Victoria: You can't just throw me out, Richard! The catering company is already setting up the backyard, and the press is waiting outside the gates!
Richard: Then tell the press to pack up their cameras, because there is no bride!
Maya: Daddy... please don't yell. My head hurts.
Richard immediately softened his tone, kneeling back down beside Maya's wheelchair and gently tucking the dry suit jacket around her neck.
Richard: I'm sorry, sweetie. I won't yell anymore. You're safe now. Nobody is ever going to hurt you in this house again.
Victoria: Safe? You're coddling her! This is exactly why she's so weak and dependent on you!
Richard: Shut your mouth, Victoria! If you say another word to my daughter, I will have security throw you onto the street right now!
Victoria: You wouldn't dare. My father is a major investor in your real estate firm!
Richard: I don't care if your father owns the entire company! My daughter's safety is worth more than every single property in Dallas!
Maya: Daddy... is Mommy really gone because of me?
Richard: No, baby! Never! Who told you such a awful thing?
Maya: Victoria said... she said Mommy ran away because my hospital bills were taking all the inheritance money.
Richard: That is a complete and total lie! Your mother loved you more than life itself!
Victoria: Oh, please! Tell her the truth, Richard! Tell her how her mother left town the second things got difficult!
Richard: Sarah didn't leave because of Maya! Sarah disappeared because someone forced her out!
Victoria's face suddenly went pale, her confident smile instantly vanishing as she adjusted her golden sequined dress.
Victoria: What... what are you implying by that?
Richard: I've been reviewing the mansion's security archives from two years ago, Victoria. The night Sarah went missing, her car never left the north gate.
Victoria: She took a taxi! Everyone knows she took a private car service to the airport!
Richard: Except there was no record of any taxi booking on her phone or credit cards. But there was a wire transfer from your private bank account to a driver that very same night.
Victoria: That was for my personal assistant! That had nothing to do with Sarah!
Richard: Is that why you were so eager to move into this house six months later? To make sure nobody asked questions about what really happened to my wife?
Victoria: You're talking nonsense! You're making up wild conspiracy theories because you're stressed about the wedding!
Richard: Am I? Then why did I find Sarah's old journal hidden inside your luggage this morning?
Victoria gasped, her hand flying to her throat as her eyes darted frantically toward the grand staircase.
Victoria: You went through my personal bags?!
Richard: You hid her diary inside a locked vanity case. A diary where she wrote about your repeated threats to ruin our family if she didn't divorce me!
Maya: Mommy had a diary?
Richard: Yes, sweetie. And Mommy wrote down everything this woman said to her before she went missing.
Victoria: That diary proves nothing! Sarah was paranoid! She was seeing doctors for emotional distress!
Richard: Because you were poisoning her mind, just like you tried to do to Maya today!
Victoria: I am calling my lawyer right now. This is defamation!
Richard: Go ahead and call him. But he'd better meet you down at the police station, because the homicide detectives are already on their way!