Chapter 13 - The Charity Gala of Reckoning
As the standing ovation reached its crescendo, the side doors of the ballroom swung open.
Captain Robert Harris of the Wisconsin State Patrol, accompanied by four uniformed officers and two federal investigators from the Department of Justice, walked up the stage steps.
The applause died down into an electric, breathless silence.
Captain Harris walked straight up to Michael Miller, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his utility belt.
“Michael Thomas Miller,” Captain Harris announced in a booming voice that carried to every corner of the room. “You are under arrest pursuant to a federal warrant for commercial racketeering, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit industrial sabotage, and felony arson.”
Michael backed away, knocking over a flower arrangement, water and white lilies spilling across the stage.
“No! Get away from me!” Michael screamed, his voice cracking into a high, pathetic shriek. “This is a conspiracy! Megan Turner framed me! Call my lawyers! Call the Mayor!”
Mayor Vance, sitting in the front row, quickly looked down at his shoes, pretending he had never met Michael in his life.
Two state troopers grabbed Michael’s arms, forcing them behind his back.
The cold steel handcuffs snapped shut around Michael’s wrists with a loud, definitive click.
Michael thrashed against their grip, his hair wild, his designer tuxedo rumpled and ruined. He looked across the stage at Megan, his eyes burning with pathetic, helpless rage.
“Megan! Tell them!” Michael begged, tears of humiliation streaming down his red face. “You loved me! We were going to be married! You can't let them take me away like this!”
Megan looked at him.
There was no hatred in her eyes. No malice. Only the calm, absolute closure of a woman who had completely outgrown the ghost of her past.
“You’re right, Michael,” Megan said softly, her voice carrying over the silent room. “Years ago, I thought you were a man worth building a life with. But as you told everyone at the fair… some people grow with the times. Others stay stuck in the mud where they belong.”
May you like
The ballroom broke into murmurs of righteous satisfaction.
The officers hauled Michael down the center aisle. Hundreds of his former country club friends parted like the Red Sea, turning their backs on him as he was marched out into the flashing red and blue lights of the waiting police cruisers.
