Chapter 13 - The Offer Derek Thought She Would Accept
Derek requested a private settlement meeting.
Thomas advised Brooke to refuse.
Brooke agreed only if the conversation occurred inside Thomas’s office and was recorded.
Derek arrived without Chloe.
He wore a dark suit and carried a folder.
“You look different,” he told Brooke.
“I’m wearing the same scrubs I wore when you locked me out.”
“You know what I mean.”
He placed the folder on the table.
Inside was a proposed agreement.
Brooke would pay $1.3 million to resolve Derek’s debts.
She would withdraw fraud complaints.
She would allow Chloe and Derek to remain in the house for five years.
In return, Derek would promise not to challenge the trust or release “damaging family information.”
Thomas leaned forward.
“What information?”
Derek smiled.
“Brooke’s company used hospital data.”
“That allegation is false.”
“Maybe. But investigations take time. A public accusation could affect the sale.”
The acquisition had already closed.
But Derek believed Brooke would fear reputational damage enough to pay.
Brooke studied him.
“You stole from my mother.”
“I managed an emergency.”
“You forged documents.”
“I corrected an unfair arrangement.”
“You locked me out of a house you knew you didn’t own.”
“I removed a tenant.”
Brooke looked directly at him.
“You still think saying something makes it true.”
Derek’s smile faded.
He mentioned confidential patient data again.
Thomas opened another file.
NightBridge had already completed an independent privacy audit.
Every claim Derek threatened to make had been reviewed and disproven during acquisition.
“You have no leverage,” Thomas said.
Derek stood.
“Everyone has leverage.”
He left the agreement behind.
That night, Helen disappeared from the family house.
Her financial guardian arrived and found the front door open.
Helen’s phone was on the kitchen counter.
Her medication was still beside the sink.
Brooke received a message from Chloe.
Mom is with us. Withdraw the charges if you want to know where.
Brooke’s entire body turned cold.
Thomas called police.
Chloe later claimed Helen left voluntarily.
But a neighbor’s security camera showed Derek guiding Helen into a car while she repeatedly tried to turn back toward the house.
Police issued an endangered-adult alert.
Brooke remembered the paper bag on the porch.
Derek had believed isolation was his strongest weapon.
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Now he was using Brooke’s mother.
👉 The search for Helen would reveal whether Chloe had become Derek’s hostage—or his full partner.
