Chapter 15 - The Unexpected Visitor at the Lodge
The crisp autumn air of the Hocking Hills carried the faint scent of woodsmoke and pine needles as Brooke walked across the gravel courtyard of the estate, carrying a stack of revised flight-training curriculum folders toward the main administration building.
The foundation was thriving beyond her wildest expectations. Dozens of enthusiastic young cadets were currently participating in ground-school sessions, and the local community had fully embraced the preservation initiatives. Brooke felt a profound sense of rootedness, finally belonging to the land her father had spent a lifetime building.
Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her wool jacket. She pulled it out, expecting a message from Marcus regarding their next scheduled cargo flight out of Indianapolis. Instead, the screen displayed an unknown local mobile number.
Frowning slightly, Brooke thumbed the speaker button. “This is Captain Sullivan. Who is this?”
“Brooke. Don't hang up.”
Brooke stopped dead in her tracks. The voice was tight, breathless, and unmistakably her older brother’s. The last time she had heard that voice, he was screaming obscenities from the driver's seat of his car while fleeing the estate in utter disgrace.
“Derek?” Brooke’s voice turned ice-cold, her hand tightening around the stack of folders. “How did you get this number? And why are you calling me?”
“I’m calling because your entire life here is about to be systematically destroyed,” Derek blurted out, his voice cracking with a frantic, unhinged edge. “Brooke, you don't understand what you're dealing with. The creditors who bought my corporate debt portfolio... they aren't going away. They’ve launched a forensic audit of Dad’s business records, and they found severe financial discrepancies from his final year.”
Brooke’s eyes narrowed. She took a slow, deliberate breath, refusing to let panic take hold. “What kind of discrepancies, Derek? If you mismanaged the company accounts, that’s your legal problem, not mine. The estate and the foundation are protected by airtight trusts filed directly through Arthur Harrison.”
“Not anymore!” Derek shouted frantically over the phone. “They’re claiming Dad commingled corporate funds with private accounts before he died! They’re threatening to file criminal fraud charges against the estate—and against me! Unless we hand over a controlling financial settlement to settle the debt, they’re going to slap an emergency federal injunction on this entire property, freeze your foundation's bank accounts, and drag our family name through the mud!”
Brooke stood completely motionless in the center of the gravel courtyard. A cool gust of wind swept down from the ridge, rustling the golden canopy of oak trees above her. She didn't believe a single word of Derek’s melodramatic hysterics—not because she trusted corporate creditors, but because she knew her father. Walter Sullivan may have been emotionally distant, but he was a fiercely meticulous, honorable businessman who never left legal loopholes for corporate scavengers to exploit.
“If there are legal claims against the estate, Derek, Mr. Harrison’s firm will handle them through the proper judicial channels,” Brooke said calmly, her voice steady and resolute. “I am not handing over a single cent of this foundation, and I am certainly not signing over control of this property to you or your shady creditors.”
“You arrogant little fool!” Derek shrieked, dropping all pretense of brotherly concern. “They are going to destroy everything Dad built! They’re going to tear down your precious scholarship foundation, and you’re going to lose your pilot’s license when the regulatory fallout hits your airline employer! Meet me at the estate gates in one hour. We can sign the settlement papers before the injunction hits, or you can watch your entire life burn to the ground!”
*Click.*
The line went dead.
Brooke lowered the phone slowly, staring at the darkened screen. Her heart beat with a slow, controlled rhythm. She wasn't terrified; she was furious. Derek was still playing the exact same manipulative, desperate game he had played their entire lives, trying to bully and intimidate everyone around him to cover up his own catastrophic failures.
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Without hesitation, Brooke turned on her heel, walked briskly toward her office in the main lodge, and immediately dialed Arthur Harrison’s private direct line.
***
