Mark: What were you doing to her, Evelyn? Speak before I lose my mind completely!
Evelyn: Oh, calm down, Mark. Don't be so dramatic. I was just teaching her a lesson about going near the water.
Mark: Teaching her? You were holding a three-year-old over six feet of water by her wrists!
Evelyn: She wouldn't stop crying for her mother! I couldn't take the whining anymore!
Mark’s chest heaved as he wrapped his suit jacket around Lily's wet frame. He backed away toward the main house, keeping his eye on the woman he had married just four months ago.
Mark: My late wife’s memory is not something you get to punish my daughter for.
Evelyn: Your late wife is dead! I am the mistress of this house now, and that child needs discipline!
Mark: You are nothing to her. Pack your things and get out of my house.
Evelyn: You think you can just throw me out? Check the prenup, Mark. You throw me out, and I take half of this estate.
Mark: I don't give a damn about the money. Get out!
Evelyn: Try making me. You hit me, Mark. I have marks on my face. Let's see who the police believe when they get here.
Mark: You think a bruise on your cheek covers up child abuse?
Evelyn: It was an accident! I slipped, and you assaulted me!
Lily: Daddy, she pulled my hair yesterday too... when you were at work.
Mark stopped dead in his tracks, his blood running colder than the pool water.
Mark: What did you say, Lily?
Lily: She said if I told you, she’d throw my teddy bear in the trash.
Mark: Evelyn... what have you been doing when I’m at the office?
Evelyn: The kid is lying! Children lie all the time to get attention!
Mark: She's three years old! She doesn't even know how to lie!
Evelyn: You're going to take the word of a toddler over your wife?
Mark: You stopped being my wife the second you put your hands on her.
Evelyn: Go ahead, call the cops! Tell them I threatened a kid. See how far that gets you without proof!
Mark: Proof? You think I don't protect my home?
Evelyn: What are you talking about?
Mark: Look up at the patio overhang, Evelyn.
Evelyn’s head snapped upward. Tucked neatly beneath the dark wooden trim of the roof was a sleek, high-definition security camera, its small blue light blinking silently in the shade.
Evelyn: That... that camera isn't connected. You told me the outdoor system was down!
Mark: I had the security company fix it three days ago after Lily came to bed crying with a red mark on her shoulder.
Evelyn: You... you set a trap for me?
Mark: I didn't want to believe it. I prayed I was wrong. But every single second of what you just did over that pool was recorded in 4K resolution directly to a cloud server.
Evelyn’s face drained of color, all the arrogance instantly evaporating from her demeanor.
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