Chapter 1 - The Doors Derek Locked
Vincent Ashcroft entered the Aspen foyer and found Laura lying beside the dark-blue rug, her cheek marked and her hand trembling against the marble.
“Get out of my house—now!”
Derek lifted his wineglass and smirked.
“You do not know what happened.”
Vincent dropped beside Laura and supported her head.
“Laura, can you hear me?”
“He locked the doors,” she whispered.
Derek moved toward the exit, struck the side table and spilled his wine across the rug.
Mason blocked him.
“Stay where you are.”
Vincent raised his radio.
“Lock the gates. Bring the investigators inside.”
Derek laughed.
“You are turning against blood because your little charity-case wife knows how to cry on command.”
Vincent’s eyes hardened.
“She is my wife. You will answer for every second she spent trapped in this room.”
Three security SUVs raced toward the mansion.
The lead investigator entered carrying a recovered camera drive.
The footage showed Derek taking Laura’s phone, blocking the doors and ordering her to sign a legal folder.
“Sign it,” he said on-screen.
“Women from families like yours do not walk away with Ashcroft money.”
Laura refused.
Then another voice came from behind the camera.
“Make her look unstable before Vincent returns.”
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Vincent recognized the speaker.
It was his older sister, Helena Ashcroft—the chairwoman of the family company.
