Chapter 21 - Scandal's Echoes and a Tangled Past
I stood in the gathering crowd on the sidewalk outside the Hilton, watching officers escort my father into a police cruiser. His hands were cuffed behind his back, his face a mask of rage and humiliation as camera flashes illuminated him in his disheveled state. Eleanor followed minutes later in separate handcuffs, still screaming obscenities at both Harrison and the young secretary who was led out last, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Looks like daddy dearest is going to spend the night in lockup," Victoria whispered beside me, a hint of satisfaction in her tone.
My emotions were a tangled mess. On one hand, seeing Harrison Ashworth—the man who had destroyed my mother and treated me like an unwanted obligation for most of my life—being publicly humiliated felt like poetic justice. On the other, the spectacle left me feeling hollow.
"My mother would have hated this circus," I murmured.
