Chapter 13 - The Arrest of Brooke Hawthorne
The arrest warrant was signed at 4:15 PM on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. Two state troopers and Detective Vance didn't wait for Brooke to come to them; they served the warrant directly at the luxury Georgetown townhouse where she was hiding out with her latest wealthy benefactor.
According to the police report, Brooke had been packing her designer luggage, attempting to book a one-way first-class flight to Zurich using a stolen credit card linked to one of Dad’s hidden offshore accounts before the federal asset freeze locked it down.
When the officers breached the front door, Brooke screamed hysterically, throwing a crystal perfume bottle at the lead trooper—a move that instantly added felony assault of a police officer to her growing indictment sheet.
By 7:00 PM, she was booked into the county detention facility, placed in a high-security holding unit just three cells away from our father.
May you like
The news broke nationwide within the hour. The headline on every major news network read: *Georgetown Socialite Arrested for Cold-Case Murder of Her Own Mother Following Disastrous Wedding Day Poisoning.*
Internet commentators who had previously debated whether my wedding drama was staged for social clout were now horrified by the sheer, sociopathic depravity of my family. My phone stopped buzzing with media requests because Ethan’s PR firm had established an impenetrable legal firewall, protecting my privacy while the wheels of justice ground inexorably forward.
