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The tension inside the executive suite at Forrester Creations was suffocating, the kind that pressed down on the chest and made every breath feel deliberate. Ridge stood rigid by the window, staring out at a city that carried on as if nothing were wrong, even as his world quietly collapsed behind him. Brooke sat across from him, hands clenched, watching the man she loved struggle to voice a truth that had already hollowed him out.

When Ridge finally spoke, there was no drama left in his tone—only resignation. The project they had pinned everything on hadn’t just failed. It had detonated. The numbers were unforgiving. The debt was crushing. And the future of Forrester Creations now dangled over a financial abyss with no obvious way back.

Brooke felt the weight of it immediately. This wasn’t another scandal they could survive with apologies and time. This was extinction. Forrester Creations wasn’t just a business—it was blood, history, and identity. And while Ridge searched for answers, Brooke had already gone somewhere dangerous in her desperation. Quietly. Secretly. She had reached out to an anonymous investor, believing discretion could save what pride could not. Selling part of the company felt like treason, but she told herself it was survival. Lose a piece to save the whole.

Exhausted and emotionally cornered, Ridge trusted her. He didn’t ask the questions he should have. He leaned on faith—on Brooke—because he had nothing left to give.

The meeting was set. The contracts were ready. And when the door finally opened, reality turned savage.

Sheila Carter walked in.

Confident. Calm. Smiling like she already owned the room—because she did.

The truth hit like a physical blow. Sheila wasn’t there to negotiate. She was there to confirm. Shares purchased. Authority transferred. The empire Ridge had spent his life protecting from her was now stamped with her name. Not by force. By betrayal.

Ridge went numb. This cut deeper than bankruptcy. Deeper than failure. Brooke—the one person he trusted—had unknowingly handed his greatest enemy everything. Brooke collapsed under the realization, horror flooding in as she understood the magnitude of her mistake. She hadn’t saved the company. She had delivered it to the one woman who would relish tearing it apart from the inside.

Sheila reveled in the devastation. This wasn’t business—it was revenge. Power, at last, was hers. And she made it clear she intended to use it. Restructuring. New priorities. A complete transformation of Forrester Creations—into something unrecognizable.

Then Steffy stormed in.

One look at Sheila ignited years of trauma and fury. Steffy didn’t scream. She promised. This would not stand. Whatever it took, she would fight to reclaim her family’s legacy.

In the days that followed, Sheila moved fast, asserting dominance and dismantling the old guard. Fear spread. Loyalty cracked. Ridge spiraled, questioning who he was without the company that defined him. Brooke drowned in guilt, knowing apologies meant nothing now.

But Steffy sharpened. She studied contracts. Gathered allies. Looked for cracks. And when Sheila threatened to erase the very soul of Forrester design, something reignited in Ridge. Despair hardened into resolve.

This was no longer about money.

It was about identity.

And as Sheila stood convinced she had already won, the Foresters prepared for something far more dangerous than negotiation.

A reckoning.