Claire: I demand to see my lawyer right now! You can't hold me in this office!
Detective Vance: Sit down, Miss Davis. Your attorney is on his way, but you need to look at these documents first.
Inside the small glass office on the second floor of the club, Claire sat in a leather chair, her white gown rumpled and stained near the hem. A female detective stood by the door while Detective Vance laid three printed photos from the security camera on the table.
Claire: I already told you, I didn't mean any harm! It was a private matter between friends!
Detective Vance: Framing someone for a fifty-thousand-dollar theft is not a private matter, ma'am. That's a severe crime under state law.
Claire: My father pays millions in taxes to this city! You can't arrest me!
Detective Vance: Your father just called the station and explicitly stated he will not be posting your bail today.
Claire: What?! My dad said that?
Detective Vance: He said you need to learn a lesson about integrity. Now, put your hands behind your back.
Claire gasped in sheer panic as the female officer stepped forward, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from her belt.
Claire: No! Please! Don't put those on me! I'm getting married today!
Detective Vance: You're not getting married today, Miss Davis. You're going to the central booking station downtown.
The cold steel clicked tightly around Claire's wrists. She began to cry wildly, her mascara running down her cheeks in dark streaks as she was led out the back door of the country club into a waiting police cruiser.
Downstairs in the private courtyard, Mark sat with Elena on a stone bench under the warm sun. She held an ice pack against her red cheek while Mark drank a bottle of water.
Elena: I still feel like I'm in a bad dream.
Mark: It's real, but it's over now. She can't touch you again.
Elena: How did you know to check the cameras so fast?
Mark: My younger brother noticed Claire standing near your bag twenty minutes before the ceremony. He thought she was acting suspicious, so he went straight to the security room to check the live monitors.
Elena: Your brother saved me...
Mark: We all know what Claire is like when she gets jealous, Elena. We just didn't realize how far she would go until today.
Elena: What will happen to her family's business now?
Mark: Without our investment contract and with this public scandal on every news site, their shares will plummet by tomorrow morning. Her father will likely have to liquidate their main office building just to cover their debts.
Elena: It's crazy how one terrible choice destroyed everything she had.
Mark: She chose cruelty over truth. That always comes back to destroy you in the end.