Victoria: What did you just say to me?
Marcus: You heard me perfectly, Victoria. Or should I call you Rachel Vance?
Victoria's mouth fell open, her face draining of color until she looked like a ghost against the dark rug.
Victoria: How... Where did you hear that name?
Marcus: You thought you could bury your real identity in Florida and walk into my life as a high-society heiress?
Victoria: I changed my name legally after my parents passed away! That is completely within my legal rights!
Marcus: You didn't change your name because of your parents, Victoria. You changed it to escape a grand jury indictment in Miami.
Elena walked back into the living room holding little Clara, who was now quietly whimpering against a thick gauze wrap.
Elena: The private pediatrician is speeding through the front security gates right now, Mr. Sterling.
Marcus: Thank you, Elena. Keep her close. Don't let this viper anywhere near her.
Victoria: I am your lawful fiancee, Marcus! We signed a prenuptial agreement guaranteeing me fifty million dollars!
Marcus: That prenuptial agreement was signed by 'Victoria Sterling.' A person who does not legally exist.
Victoria: You signed the contract in front of our corporate lawyers! You cannot back out of our merger now!
Marcus: A contract signed under a fraudulent identity is void from the second the ink touches the paper.
Victoria pushed herself up with her uninjured hand, her white dress stained with soot from the burning iron.
Victoria: You need my family's maritime shipping routes to keep Sterling Global afloat! You can't cast me out!
Marcus: Your family never owned those shipping routes, Victoria. Your uncle stole them from an offshore trust.
Victoria: That is slander! My uncle Arthur built that fleet over thirty years of hard work!
Marcus: Arthur Vance was arrested by federal marshals in Houston forty minutes ago.
Victoria gasped, her body trembling so violently that she nearly collapsed back onto the coffee table.
Victoria: Uncle Arthur... arrested? No, that's impossible! He was meeting with the port commissioners this morning!
Marcus: The port commissioners handed his private offshore banking records directly to the Department of Justice.
Elena: She spent fifteen thousand dollars on that white dress yesterday, sir. Using the estate credit card.
Marcus: An estate credit card backed by Clara's maternal trust fund.
Victoria: I had every right to use household expense accounts! I was running this mansion!
Marcus: You were stealing from an infant whose mother passed away six months ago.
Victoria: Sarah is dead, Marcus! Why does everyone in this city treat that dead woman like a saint?!
Marcus: Because Sarah built this company with her bare hands, while you only know how to destroy.
Victoria sneered through her tears, her burned hand throbbing with angry red blisters.
Victoria: Sarah died broke! Her family company was drowning in debt until you took over!
Marcus: Sarah's family created the software patents that power every cargo terminal from Galveston to Seattle.
Victoria: And now those patents belong to an illegitimate brat who will never even understand business!
Marcus took two slow, menacing steps toward her, his jaw clenching so hard the muscle twitched.
Marcus: Clara is my legitimate daughter and the sole heir to eighty million dollars in voting stock.
Victoria: Not if she doesn't survive her childhood, Marcus!
The horrifying sentence hung in the heavy air of the grand living room like thick poison.
Elena gasped in absolute horror, pulling the baby further behind her back.
Marcus stopped in his tracks, a terrifying smile spreading across his lips as he reached into his jacket pocket.
Marcus: Thank you for saying that out loud, Victoria. You just handed me everything I needed.