Damian kept shouting that he was mayor until the prosecutor leaned close.
“You have not taken the oath,” she said. “And you never will.”
His inauguration was canceled before dawn.
Celeste’s terror finally became rage. As officers escorted her upstairs, she lunged at me again. This time, I stepped aside. She stumbled into the dining room, where hundreds of gold-rimmed plates waited beneath a banner bearing Damian’s name.
“You ruined us!” she screamed.
“No,” I said. “I refused to help you ruin everyone else.”
The investigation lasted nine months. Damian pleaded guilty to bribery, wire fraud, forced-labor conspiracy, and obstruction. He received fourteen years in federal prison. Celeste was convicted of assault, witness intimidation, and conspiracy, while Adrian accepted a five-year sentence after the video on his own phone proved he had encouraged the attack and helped confine the workers.
The estate was seized to satisfy restitution orders. Its sale funded unpaid wages, medical care, and immigration attorneys for the people Celeste had treated as disposable.
