Richard: What adoption papers, Maria?
Maria: The official guardianship documents for Toby's trust fund! I saw her scanning them on her phone twenty minutes ago!
Victoria: She's making up wild fantasies, Richard! I was just looking for a pen to sign the rehearsal dinner invitations!
Richard: My private study is locked with a digital keypad, Victoria. How did you get inside?
Victoria: I... I found the code written on your desk calendar last week!
Richard: I never write security codes on my desk calendar! You stole the master key card from my briefcase!
Richard handed baby Toby gently back to Maria, ensuring the infant was wrapped safely in a soft cashmere blanket before standing up to his full height. His tall frame cast a long shadow over the gold-clad woman as he took three aggressive steps forward.
Richard: What were you doing with my son's trust fund papers, Victoria?
Victoria: Nothing! I was just curious about the family estate arrangements!
Richard: Curiosities don't require scanning legal filings with a document app on your phone!
Victoria: Richard, please! Lower your voice! The catering staff is outside setting up the garden tables!
Richard: Let them hear every single word! I want everyone in Dallas to know who you really are!
Victoria: You're acting like a paranoid lunatic! I am going to be your wife! I have a right to know how our assets are structured!
Richard: Toby's inheritance is not an asset! It is a private trust left by his late mother!
Victoria: A trust that gives a nine-month-old child control over sixty percent of the Sterling family stock! It's absurd!
Richard: It is his birthright! And you tried to find a legal loophole to take it from him!
Victoria: He's a baby! He doesn't know what money is! My family could manage those shares far better than a bank trustee!
Richard: So that's what this whole marriage was about... You didn't care about me or my family. You wanted control of my late wife's estate shares!
Victoria's lips curled into a cold, arrogant smirk as her fake sweetness completely vanished. She smoothed down the front of her sequined gown, crossing her arms as she looked up at him with total detachment.
Victoria: So what if I did? Your late wife has been dead for two years, Richard. You needed a high-society woman to represent your firm, and I needed the voting power to save my father's holdings. It was a perfect business deal.
Richard: A business deal? You pretended to love my son just to get close to his inheritance!
Victoria: I pretended to tolerate him! But he's a noisy, demanding little creature who constantly gets in my way!
Richard: Get out of my sight before I call security to throw you into the driveway!
Victoria: Go ahead and call them! But you can't erase the legal addendum I filed with your corporate board this morning!
Richard: What addendum?! What did you do?!