Liam stepped between us.

Security moved in.

Police officers came through the ballroom doors. Chloe was arrested for payroll theft and destruction of records.

Beatrice and her husband were charged weeks later, after investigators uncovered more than two million dollars in fraudulent contracts and hidden transfers.

The amended fire report proved their company had installed illegal fabric walls that trapped the smoke and blocked the exit. Their insurer sued. Their business collapsed. Their house was sold. Their friends vanished.

Six months later, Liam and I came back to the restored ballroom.

We’d bought it after the foreclosure and turned half the property into a rehabilitation center for burn survivors. The other half hosted weddings, free of charge, for firefighters and emergency workers.