Adrian: What did you just say to me?
Clara: I ran away from the clinic when my memory came back. I walked thirty miles. I found my sister's house, but it was empty.
Adrian: Your sister moved to Seattle two years ago because she couldn't stand being near this town after your funeral.
Clara: I went to the state office. They showed me the paperwork. My parental rights were terminated by a court order signed by Judge Miller.
Adrian swung his head toward the far side of the dining room, where Judge Miller sat frozen over his plate of prime rib.
Judge Miller: Adrian, there were verified police reports of abandonment. Proper legal procedures were filed.
Adrian: Filed by who? By Victoria's corporate attorneys?
Victoria: I saved that child from the foster system! I took him in as my own ward!
Adrian: You told me you found an orphan through a private charity foundation in Austin! You lied to me about his identity!
Victoria: He was a bastard child of a missing waitress! I gave him a life! I gave him a trust fund and private tutors!
Clara: He is my son! You stole my baby while they had me sedated in that clinic!
Clara tried to lunge forward, but her knees gave out. Adrian caught her before she struck the floor, lifting her into a dining chair.
Adrian: Sit down, Clara. Stay right here. Don't move an inch.
Victoria: Security! Where is the private detail? Escort this trespasser off the property immediately!
Two burly security guards in dark suits stepped through the archway, their hands resting on their holsters.
Security Guard: Mr. Vance, we need to clear the room. The bride requested—
Adrian: If you take one step toward my wife, you will spend twenty years behind bars for conspiracy to kidnap.
Security Guard: Sir, we work for Mr. Sterling's firm.
Adrian: I pay the invoices for this security firm out of my operating account. Step down right now, or you're fired on the spot.
The two guards glanced at each other, hesitated, and slowly stepped back against the wallpapered wall.
Victoria: Useless cowards! Both of you!
Adrian: Victoria, look at me. You paid to have her erased from my life!
Victoria: You were obsessed with her! You were throwing away the multi-million dollar merger to play house with an orphan girl from a trailer park!
Adrian: She was worth a thousand of you.
Victoria: Your father begged me to step in! Ask him! Ask Marcus who signed the checks for that private clinic in El Paso!
Adrian turned his cold stare back toward his father. Marcus Vance lowered his gaze, his hand trembling as he set his wine glass on the tablecloth.
Marcus: We had to protect the stock valuation, son. The Sterling merger was the only thing keeping our hedge fund solvent.
Adrian: You traded my wife and my child for a stock valuation?
Marcus: We made sure she had food and a bed! She wasn't harmed!
Clara: They locked me in a room with barred windows, Marcus! For three years, they gave me pills that made my mind go black!
Adrian: You kept her in a private asylum?
Clara: Look at my arms, Adrian. Look at the needle marks from where they strapped me down whenever I asked about my boy.
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