<spanng="EN">Roger’s POV


    <spanng="EN">Holy shit, I can’t believe my mother actually made the police arrest Elizabeth. I knew exactly what Elizabeth meant, and I was scared. My lies were catching up with me fast, but with my mother insisting that she be arrested, there was nothing I could do. She was already in handcuffs, and I needed to get her out of this as quickly as possible. I can only go to the station and bail her out, and talk Mom out of the bogus charges. I had spoken to my mother at length in the car ride homest night.


    <spanng="EN">She acted as if she heard me, that she understood it wasn’t my house in the first ce, yet she’s here pushing this today. Wait, why is she here now? I turned and looked at Sasha, and with the big smile on her face, I knew she had told my mother that Elizabeth was going to be here today at one. This was not a coincidence. This was a coordinated attack. How could they be so stupid? This is going to backfire so badly on thepany, and them. Did they not understand that?


    <spanng="EN">I wanted to scream. Elizabeth didn’t even argue. She just started firing off instructions like she expected this to happen. I knew she told me that Mom had threatened herst night, but I hadn’t expected Mom to go this far with it. Arresting Elizabeth for selling her own house, my head is really starting to hurt. I can almost see the headlines on this now. Both bodyguards started recording the moment they saw the police. They weren’t involved in this, so why are they recording?


    <spanng="EN">“Mom, please stop what you’re doing. Do you want to go to jail yourself? Please think about what you just said. Elizabeth is in handcuffs now, and you’re swearing out a statement that shemitted fraud. Are you so willing to take the chance of going to jail yourself if they find out you lied? Why would you do this?” I asked. This entire situation has gottenpletely out of hand.


    <spanng="EN">“What’s she going to do, Roger? She’s an orphan. Who’s going to help her? These men are only actors. Sasha already told me what Elizabeth’s trying to do. Elizabeth’s just here trying to get you back, but it’s toote. I will never let her be with you. I told you when she begged you to marry her, that she wasn’t worthy of the Cook name,” Joyce replied with a smug smile.


    <spanng="EN">I hear one of the men scoff, but I couldn’t tell who did it. I red at the group of men before speaking, regardless, Mom, Elizabeth helped me create mypany from the ground up. She’s owed respect if only for that. She’s tied to mypany. If she looks bad, we look bad. Why would you do this? I’ve exined to you several times that the vi was never my home. It never had my name on the title. Are you trying to ruin me?” I asked.


    <spanng="EN">“You lived there, Roger; it was your home. You had possession of the house, son. Until it was legally taken from you, you couldn’t break in and pack you up like that. Stop defending her. I warned her, and yet she still humiliated you. I won’t let her go,” my mother snapped out. Before turning to the officers and saying, “Well, what are you waiting for? Take her to jail.”


    <spanng="EN">“Ma’am, if you wille with us. I’m sure we will have it sorted quickly,” one of the officers politely told Elizabeth. The female officer took her upper arm and led her to the elevator.


    <spanng="EN">“We will sort it quickly. My attorney has already called my realtor. She will bring the necessary paperwork to clear this up quickly. If I might ask, what proof did she provide that the home didn’t belong to me?” Elizabeth asked calmly.


    <spanng="EN">“It doesn’t matter, Elizabeth. If you doe up with any paperwork saying you’re the owner, it’s going to be forged,” Joyce answered before they could.


    <spanng="EN">“If it doesn’t say that I’m the legal owner, then it was actually forged. I can’t believe that you would involve your daughter in this, Joyce. You do know that Regina is going to go down with you. Forging legal documents is against thew. Whoever forged that paperwork for you is going to lose their job. Do you think they’ll remain silent about who asked them to do it, once that happens? I can assure you that I won’t be pursuing the man who helped her. That will be between his job and the police. But the fact that you and Regina hate me enough to do this doesn’t shock me. I don’t know who came up with the idea, but this is going to backfire on you spectacrly. I already know that you have people waiting downstairs for me to be brought out in handcuffs.” Elizabeth stopped speaking to nce over at Sasha with a pointed look, before looking back at my mother and giving a lowugh.


    <spanng="EN">“Joyce, one day, very soon, you’re going to be very sorry for what you’ve done to me. It’s one thing to waste my time, but to do all this, in order to try to make me look bad? It’s truly pathetic,” Elizabeth said with a small smile. It was as if she had already known what my mother was nning to do all along. This was really not good.


    <spanng="EN">My mother ispletely delusional. I’m sure Sasha had her hand in this as well. They both think Elizabeth will be unable to defend herself, but they’re wrong. She showed up with her attorney. I knew they were up to somethingtest night. I hate that I knew Elizabeth was correct. Which means that there were reporters outside. This was going to be so bad for my business. Do they not care, or do they simply not understand the problem they’ve created for me? I have to go downstairs with my mother. I need to stop her. She’s about to ruin me, to try to hurt Elizabeth. I’m trying to be nice to her, as I need her designs. Now they’ve pushed her so far, she’ll never sign my documents.


