Gareth tried to slip out through a side door near the catering kitchen.

“Don’t even think about it, Gareth,” Miller called out.

An agent blocked the doorway, and Gareth put his hands up in surrender, his face pale.

I watched as they led Julian and Eleanor past the ice sculptures and the stunned guests.

Julian glared at me as he was dragged past, his eyes full of a desperate, violent promise.

“You’ll pay for this, Madeline,” he hissed. “You and Clara both.”

I did not blink.

I looked at the opulent room, at the crystal chandeliers paid for with stolen money and broken lives.

I thought of Clara, sitting in a safe house, her body still healing from the violence Julian had inflicted on her.

I thought of the billions of dollars tied up in the Thorne Foundation.

It had been used as a shield for their crimes for decades.

When this was over, and the federal courts seized these assets, they wouldn’t belong to the Thornes anymore.

They would belong to the people who actually needed them.