Carter: Marcus, lock down the front gate. Nobody enters or leaves this perimeter without my direct clearance.
Marcus: Right away, Mr. Vance. The Texas Rangers are already waiting at the bottom of the private drive.
Carter turned back toward his trembling daughter, wiping a smudge of dirt from her chin with the edge of his silk tie.
Carter: Are you hurt anywhere else, Lily? Did she lay hands on you before today?
Lily: She made the maid throw away all of Mom's photo albums last week. She said ghosts weren't welcome in a multi-million-dollar home.
Carter: Those albums are safe in my private vault downtown. She never touched them.
Lily: Daddy, she told the driver I was being sent to a reform facility because I wasn't your real family.
Carter clenched his fists, struggling to keep his voice steady for the terrified child.
Carter: You are my blood, Lily. You have your mother's eyes and your mother's kind soul. Evelyn married me for a trust fund, but she never owned this house.
Carter turned toward the gathered guests, his commanding voice cutting through their stunned murmurs.
Carter: The reception is over, ladies and gentlemen. My executive team will contact each of you regarding the pending corporate merger on Monday.
As the guests hurried toward the side exits, an older man in a navy pinstripe suit stepped forward from the gallery.
Arthur: Carter, you need to see what we recovered from her laptop before the servers were wiped.
Carter: Arthur. Did you verify the signature on the revised estate trust?
Arthur: It's a complete forgery. She paid an international documents firm seventy-five thousand dollars to replicate your handwriting.
Lily: Is that why she kept asking me what Daddy's middle name was?
Carter: She was trying to empty your college endowment, baby. She wanted everything before our five-year marriage mark next month.
Arthur: That's not the worst of it, Carter. Look at this wire transfer schedule from three weeks ago.
Arthur handed Carter a manila file stamped with federal banking seal graphics.
Carter: What am I looking at? This account is registered in Zurich under a shell company.
Arthur: She transferred two million dollars from your business checking into an account belonging to Lily's maternal uncle.
Lily: Uncle Thomas? But Uncle Thomas told Mom he would never speak to us again.
Carter: Thomas died four years ago in an industrial accident, Lily.
Arthur: Exactly. Someone has been using the dead man's identity to siphon Vance Energy royalties directly to an offshore trust.
Carter's gaze hardened as he read the secondary beneficiaries listed at the bottom of the legal ledger.
Carter: The co-signer on this account is Evelyn's first husband. The man she claimed died in a car crash ten years ago.
Arthur: He didn't die, Carter. He's alive, living in a luxury condo in South Beach on your payroll.
Lily pulled at Carter's sleeve, her eyes wide with sudden realization.
Lily: Daddy, Evelyn left her red leather bag in the study. She told me never to open the brass zipper.
Carter exchanged a grim look with his senior counsel before leading Lily down the long marble corridor toward the private library.
Carter: Let's see what else my lovely wife left behind in her rush to rob this family blind.
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