Chapter 18 - The Reckoning of LaSalle Street
Richard Harrison pled guilty to federal bank fraud charges to avoid a lengthy trial,
receiving a ten-year sentence in a federal penitentiary.
The family assets were liquidated to satisfy the creditors,
leaving Eleanor and Morgan with nothing but debt and broken dreams.
Preston’s marketing firm dissolved completely,
and he was forced to take a job as a low-level telemarketer to pay his court fines.
They were completely erased from the Chicago high society they had tried so hard to dominate.
My father and I celebrated the conclusion of the legal battles at a quiet dinner at the Langham Hotel,
the very place where the illusion had begun.
"You handled this well,
Maya,"
my father said,
raising his glass to me.
"You didn't let them change who you are."
"They didn't change me,
Dad,"
I replied,
clinking my glass against his.
"They just showed me exactly what I am capable of when pushed."
The white orchids were still blooming in the lobby,
but this time,
May you like
they didn't represent a false promise of forever;
they represented the beautiful reality of a fresh start.