    <spanng="EN">Rodney was on the phone before Elizabeth was even handcuffed. “Where are you taking her?” he finally asked.


    <spanng="EN">“Central booking,” they answered as they guided her to the elevator.


    <spanng="EN">“They’re taking her to Central, okay, see you soon,” he said before ending the call. “Christine is on her way.”


    <spanng="EN">“Good, this should be settled quickly. Make sure that Joyce carries the bulk of the charges,” Elizabeth replied.


    <spanng="EN">“Already ahead of you,” Rodney answered with a smile. “While I’m waiting to get you out, I’ll call around to see if a judge will sign an injunction to stop all jewelry production for Cook Custom Jewelry until we get this straightened out. The charges are really piling up.”


    <spanng="EN">“Wait, you don’t have to do that. I can assure you that I’ll stop production myself. Don’t do this, Elizabeth.


    <spanng="EN">Please, I swear I won’t use your designs anymore. Don’t you understand that ourpany can’t survive for long if you do that?” I stated as a reminder. I could see that Rodney is fully intent on ruining me.


    <spanng="EN">“Your promises mean nothing to me, Roger. I do know exactly what’s about to happen. You chose this when you refused to tell the truth to your family and friends. You told them that I was just an annoying designer who refused to leave you alone, instead of your partner and Co–owner of thispany. I also know that when I exit this building handcuffed, there will be a number of reporters stationed outside. There’s a reason I was so put together today, Roger. I already knew that they would try to humiliate me. But we’ll see who has thestugh. I was wrong. I should never have asked you to marry me. I know that, now. You were never the man I thought you were. You deceived me into believing you cared for me. I hate I fell for that fantasy because that man never truly existed,” Elizabeth replied.


    <spanng="EN">“What are you talking about, Elizabeth? It’s ourpany. We’re in this together. Stopping production affects both of us,” I insisted. Elizabeth’s smile made me freeze in ce. Didn’t she realize that, or did she just not care anymore?


    <spanng="EN">The elevator pinged, and as they entered, I heard Elizabeth ask, “Please, I don’t want to ride down with her.


    <spanng="EN">Can she ride down on the next one? I’ve had about as much of her as I can take today.”


    <spanng="EN">“Not a problem. She can follow us to the police station. She still needs to fill out her statement,” the female officer quickly replied.


    <spanng="EN">“No, I’m going down with you,” Joyce insisted.


    <spanng="EN">“Sorry, there’s no more room,” one of her bodyguards responded as they both stepped into the elevator.


    <spanng="EN">Her bodyguard then motioned for Rodney toe stand between them, stepping over to make room for him. The doors closed with Elizabeth grinning at my mother. I knew my mother wanted to be there to incite the reporters. This is really bad. My mother’s going to cause a scene that’s about to be recorded. I want to scream at my mother and Sasha, but several employees were standing around watching what happened.


    <spanng="EN">Some were even recording. This is horrible publicity. Why would Sasha and my mother do this to me? Are they truly that clueless? Were they trying to ruin me?


    <spanng="EN">I called the elevator back up, and I was starting to sweat by the time it arrived. It seemed like it took forever to catch up with them. There were several reporters outside, just as Elizabeth predicted. My mother and Sasha smiled as they saw the reporters surrounding Elizabeth and calling out questions as she was escorted to the squad car. It was obvious they had nned this. They were making my business look bad.


    <spanng="EN">Elizabeth’s bodyguards helped block her from the cameras, but there were at least twenty reporters out here.


    <spanng="EN">This had been a set–up, and Elizabeth had fallen into their trap. I used to respect my mother, but thest few months she’s really shown her true colors. She wanted Elizabeth thrown out on her ear, with nothing. Why did she think Elizabeth didn’t deserve to get her investment back? I was going to pay her the millions I owed her, with interest. I just hadn’t told them that. I was going to go forward with our marriage. It might not be legal, but I needed Elizabeth. She knew what she was doing in the business world. I wasn’t a fool. Only with Elizabeth by my side would thepany continue to flourish.


    <spanng="EN">The reporters left Elizabeth as she wasn’t responding, and rushed back to us. I see my sister is now here, also dressed up. I was gritting my teeth so hard, my jaw actually ached. I would straighten them all out tonight. I walked away right before the reporters descended on us like vultures. Firing off question after question. Some called out after me as I walked away, but I ignored their questions.


    <spanng="EN">I needed to get Elizabeth out of jail before she got really pissed and refused to cooperate at all. This was a fucking mess. I don’t know how it got to be this bad, this fast, but it’s not what I wanted to happen at all. I will deal with them tonight, but they’re actions may have just destroyed my business.