I hope you all are enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it.
A new servant Brooke hadn't met before opened the door to the Forrester estate.
"They are in the library waiting, Ms. Logan," the male of indeterminate heritage and age said to her.
"Thank you," she said pleasantly, and with her head held high, she walked down the hallway to the library.
Upon opening the doors, she perused the room. She instantly noticed the whole Forrester clan had been called, even non-Forresters. Amber and Stephanie really pulled out all the stops inviting Tawny, April, and even Deacon. She smiled at what was coming.
Brooke greeted everyone in the room pleasantly. She took a seat in the front next to Amber.
"Brooke, I'm so sorry I had Ric declared legally dead, but I just- -I couldn't go on endlessly without some firm ending in sight," Amber explained to her, complete with puppy dog eyes.
The various things Brooke was dying to do ran through her mind, but the thought of her mother whacking her upside her head if she did even one of those things caused her to nod and pat Amber's hand.
"Amber, sometimes you have to do what's best for you," she replied.
Taking this as a sign of Brooke's approval, Amber smiled and turned in the other direction to talk to her mother.
Ugh, Brooke thought. She couldn't even spend two seconds and ask about Little Eric. She couldn't pretend like she cared about him. She shook her head; no, she couldn't allow herself to go down that path.
"If you're ready to begin," Connor asked of them, but mainly to her.
She nodded.
"Just so you know. I'm going to read the first line of Ric's will, skip over the legal jargon, and then continue on to his bequeathments," he informed the family.
Connor cleared his throat. "'I, Eric Forrester, Junior, being of sound mind do declare this as my last will and testament. I bequeath all my possessions to my son, Eric Forrester III.' So reads the last will and testament of Eric Forrester, Junior," he concluded.
A big grin shone on Amber's face. Brooke could see and hear the dollar signs bouncing around her head. She was amazed that Tawny could control herself from not jumping up and dancing. How did Rick ever get involved with the money hungry, trailer trash Moore family? How was Becky ever related to them?
"How soon will Rick's estate be turned over to me as the baby's guardian?" Amber asked, sounding eager.
Out of the corner of her eye, Brooke saw Ridge shake his head. From the looks of Stephanie's face, she wasn't too happy with Amber's question or maybe it was the eagerness.
"And more importantly, what does his estate consist of?" Tawny questioned.
"I'm getting to that," Connor assured the Moore family. He took out another set of documents from his briefcase and quickly read them. "Ric's estate consists of a 2002 Cadillac Escalade, his clothing, and his jewelry."
Tawny jumped out of her seat. "What are you trying to pull here! Just cause my daughter don't have some fancy education, doesn't mean she's dumb or that I'm going to sit here and let you take advantage of her," Tawny shouted at Connor.
Brooke remained quiet in her seat and kept her eyes focused on Connor. She could feel some of the Forresters' eyes turn to her.
"Tawny, calm down. Let me explain," Connor said in a soothing tone.
Brooke knew she had chosen the right man for this job.
"Connor, I'm with Tawny. Ric's estate was much more vast then those items," Stephanie declared.
"No, Stephanie and Tawny, it wasn't."
Whispering and hushed voices started buzzing around the room.
"But what about his trust fund? Why isn't that mentioned?" Amber asked, close to tears.
"And his Forrester stock?" Tawny called out.
"Brooke, what are you trying to pull?" Stephanie demanded.
"Everyone just calm down and I will clear everything up," Connor firmly told the group gathered in the library.
"First, in regards to Ric's trust fund, his usage of the funds where dependent on a number of factors including: his attending college and his living either on campus or at a Forrester owned home or estate," Connor said.
"What!" Amber shouted, in tears.
"That's not true," Stephanie exclaimed.
"Yes, it is, Mother," Ridge stated, throwing himself into the battle that was about to begin.
Everyone's stares turned to him, minus Brooke's and Connor's.
"How do you know this Ridge?" his mother asked, trying to keep the anger out of her voice.
"Brooke and I set up the trust funds after we got married. Ric nor Budge could truly touch their trust funds until they were 35 and that was only if they had been working consistently at the same job for the past five years. And they had to continue working for another ten after that or control of the trust fund would revert back to Brooke," Ridge said.
Taylor was fuming. Of course, Ridge was a part of this. Didn't it involve Brooke? When was she going to be free of this woman?
"Eric, did you know this?" Stephanie asked, demanding an answer from her estranged spouse immediately.
"I vaguely remember Brooke and Ridge telling me," Eric said quietly.
"You vaguely remember?" Stephanie said in a heated voice.
"I assumed Brooke changed it once Ric got married," Eric stated.
Stephanie groaned. "How could you go along with this?" she asked her eldest son.
"What? The trust fund stipulations only insured that Ric and Budge couldn't just live off the Forrester money. They had to work, go to college, or do both. The goal was to make sure they were hard working adults who contributed to society, not some leaches or part of the non-working jet-setting rich kid set. It was the same thing you and Dad wanted for me, Kristen, Thorne, and Felicia," Ridge reminded his mother.
"So Amber and the baby can't get any of his trust fund?" Tawny asked.
Connor shook his head. "No, because technically the trust fund wasn't his. It was money that his mother allowed him to use as long as he complied with the stipulations of the trust fund. And Amber, the trust fund has reverted all trust fund money in your joint bank account back into an account controlled by Brooke."
"No," Amber cried.
Tawny was too caught up in the travesty of what had started out as "we're in the money" day to comfort Amber.
Taylor quickly crossed the room, happy to get away from her husband, and took Amber into her arms.
"What about the stocks? I know Brooke gave him five percent of Forrester stock," Tawny declared with confidence.
