Julian reached over the polished mahogany table and snatched the cracked phone with one smooth motion.
He tapped the screen to wake it, his eyes narrowing as he saw the notification preview.
Julian: Why are there twelve missed calls from Saint Jude's Women's Center?
Clara: They were checking on Maya's discharge papers, sir. The hospital bill is overdue.
Victoria: See? She's buried in debt! She brought that child here to extort us!
Julian: Shut up, Victoria!
Victoria: Don't speak to me like that in front of the help!
Julian: You don't get to lecture anyone about money. Not after what I found in the study this morning.
Victoria's posture stiffened, the confident smirk on her lips fading instantly.
Victoria: What are you talking about? What study?
Julian: The safe behind my father's portrait. The one you thought only you had the combination for.
Victoria: That contains my personal jewelry. You have no right digging through my private belongings.
Julian: It had jewelry, yes. And it had an adoption surrender contract dated two weeks ago.
Clara's breath caught in her throat, her head snapping up toward Victoria.
Clara: What... what surrender contract?
Victoria: It's none of your business! Julian, put the phone down and let us handle this in private!
Julian: With whose signature on it, Victoria? Because it sure wasn't mine.
Victoria: It was a preliminary draft! For her own good!
Clara: You told me you were helping me file for state medical assistance!
Victoria: Keep your mouth shut, Clara! You don't have a high school diploma, you couldn't understand those forms!
Julian: She understood enough to know you were planning to give her daughter away to an agency out of state!
Julian pulled a folded set of white legal documents from his inside coat pocket and tossed them onto the glass coffee table.
They landed with a sharp slap against the glass.
Clara: Oh God... oh dear God...
Julian: You forged her initial consent on page three, didn't you?
Victoria: I did what was best for the household reputation! We cannot have an unwed mother living in the servant quarters!
Julian: Clara's mother served my family for twenty-four years before she passed away!
Victoria: And her mother is dead! Clara is an employee, nothing more!
Julian: She grew up on this estate. Her family gave everything to this house.
Victoria: And she repaid us by getting pregnant and ruining the atmosphere of our home!
Julian: Who paid you, Victoria?
The room went freezing cold.
Victoria's eyes darted toward the double doors, but Julian didn't flinch.
Victoria: What are you implying?
Julian: I called the director of that private agency twenty minutes ago while driving from the airport.
Victoria: You had no right to interfere in my private charitable affairs!
Julian: A fifty-thousand-dollar finder's fee is not a charitable affair, Victoria. It's human trafficking.
Clara let out a strangled gasp, burying her face into the baby's blanket as sob after sob tore through her chest.
Clara: You were selling my baby? You told me you were setting up a college fund for her!
Victoria: She wouldn't have survived with you anyway! Look at you! You don't have ten dollars to your name!
Julian: She has every dollar she will ever need from this family trust.
Victoria: You cannot authorize trust funds without my co-signature on the estate board!
Julian: That's where you're wrong, my dear wife.
Julian stepped around the table, pulling another slim envelope from his pocket.
Julian: Because you aren't on the board anymore.
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