Victoria: What is that folder? Why are you waving legal files in my face?
Marcus: This is the forensic audit from Clara's testamentary trust fund.
Victoria: Clara died two years ago, Marcus! Her money belongs to the woman running this household!
Marcus: You never ran this household, Victoria. You spent six months trying to steal an infant's legacy.
Victoria: I gave up my high-society lifestyle in Manhattan to marry you!
Marcus: You gave up nothing, Victoria. Your Manhattan art gallery went bankrupt thirty months ago.
Victoria: That was an economic downturn! Everyone in the luxury sector suffered!
Marcus: You owed twelve million dollars to private lenders who were threatening to seize your father's estate.
Victoria backed up toward the marble fireplace, her gown brushing against the brass andirons.
Victoria: That debt was supposed to be absorbed by our corporate merger!
Marcus: Sterling Global is not a debt-clearance fund for corrupt socialites, Victoria.
Victoria: You signed our partnership agreement! You promised to support my family name!
Marcus: I promised to marry an honest woman who loved my motherless son.
Victoria: I tried to love him! But every time I look at him, I see Clara's face!
Marcus: Because he is Clara's flesh and blood. And Clara had more honor than your entire bloodline.
Victoria: Clara was weak! She died in a hospital bed while you were overseas closing contracts!
Marcus: Clara didn't die of natural illness, Victoria.
The entire grand room went dead silent, the temperature seeming to drop ten degrees in a single second.
Victoria froze against the mantelpiece, her manicured fingers digging into the carved stone.
Victoria: What... What did you just say to me?
Marcus: The Dallas County medical examiner exhumed Clara's tissue samples three days ago.
Victoria: You exhumed her body?! That is a sickening violation of a cemetery vault!
Marcus: They found lethal traces of digitalis compound in her preserved bone marrow, Victoria.
Victoria's breath caught in her throat, her lips trembling as her face turned the color of ashes.
Victoria: Clara had heart palpitations! Her private physician prescribed cardiovascular drops!
Marcus: Her private physician was paid five hundred thousand dollars through an offshore shell firm in Belize.
Victoria: That was a research contribution for clinical cardiac trials!
Marcus: The Belize account was registered under your maiden name, Victoria.
Victoria gasped, clapping both hands over her throat as panic seized her chest.
Victoria: Who gave you my offshore account numbers?! Those records were encrypted in Nassau!
Marcus: Your brother gave them to me, Victoria.
Victoria's knees buckled slightly, but she caught herself against the edge of the stone fireplace.
Victoria: Richard...? Richard would never betray his own sister!
Marcus: Richard took a plea deal with federal prosecutors at dawn today.
Victoria: That coward! That weak, disgusting coward! He swore on our mother's grave he would protect the firm!
Marcus: He protected himself from thirty years in a federal penitentiary, Victoria.
Marcus stepped toward her, pulling a second sheet of stamped legal parchment from the folder.
Marcus: Read clause eleven of Clara's trust agreement, Victoria.
Victoria: I don't care about your dead wife's contracts!
Marcus: Read the survivorship clause out loud so you understand why your plan failed.
Victoria's eyes darted across the black text, her hands shaking so hard the paper rattled.
Victoria: 'If the minor heir suffers permanent physical disability before the age of majority, full trusteeship transfers to the surviving stepmother'...
Marcus: You wanted to cripple my son's foot so you could claim eighty million dollars in voting stock.
Victoria: That's a deranged lie! I never wanted to cripple him!
Marcus: You held a four-hundred-degree spatula against his heel for five full seconds, you monster!
Victoria backed away toward the front doors, her breath coming in shallow, terrified gasps.
Victoria: You can't prove intent in court! It's your word and a bleeding maid's word against mine!
Marcus pointed his index finger up toward the ornate plaster medallion above the entrance chandelier.
Marcus: Did you honestly think I didn't have cameras monitoring this foyer, Victoria?
Victoria tilted her head back slowly, her gaze landing on a tiny black dome pulsing with a steady red light.