent disgust. "Get off me, you psycho! I'm not going to prison for you! You told me you were rich!"
"I am rich!" Grant screamed, completely losing his mind.
"Not anymore, Grant," I said, stepping into his path.
He stopped, breathing heavily like a cornered animal. He looked at me, realizing for the first time that the woman he had neglected, belittled, and abandoned to die had completely outplayed him.
"You..." Grant hissed, raising his hand as if he were going to strike me.
Before he could even twitch, Ethan grabbed Grant from behind, twisting his arm up his back until Grant shrieked in agony. Ethan slammed Grant face-first into a linen-covered table, pinning him there.
"You left her to die," Ethan whispered directly into Grant's ear, his voice laced with decades of fury. "And now you're going to die in a cage."
Two FBI agents rushed over, taking Grant off Ethan's hands. They secured Grant's wrists tightly behind his back.
Grant looked at me as they dragged him away, tears of humiliation and defeat streaming down his face. "Claire, please! I'm your husband! I love you!"
I looked at him, feeling absolutely nothing but cold satisfaction.
"The doctors have you now, Grant," I replied, echoing the exact words he had said to me in the emergency room. "What exactly do you expect me to do?"
He sobbed as they pulled him out the doors, his entire life destroyed in front of everyone he wanted to impress.
Vanessa tried to sneak out a side door, but an agent caught her. "Vanessa Cole? We have a warrant for your arrest regarding accessory to wire fraud. Put your hands behind your back."
Vanessa burst into dramatic, ugly tears, screaming about her designer shoes as she was escorted out.
The ballroom slowly cleared as the police took control of the scene. The investors rushed out to call their lawyers. The caterers vanished.
Soon, it was just me and Ethan standing in the middle of the empty, glittering ballroom.
I looked down at the floor, where a single, crushed white rose from Vanessa's corsage lay amid broken champagne glass. It was over. The nightmare was finally over.
Ethan walked over to me. He didn't say anything at first. He just wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a fierce, protective hug. I closed my eyes, resting my head against his chest, listening to the steady heartbeat of the brother I thought I had lost forever.
For the first time in twenty-two years, I let myself cry. Not tears of pain or fear, but tears of absolute relief.
"We did it," I sobbed into his shoulder. "Mom and Dad... they can rest now."
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"We did it, little sister," Ethan murmured, kissing the top of my head. "You were brilliant."
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