Maria: Mr. Sterling, let me get a clean ice pack and a sterile bandage from the medical kit in the pantry.
Richard: Thank you, Maria. Bring the burn ointment too, and call Dr. Harrison to come to the house immediately.
Maria: Right away, sir.
Maria hurried out of the master bathroom, leaving Richard kneeling on the floor beside Mia. He pulled a dry cotton towel from the linen rack, carefully wrapping it around his daughter's shoulders while holding her burned hand gently in his palm.
Mia: Is she ever coming back, Daddy?
Richard: Never, Mia. I promise you, on my life, that woman will never set foot inside this house again.
Mia: She said... she said if I told you about the papers in her dresser, she would send my dog away.
Richard paused, his brow furrowing as he looked down into his daughter's tear-filled eyes.
Richard: What papers in her dresser, Mia?
Mia: The big blue folders with the red stamps... I saw her putting your name on them with a special pen yesterday.
Richard: Forging my signature...
There was a swift knock at the bathroom doorway, and Arthur, Richard's primary corporate attorney, stepped inside holding a leather briefcase and a tablet.
Arthur: Richard! I came as fast as I could! I saw the police cruisers outside! Is Mia alright?
Richard: She has a chemical burn on her hand, Arthur, but Maria is bringing an ice pack now. Look at her dresser in the master bedroom immediately.
Arthur: Her dresser? Why, what's in there?
Richard: Mia saw her forging my signature on estate documents yesterday. That's why Victoria was trying to punish her today—she was trying to scare my daughter into silence!
Arthur didn't hesitate. He walked quickly out of the bathroom and into the adjoining master bedroom suite. A minute later, he returned with a thick stack of legal folders in his hands, his face pale with shock.
Arthur: Good Lord, Richard... look at these filings.
Richard: What did she do, Arthur?
Arthur: She drafted fraudulent power of attorney papers and attempted to transfer five million dollars from Mia's inheritance trust fund into an offshore shell company in the Cayman Islands!
Richard: She was stealing my daughter's inheritance...
Arthur: The transfer was scheduled to execute this Friday at midnight. If you hadn't caught her today, she would have drained the entire trust account before the probate court audit next month!
Richard: Add grand larceny, corporate fraud, and forgery to the police charges, Arthur. I want federal prosecutors handling this case by tomorrow morning.
Arthur: On it, Richard. With the security video of the assault and these forged documents, she