Victoria: You're lying! This is a sick, twisted scam to get money out of my family's estate!
Evelyn: Look closer at the watch, Victoria. Look at the engraving on the inner casing.
Victoria slowly knelt on the polished marble tile, her hands shaking so violently she could barely pick up the heavy gold watch. She turned it over and read the faded script etched into the metal.
Victoria: "To my darling Rose, forever bound by blood." That... that was my mother's handwriting.
Evelyn: Your mother gave me that watch twenty years ago on the night she handed me your newborn baby in the back of a hospital parking lot.
Victoria: My mother told me my daughter was stillborn! I held a funeral! I grieved for years!
Evelyn: Your mother lied to you because she wanted to protect the family fortune from your ex-husband's debts. She paid me to take the child far away and raise her quietly.
Victoria: My mother would never do something so cruel to her own daughter!
Evelyn: She did it to save the trust fund and keep the family name clean. She thought you were too weak to fight your husband back then.
Victoria stood up slowly, clutching the watch against her chest as her mind raced back to the darkest year of her life. She looked at the young girl standing beside Evelyn, whose wide, tear-filled eyes were staring right back at her.
Victoria: What is her name?
Evelyn: Her name is Lily. She's twenty years old today.
Victoria: Twenty... today is her birthday. July fourteenth.
Lily: Grandma... is this the woman you told me about? The one from the old letters?
Evelyn: Yes, Lily. This is your biological mother.
Lily: She doesn't look like someone who wants me here, Grandma. Let's just leave.
Victoria: No! Wait! Don't move a single step!
Evelyn: You just called us filthy beggars, Victoria. You told security to throw us into the street.
Victoria: I didn't know! I thought you were scammers trying to target my estate!
Evelyn: A mother should recognize her own blood, no matter how it's dressed.
Victoria felt a surge of hot shame wash over her. She looked at her security guard, who was standing awkwardly by the heavy iron gate.
Victoria: Marcus, leave us! Lock the outer gates and do not let anyone in until I tell you!
Marcus: Yes, Ma'am. Right away.
Victoria: Please... both of you, come inside. We need to talk about what happened twenty years ago.
Evelyn: We aren't here for your money, Victoria. I brought her here because I am dying, and she deserves to know her real story before I'm gone.
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