Chapter 6 - The Arrest at the Podium
The Grand Ballroom descended into a horrified, suffocating silence.
Senator Collins dropped his champagne glass. Guests stared at the screen with open-mouthed revulsion.
Adrian Vaughn leaped to his feet, knocking his chair backward, his face turning an ashen, mottled shade of grey.
"Turn that off!" Adrian screamed, his voice cracking into a high, hysterical shriek. "This is a technical glitch! Ethan, turn it off! Someone hacked your servers!"
Ethan stepped back to the podium, looking down at Adrian with cold, unyielding disgust.
"No one hacked anything, Adrian," Ethan spoke, his voice cutting through the room like a diamond blade. "You used my foundation’s money to steal from dying children, and you used your position to terrorize the woman standing behind me."
The double doors at the back of the ballroom were thrown open.
Twelve armed Federal Marshals and Senior Special Agent Karen Vance of the FBI marched down the center carpet with flashing emergency lights.
"Adrian Vaughn!" Agent Vance announced loudly. "Under Federal Warrant 802, you are under arrest for Aggravated Fiduciary Embezzlement, Medical Fraud Resulting in Wrongful Death, and Felony Domestic Battery."
Adrian scrambled toward the side exit, but Marcus Stone and two private security operators blocked his path, tackling him face-down onto the plush carpet.
CLACK.
Heavy steel handcuffs were clicked tightly around Adrian’s wrists in front of sixty flashing news cameras.
"Ava!" Adrian wailed, thrashing against the agents as his designer tuxedo was torn. "Ava, tell them to stop! You’re my fiancée! I loved you!"
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I stepped onto the stage beside Ethan, looking down at the man who had tried to break my spirit.
"I am not your fiancée, Adrian," I said clearly, my voice carrying to every guest in the room. "I am the woman who just ended your career."