"That is true, but stipulations were attached when Ric signed to have the stocks put in his name," Connor countered.
"More stipulations?" Tawny sniveled. "UGH!"
"And these stipulations were, Connor?" Stephanie asked haughtily.
"Only Ric or Brooke with Ric's permission could vote the stocks and the stocks could not be used in any sort of settlement or as a settlement. And upon Ric's death, the stocks automatically transferred to his child or children and put in a trust. Brooke controlled the trust thus also the voting rights of the stocks until the child or children became of age and met the requirements of the trust," Connor concluded.
Upon hearing Connor's final words, Tawny let out a fury of words that would have made a sailor blush. Amber cried harder and Taylor did all she could to make sure Amber didn't have a total breakdown.
Talk was rampant throughout the room.
Stephanie walked up to Brooke and got directly in her face.
"You trashy, selfish whore! How dare you treat the mother of your grandchild like this!" Stephanie spat at Brooke.
Brooke stood up and looked her ex-mother-in-law directly in the eye. "I'm a trashy whore because I was protecting my son, his sister, their children, and their birthright. Out of the generosity of my heart, I set up trust funds for my kids and gave Ric stock in the company. They didn't earn one penny of that money, they never sweated for Forrester the way I have and had. I earned the money and the company," Brooke said in a rock steady tone.
"Yeah, on your back," Macy shouted out.
Without taking her eyes off Stephanie, she asked, "How much stock do you own in Spectra, Macy?"
Macy silently glared at Brooke.
"That's what I thought. I wasn't going to let some money hungry people sweep into my children's lives and take advantage of them and all I worked to create—"
"You mean what Eric and I worked to create. You stole this company from us," Stephanie reminded Brooke.
"Without BeLieF, Forrester wouldn't be where it is today. Without my lingerie line, we couldn't have afforded to open even half the stores that we have. It wasn't you, Eric, Thorne, or even Ridge that was down in that basement day after day, night after night, testing and retesting formulas. That was all ME. And if you hadn't been so greedy and selfish and tried to cheat me out of my fair share of BeLieF, I wouldn't be the major stockholder in a company that you and Eric built from the ground up. But maybe you didn't hear your mother when she told you, 'Cheaters never win,'" Brooke informed Stephanie.
She calmly brushed her hair out of her face with her fingers.
"Now, if you need anything please contact me through Megan."
Brooke picked up her purse, nodded at Connor and left the room.
"Slut," Macy shouted to her.
Thorne quickly shushed Macy.
Happy to leave behind Amber's wailing, Tawny's screaming profanities, and all the other emotions that were so incredibly tangent in the library, Brooke strode to the door like there was no tomorrow, until a hand spun her around.
"Stephanie, really, haven't we said everything we had to say to each other?" Brooke asked exasperated.
"Amber deserves money to raise Rick's son so what are you giving her?" Stephanie spat at her.
"Ah speaking of Little Eric," Brooke said, reaching into her purse and handing Stephanie a document, "here you go."
Stephanie quickly read the document. "There's no way in hell I will let you ruin another's child life. Look what happened to poor Ric and Bridget."
Brooke prayed silently for peace and calmness because she wanted to slap Stephanie silly. She exhaled slowly. "The children you claimed to love died in a tragic accident, but I'm sure they'd be delighted to know their Aunt Stephanie, who had lost a child of her own, was throwing their deaths in their mother's face. Classy Stephanie, real classy. But you're right, Amber doesn't have to sign away her parental rights and allow me to adopt Little Eric. We can proceed directly to the custody battle of all custody battles. Where every Forrester secret will be plastered all over the pages of the Enquirer, Star, US Weekly, the Mirror, People."
"You wouldn't dare," Stephanie said vehemently.
"Where would it all begin? Maybe at the beginning when a man old enough to be my father, who also once dated my mother and was the father of my ex fiancé and grandfather of my miscarried baby, wooed me. And me being so unaccustomed to the attention was so flattered; I mistook my feelings for love and then was impregnated by Eric Forrester. Maybe then we could fast forward to me creating BeLieF or maybe when you guys tried to steal the rights away from me. Lawyers could bring out Bridget's paternity issues, Rick's shooting incident, Thorne's shooting incident," Brooke said.
She put a finger to her mouth, pretending like she was thinking of more incidents to recite.
Stephanie's face became redder and redder.
"We could talk about how you and Eric tried to take my kids, my many marriages to Ridge, the men I used to get over Ridge, maybe we can discuss how Eric only saw the kids at my insistence though he was a great father to his grown kids, then when the lawyer you've hired for Amber finishes dragging me through the mud then my lawyer can start on Amber. How she as an adult, hired to protect and watch Ric and Bridget, seduced and molested my teenage son, who was a virgin. I could kick myself for not having her charged with child molestation, damn Rick's puppy love feelings for her. She stole my baby's innocence and I let her get away with it. And then to add insult to injury after she allowed herself to get pregnant, I let you and Eric convince me to let her marry my son, whom she molested. My poor son."
"They were in love," Stephanie claimed.
Brooke took some deep breaths, ignoring Stephanie's statement.
"I will never forgive myself for the travesty that became Ric's life once I allowed Amber into it, but rest assured I won't let her do that to my Little Eric. I have nothing left to lose as you pointed out. My older children are dead and Little Eric is too young to understand all the mud slinging. And if there's one thing I've learned since this tragedy, began it is that Forrester can be run from anywhere. So you can get Massimo to threaten my family or me, but if she doesn't sign those papers, the battle will be on. That trailer trash, money hungry, child molester won't have any say or dealings with Little Eric," Brooke finished and slammed the door on her leave.