The Gift from My Brothers for My Birthday Was My Mother’s Broken Bangle Chapter 07

The Gift from My Brothers for My Birthday Was My Mother’s Broken Bangle Chapter 07

The moment my brothers saw the document, their expressions changed.

Ames immediately stepped in front of Pippa and glared at me.

“Romilly, haven’t you done enough?”

“You called those sketches worthless yourself. Pippa cleaned up the mess, and you signed the designs over to her.”

His voice sharpened.

“Now that she’s turned them into a finished collection, you show up trying to take the credit?”

The righteous anger on his face was almost laughable.

“I signed them over?”

I looked at the document in Pippa’s hands and gave a cold laugh.

“Forgery is a felony, Pippa.”

She shrank back, tears spilling down her cheeks.

“I didn’t forge anything.”

“She handed me the agreement while I was cleaning up and told me I could keep the sketches.”

Tiernan pulled her against his side and turned on me.

“You’re vicious, Romilly.”

“You tormented her in private, and now you’re trying to destroy her in front of the entire industry.”

His gaze shifted briefly toward Blaise.

“You think having Harcourt beside you gives you the right to rewrite what happened?”

Blaise gave a low laugh.

“You three actually think Romilly needs to steal from her?”

His gaze shifted to Pippa.

“She’s the one who’s been living off Romilly’s scraps.”

Dashiell’s face hardened.

“Mr. Harcourt, this is a private Rivington matter. Stay out of it.”

“A family matter?” I cut in.

“You had me drugged and transferred to a locked behavioral facility.”

I held his gaze.

“You lost the right to call anything between us family.”

I walked toward Pippa.

She tried to retreat, but I caught her wrist and pulled the document from her hand.

The signature looked like mine.

Even the distinctive way I connected certain letters had been copied perfectly.

The dissident shareholders behind her had clearly done their homework.

“The handwriting is convincing.”

I raised the document so the reporters gathered around the ballroom could see it.

“But you overlooked one thing, Pippa.”

Her face tightened.

“What?”

I released the paper and let it fall to the floor.

“Ordinary paper irritates my skin. Every legal document I use is printed on custom archival stock from a specialty mill in Massachusetts.”

I looked down at the forged assignment.

“Each sheet contains a unique security code visible only under ultraviolet light.”

I snapped my fingers.

Orin Beck, Blaise’s chief assistant, stepped forward with a handheld UV scanner.

He directed the light across the page.

Nothing appeared.

No code. No security fibers. No identifying mark.

I looked at Pippa.

“You couldn’t even forge it properly.”

The ballroom erupted.

Cameras swung toward the document on the floor, then toward Pippa’s bloodless face.

“She really forged it.”

“She stole the designs and fabricated an assignment?”

“How did all three Rivington brothers fall for this?”

Pippa’s knees gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.

“No. That isn’t true.”

She scrambled for the document, trying to tear it apart.

Dashiell snatched it away before she could.

He examined the paper under the UV light himself. By the time he looked up, his face had gone rigid.

“Pippa, what is this?”

She clung desperately to his pant leg.

“Dash, let me explain. Someone set me up.”

I watched her calmly.

“Save the explanation for the detectives.”

A voice rose from the crowd.

“The police are here.”

Several detectives from the Wexley Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit entered the ballroom, accompanied by uniformed officers.

One of them stepped forward.

“Pippa Wren?”

She froze.

“We have a warrant for your arrest on suspicion of trade-secret theft, intellectual-property fraud, and felony forgery.”

Pippa screamed and wrapped both arms around Ames’s leg.

“Ames, help me. I can’t go to jail.”

She looked wildly between my brothers.

“I’m Malcolm Wren’s daughter. You promised him you would take care of me.”

At Malcolm’s name, Ames flinched.

He instinctively moved between Pippa and the detectives.

“Detective, there has to be some mistake.”