The air inside the high-rise office building felt suddenly icy and impossible to breathe comfortably.
David stared into his wife's eyes searching for any remaining shadow of the woman he loved.
For seven years they had built their family and their family business side by side.
Now she stood before him like a complete stranger holding papers that meant total ruin.
David: You lied to me about the financial audit last night.
Eleanor: I did what was necessary to secure our future position.
David: By locking our disabled daughter inside a storage room with a infant?
Eleanor: Nobody was locked anywhere, David.
Lily: She turned off the lights, Daddy!
Lily shouted from her bench down the hallway with her small voice quivering with fear.
Lily: She said if I made a sound the police would take Sammy away!
David turned his head slowly back to face Eleanor with horror in his eyes.
David: Did you actually say that cruel thing to a child?
Eleanor: She was crying and making noise while the lawyers were signing documents.
David: You threatened our six-year-old girl to protect a financial transaction?
Eleanor: This business belongs to my family line and you know that fully well.
David took a step back as the awful truth finally clicked inside his head.
Eleanor had spent the last three months secretly meeting with corporate bankruptcy lawyers in town.
She was attempting to transfer the entire family estate and trust fund into a private overseas account.
To complete the transfer she needed David to be declared legally unfit to manage the trust.
She had created a false narrative about his mental stability using falsified medical reports from corrupt doctors.
David: You tried to frame me so you could take full control of everything.
Eleanor: You do not have the strength to run a multi-million dollar corporation anyway.
David: This was never about the corporation for me.
Eleanor: It is always about power and control in this world, my dear David.
David looked down at the briefcase he now held firmly in his own calloused hands.
He pushed the metal silver latches forward until they popped open with a sharp click.
Inside lay several stacks of signed court documents bearing his forged signature across every page.
David: You forged my name on mortgage deeds for our family home too.
Eleanor: Give that briefcase back to me right now!
David: Not a chance in this world, Eleanor.