Ethan ran down the remaining steps two at a time, his black dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar.
He dropped immediately to one knee, wrapping one arm around Elena's shaking shoulders to shield her.
Ethan: Elena, don't move. Are you bleeding?
Elena: I am okay, Mr. Vance... please check Toby first. He was walking. He really was.
Victoria: Ethan, she is completely insane! She dragged your disabled son out of his bed!
Victoria stood over them, her chest heaving as she smoothed down the silk fabric of her navy dress.
Victoria: Toby has severe degenerative nerve damage! Dr. Keller said any stress could paralyze him permanently!
Ethan: Then why was he standing tall when I reached the banister, Victoria?
Victoria: Pure adrenaline! She risked his life for some cheap show of loyalty!
Ethan’s eyes narrowed as his fingers brushed against a small plastic cylinder resting against Elena's fallen apron.
He picked it up, reading the faded pharmacy label under the bright chandelier lights.
Ethan: What is this? This isn't Toby’s liquid vitamin supplement.
Victoria: It fell out of her pocket, Ethan! Fire her right now before she steals something else!
Elena: No! That didn't come from my pocket, Mr. Vance! I swear on my mother's grave!
Elena pushed herself up onto her elbows, her lips quivering as she pointed toward the kitchen entrance.
Elena: She keeps that bottle locked inside the private pantry drawer behind the silver trays!
Victoria: You lying, worthless thief! You've been snooping through my personal cabinets?
Elena: I saw you crushing two blue pills into Toby's warm milk every single afternoon!
Ethan slowly rose to his feet, holding the prescription bottle at eye level between them.
Ethan: What did you give my son?!
Victoria: It is his prescribed muscle relaxant, Ethan! You know how terrible his spasms get at night!
Ethan: Dr. Keller took him off muscle relaxants four months ago when we started physical therapy.
Victoria took a half-step back, her painted lips parting as a sudden bead of sweat rolled near her hairline.
Victoria: Dr. Keller called me directly with an updated routine while you were in New York closing the merger.
Elena: That is not true, sir. Toby told me his legs only felt completely numb an hour after drinking his milk.
Toby: It always tastes bitter, dad. I told stepmom it made my tongue feel sleepy, but she made me finish it.
Ethan unscrewed the white safety cap and tipped the bottle into his palm.
Three round blue tablets rolled onto his hand, completely devoid of any pediatric label or standard dosage markings.
Ethan: These are heavy clinical sedatives. Where did you get these, Victoria?
Victoria: Don't look at me like that, Ethan! I am his mother now!
Ethan: You are his stepmother, and you have exactly five seconds to tell me the truth.
Victoria: I do everything for this family while you live on private jets! I manage this entire estate!
Ethan: You were drugging him to keep him crippled!
Victoria gasped, stumbling back until her spine pressed flat against the cold fluted foyer column.
Victoria: Ethan, please, that was his medicine! Why would I ever want our boy sick?
Ethan: Because a healthy boy doesn't need an emergency legal guardian assigned to his trust fund.
Victoria's pupils flared with genuine panic as Ethan took two deliberate steps toward her.
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