Chapter 4 - The Eviction of the Brooks Estate
Two weeks later.
The icy winter winds blew hard across the wealthy suburb of Lake Forest, where Charles and Diane Brooks owned a sprawling six-bedroom brick estate.
A large yellow moving van was parked in the circular driveway.
Diane stood on the front lawn, wrapped in a mink coat, screaming hysterically at two uniformed sheriff's deputies who were placing foreclosure tags on the grand double doors.
"You can't do this!" Diane shrieked, tears ruining her heavy makeup. "This house has been in the Brooks family for twenty years! My husband's lawyers will have you fired by noon!"
"Mrs. Brooks," the senior deputy replied, holding up a certified court order. "The property has been seized under a federal asset forfeiture warrant related to the Department of Defense fraud investigation. All secondary bank accounts, vehicle leases, and personal property lines tied to Charles and Ryan Brooks have been frozen."
I pulled my SUV up to the curb, keeping the heater running. I was seven months pregnant now, wearing a warm wool coat over my uniform. Beside me sat Major Sterling.
I opened the car door and stepped out onto the snowy driveway.
When Diane saw me, her face contorted in pure, unadulterated venom. She rushed across the snow toward me, but two deputies immediately stepped between us.
"You monster!" Diane screamed, her voice cracking against the freezing air. "You destroyed our family! You put my husband in jail! You took Ryan’s trust fund! You threw Madison out of her college apartment!"
I stood quietly in the snow, looking at the woman who had watched her husband burn my belly with a cigarette and told me to 'think about the baby.'
"Your family destroyed itself, Diane," I said, my voice clear and unwavering. "You lived for twenty years on money stolen from military contracts, stolen from your son’s wife, and built on lies. You thought because I was quiet, I was weak."
Madison ran out of the front door, crying hysterically, holding two designer handbags. "Mom! The deputies said we can only take one bag of clothes each! They're locking the garage! They took the Range Rover!"
"Elena, please!" Diane suddenly dropped her arrogant tone, dropping to her knees in the slush near my boots, her hands clasped together in desperate begging. "Ryan is your husband! He's the father of your baby! How can you do this to your child's father?!"
I looked down at her.
"Ryan chose his father's greed over his daughter's safety," I said. "He signed a full parental rights surrender agreement two days ago in exchange for a reduced federal sentence. My daughter will never know his name. She will never hear his voice. And she will never, ever be near your family."
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I turned back to my SUV, opened the door, and sat inside the warm cabin.
As we pulled away from the Lake Forest estate, I looked in the side mirror and saw Diane and Madison standing alone in the falling snow beside their single bags of clothes, while the sheriff's deputies locked the iron gates of the estate forever.
