Chương 8 - The Gala Ambush
The following evening, the Boston Heritage Foundation held its annual charity gala at the Fairmont Copley Plaza.
It was the pinnacle event of the city's social calendar.
Marcus's family, the Kensingtons, were the principal benefactors of the gala.
Olivia had spent months boasting about the emerald gown she was going to wear.
They believed they could isolate me, ruin my name in private, and hide behind the polished facade of high society.
They were wrong.
At precisely eight o'clock, the double doors of the ballroom swung open.
The room, packed with over three hundred of the state’s most powerful figures, fell into an immediate, stunned silence.
Daniel Brooks walked into the light, dressed in a bespoke midnight-black tuxedo that made him look like royalty.
On his arm, wearing a striking emerald silk dress that mirrored the green sea off his estate, was me.
Daniel had insisted on providing the dress, the diamond droplet earrings, and the hair stylist who had pinned my hair into an elegant chignon.
I didn't feel like the shy clerk from Maple Street Books anymore.
I felt armed.
Across the room, standing near a towering champagne tower, stood Olivia and Marcus.
Olivia’s mouth dropped open so wide she looked absurd.
Marcus turned the color of chalk, nearly dropping his champagne flute onto the marble floor.
"Keep your chin up, Emily," Daniel murmured, his lips barely moving as we descended the grand staircase.
"You belong in every room you enter."
Whispers erupted around us like a wildfire in dry brush.
"Is that the Carter girl?"
"I thought Marcus said she was an unhinged stalker?"
"Look at the way he holds her."
Marcus’s father, Richard Kensington, a portly man with silver hair and a pompous scowl, stormed over to us, his face mottled with fury.
"Brooks!" Richard boomed, trying to assert dominance in front of his board members.
"What is the meaning of this spectacle?"
"You had the audacity to freeze our accounts this morning over a childish dispute between our children?"
Daniel stopped, his presence instantly shrinking the older man by comparison.
"It wasn't a dispute, Richard," Daniel said, his voice carrying clearly across the quieted ballroom.
"It was an orchestrated act of harassment against an innocent citizen."
"And your son didn't stop there."
Daniel signaled slightly toward the back of the room.
Two federal agents in plainclothes walked through the entrance, flanked by Boston Police detectives.
Marcus stepped back, trembling.
"What is this?" Marcus cried out, his voice cracking with panic.
"This is the conclusion of the audit on Kensington Freight Logistics," Daniel announced calmly.
"It appears that Marcus has been using the company’s shell corporations to smuggle unregistered electronic components through my terminals."
"He was planning to pin the liability on Emily's bookstore by forging a commercial shipping lease in her name."
The entire ballroom gasped in horror.
Olivia looked at Marcus in pure, unadulterated disgust.
"You did what?" she shrieked, backing away from him.
"You told me it was just an insurance loophole!"
"Marcus Kensington," the lead detective said, stepping forward with handcuffs glinting under the crystal chandeliers.
May you like
"You are under arrest for corporate fraud, forgery, and interstate smuggling."
***
