Chapter 7
The next week was a blur of police stations, lawyers, and board meetings.
Now that Madison was awake and had corroborated everything, the manhunt for Richard intensified.
His face was on every news channel, every billboard, every social media feed in the country.
Fugitive billionaire Richard Brooks.
Wanted for attempted murder, embezzlement, fraud, and conspiracy.
The FBI was now involved.
They said it was only a matter of time.
In the meantime, I had a company to run.
I walked into Brooks Industries for the first time as majority owner on a gray, rainy Monday morning.
My mother and Madison were on either side of me, both dressed in sharp, tailored suits, both looking like they were ready to go to war.
Detective Carter had given us the all-clear the night before—Richard had been spotted crossing into Canada, and the RCMP were closing in. He was too busy running to come after us now.
The lobby of the Brooks building was huge, marble and glass, with our family name carved in gold letters above the reception desk.
I’d been here a hundred times before as a kid, sent to wait in Richard’s office while he finished meetings.
Back then, everyone had looked right through me.
The secretaries.
The executives.
Even the security guards.
I was just the older daughter.
The one who didn’t matter.
Not today.
Today, every head turned as we walked through the lobby.
Every mouth snapped shut.
Every person we passed stood up a little straighter.
They knew.
Everyone knew.
The newspapers had been screaming the story for days.
Brooks family implosion.
Patriarch on the run.
Unknown granddaughter takes control of billion-dollar empire.
The elevator ride up to the fortieth floor was silent.
When the doors opened, Richard’s entire executive team was waiting for us outside the boardroom.
Twelve men and women in expensive suits, all with carefully neutral expressions on their faces.
They’d all worked for Richard for years.
Some of them had probably known what he was doing.
Or at least suspected.
The CFO, a man named Arthur Hale who’d been with the company since my grandfather’s day, stepped forward.
He was in his sixties, with a neatly trimmed white beard and kind, tired eyes.
“Natalie,” he said, holding out his hand. “Welcome. We’ve all been… very anxious to meet you. To properly meet you, that is.”
I shook his hand firmly.
“Arthur. Good to see you again. I remember you taught me how to play chess in the break room when I was twelve.”
A small, genuine smile tugged at his lips.
“I do remember that. You beat me in four moves. I told your grandfather then that you were going to run this place someday. Looks like I was right.”
He turned to the rest of the executives.
“Everyone. This is Natalie Brooks. Seventy percent owner of Brooks Industries and our new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mrs. Brooks will be joining the board as Vice Chair. And Madison Brooks will be taking over as Head of Brand and Community Relations, a position for which she is uniquely qualified.”
There was a murmur of polite applause.
No one looked surprised.
They’d all gotten the email at seven that morning.
We spent the next six hours in the boardroom.
Arthur walked me through the damage Richard had done.
Forty million dollars embezzled.
Three subsidiaries on the brink of collapse because he’d drained their operating budgets.
Hundreds of employees who hadn’t gotten their bonus checks in six months.
It was bad.
Really bad.
But not unfixable.
My grandfather had built this company on three principles.
Quality.
Integrity.
Family.
Richard had thrown all three out the window the day he took over.
I was going to bring them back.
By the time we left the building that night, we had a plan.
We’d freeze Richard’s remaining assets.
We’d sue to recover the forty million from his offshore accounts.
We’d restructure the failing subsidiaries, keeping as many people employed as possible.
We’d be transparent with the employees, with the shareholders, with the press.
No more secrets.
No more lies.
No more Richard.
Madison was incredible.
I’d always written her off as the pretty, shallow sister who only cared about parties and shopping.
But she was sharp.
Really sharp.
She had a sixth sense for people, for what they wanted, for how to make them feel heard and valued.
Within an hour of taking over her new role, she’d already scheduled three all-staff town halls and drafted a public apology letter from the company to every employee and customer Richard had let down.
That night, we ordered takeout and ate it off paper plates in Richard’s old office—now my office.
My mother was on the phone with the lawyers, finalizing the divorce papers.
Madison was scrolling through her laptop, redesigning the company’s community outreach program.
And I was sitting behind the big mahogany desk, signing my name to the first stack of executive orders.
It felt strange.
Right, but strange.
Six months ago, I’d been planning to move across the country to get a master’s degree in literature.
I’d wanted nothing to do with the family business.
Now I was running it.
And weirdly… I was good at it.
Madison looked up from her laptop, pushing a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
“Hey, Nat?”
“Hmm?”
“Remember when we were kids? And we used to build those giant pillow forts in the living room and pretend we were queens of our own country? And we’d make Mom bring us snacks on a silver platter?”
I smiled, setting down my pen.
“Yeah. I remember. And then we’d fight over who got to be the high queen and who had to be the servant. You always won because you’d cry and Dad would take your side.”
She laughed, but it was a little sad.
“I was such a brat back then.”
She paused, twisting the paper plate between her fingers.
“I’m still scared, you know. All the time. Every time the phone rings, I think it’s him. Every time I see a man with gray hair on the street, my heart stops. I keep having these nightmares where he’s standing over my bed with another packet of powder. And I wake up screaming.”
My smile faded.
I got up from the desk and went to sit next to her on the couch.
“I know. I have them too. I think we all do. What he did… it doesn’t just go away because he’s in another country. It leaves scars.”
I put my arm around her shoulders.
She leaned her head against me, just like we used to do when we were really little, before Richard had pitted us against each other.
“But we get to decide what those scars mean,” I said quietly. “They can be the thing that breaks us. Or they can be the thing that makes us stronger. That reminds us never to let anyone treat us like that again. Never to let anyone divide us again.”
She nodded against my shoulder.
“Together?”
“Together.”
The door to the office burst open.
Detective Carter stood there, rain dripping off her trench coat, a huge, genuine smile on her face for the first time since I’d met her.
“Ladies. I have good news. They got him. The RCMP picked Richard up at a small airport outside Vancouver an hour ago. He was trying to charter a private plane to Hong Kong. He’s in custody. And he’s not going anywhere ever again.”
My mother dropped her phone.
Madison gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.
And me?
I just closed my eyes and let out a breath I felt like I’d been holding for my entire life.
It was over.
May you like
Finally.
Really over.
