Chapter 10 - THE LOCKED DOORS
Vanessa reached the hallway before security stopped her.
No one touched her until she tried to shove past an officer.
The laptop fell from her purse and struck the carpet.
A flash drive slid from a side pocket.
Connor stared at it.
“What is that?”
Vanessa looked from him to Evelyn.
Neither woman answered.
Local police arrived minutes later.
Brooke gave a brief statement while wrapped in a clean tablecloth until Mia found a robe.
Her hands would not stop shaking.
Mia approached with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Mrs. Ashford told me to bring the dirtiest cleaning water from the service area. I didn’t know she was going to pour it on you.”
“You didn’t do this,” Brooke said.
Evelyn overheard.
“Do not speak to my staff.”
Brooke looked at her.
“Mia is not your property.”
The officers collected witness names and secured the bucket.
No one was detained without cause.
But every company-owned device was placed under legal hold.
Connor demanded to speak privately with Brooke.
She refused.
“You planned this,” he accused. “You came here hoping my mother would lose her temper.”
“I came because you tried to force me to confess to your fraud.”
“You have no proof I knew about any fraud.”
Brooke looked toward Vanessa’s laptop.
“We’ll see.”
Connor moved closer.
“You’re enjoying this.”
That accusation hurt more than Brooke expected.
She looked down at her soaked dress.
At the dirty water still dripping from her hair.
At the guests who had laughed until they realized she had power.
“No,” she said. “That is the difference between us.”
A sharp pain tightened across her abdomen.
Brooke stopped breathing.
Leah had warned her about stress.
Another cramp followed.
Ruiz noticed immediately.
“Ms. Harrington?”
Brooke gripped the edge of the table.
“My baby.”
Connor’s anger vanished.
“What’s wrong?”
He reached for her.
Brooke recoiled.
Ruiz blocked him.
“Call an ambulance.”
The room blurred.
Brooke heard Evelyn whisper that she was being dramatic.
Then Mia shouted at her to be quiet.
For the first time that evening, someone from the Ashford household openly stood against its matriarch.
Paramedics placed Brooke on a stretcher.
As they carried her through the ballroom, she looked back at Connor.
He stood beneath the chandeliers, surrounded by lawyers and police officers.
The empire he had used to make Brooke feel small was beginning to close around him.
But Brooke no longer cared about the company.
All she could hear was a paramedic asking whether she could still feel her daughter moving.
For several terrifying seconds, Brooke could not answer.
May you like
👉 Protocol Seven had saved the evidence—but Brooke did not yet know whether the cost would be her unborn child.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
