Chapter 8 - The Evidence on Marble
The guests panicked, screeching and scrambling over chairs as the federal agents moved with military precision down the center aisle, surrounding the altar area.
Senator Thomas Vance dropped his phone onto the carpet, his hands raising slowly into the air as two agents immediately moved behind him, forcing his arms behind his back and snapping heavy steel handcuffs around his wrists.
"You have no authority here!" Thomas roared, his voice cracking with desperation. "I am a United States Senator! I have immunity!"
"Your immunity was revoked by a federal grand jury two hours ago, Senator," the lead FBI agent said, pulling a folded paper from his jacket. "Based on the encrypted logs, offshore bank transfers, and thermal satellite telemetry provided to us by Captain Valeria Mercer."
Chloe stumbled backward, her long lace veil catching on a floral arrangement and tearing free from her hair, crashing to the floor in a tangled heap of tulle and white roses.
"Daddy!" Chloe shrieked, watching her father being pushed toward the aisle by federal officers. "Do something! Call the Governor!"
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"Your father's accounts have been frozen too, Miss Montgomery," the lead agent added, looking at Chloe with total indifference. "The Montgomery Banking Group is currently being raided by the SEC for laundering the proceeds of Vance Defense's illegal warhead sales."
Chloe sank to her knees on the marble floor, surrounded by ruined white lace and abandoned champagne flutes, sobbing hysterically as her gilded world dissolved around her.
