The office was quiet, lit up brightly by the sun coming through the high window blinds.
Sarah placed Emma safely into a small portable playpen situated in the corner of the room.
She walked over to the desk and opened up the security monitoring system on the main desktop computer.
Mark stood right behind her shoulder, his eyes fixed on the glass monitor screen with total focus.
Victoria stood near the office doorway, clutching her hands together while sweating under her bright green dress.
Victoria: You are wasting your time with those old cameras, Sarah.
Sarah: We installed new high-definition motion cameras last week, Victoria.
Sarah clicked on the recorded footage file labeled for the upper hallway and staircase angle.
The screen showed the second-floor landing five minutes before the scary event had occurred upstairs.
Victoria appeared on the video screen wearing her green silk dress and walking toward the safety gate.
She reached down with both hands and unlatched the heavy wooden lock on top of the gate.
Then she opened the gate fully and pushed it back against the wall so it stayed open wide.
She stepped back into her bedroom for twenty seconds before setting Emma down on the hallway runner carpet.
She stood near the balcony wall with her arms crossed, watching the baby crawl toward the open drop.
Mark let out a cold, sharp breath as he watched the clear screen play out the entire event.
Mark: You opened the gate yourself.
Victoria: I was going to carry her down the stairs with me!
Sarah: You walked away and let her crawl straight toward the marble steps!
Victoria: It was a simple mistake, Mark, you have to believe me!
Mark: That was not a mistake, that was putting my baby in grave danger!
Mark turned away from the screen and looked directly at Victoria with cold, stern eyes.
The wealthy lifestyle Victoria enjoyed inside the house was suddenly coming to a complete stop.
She had lived in the mansion under the trust fund created by Mark's late father years ago.
Now her place inside the home was completely ruined by her own terrible actions on camera.
Mark: Hand over your house keys right now.