Richard pressed his palm gently against the back of Lily's head, feeling her tiny frame shake against his chest.
Richard: Did she hurt your arm, sweetheart?
Lily: My elbow hit the floor really hard, Daddy. It stings.
Richard: Look at me, Lily. Look right into my eyes. Nobody is ever going to put hands on you again in this house.
Victoria: Oh, please! Stop coddling her like she is made of glass! She tripped over her own clumsy feet!
Richard: You think I am deaf, Victoria?
Victoria: I was disciplining her! As her future stepmother, I have every right to teach her basic manners!
Richard: You are not her mother. You are not even my wife yet.
Victoria: We signed the agreement, Richard! We are getting married next month in front of five hundred guests!
Richard: An agreement is just ink on paper. It does not give you permission to assault a child.
Elena tapped her tablet screen, her heels clicking rhythmically on the dry sections of the marble floor as she walked closer.
Elena: The foyer security cameras were upgraded yesterday afternoon, Victoria. Ultra-high definition with full directional microphones.
Victoria: What are you doing in our private home, Elena? You are Richard's corporate legal counsel, not his babysitter!
Elena: I handle all family estate matters and trust fund security. That includes protecting Lily's physical welfare inside this property.
Victoria: Turn that ridiculous screen off right now! Richard, tell your lawyer to get out of our living room!
Richard: She stays right where she is. Elena, turn the volume all the way up.
Elena: Playing angle three from the chandelier mount now.
A crystal-clear audio feed blasted through the foyer speakers, echoing Victoria's vicious tone from three minutes earlier.
"Look at what you have done, you clumsy brat!"
The screen showed Victoria taking two deliberate steps forward, rearing her arm back, and violently shoving Lily's small shoulders directly into the multi-tiered cake stand.
Lily: See, Daddy? I told you I did not jump!
Richard: I see it, baby. I see every single frame.
Victoria's hands began to twitch at her sides, her diamond engagement ring glittering under the bright chandelier lights.
Victoria: The camera angle is completely distorted! It makes it look ten times worse than it actually was!
Richard: You pushed a ten-year-old girl into a three-hundred-pound marble table base!
Victoria: She provoked me! She was smirking at me behind your back all morning!
Richard: She is a child on her birthday!
Elena: There is more on this drive, Richard. Much more than just today's footage.
Victoria: What are you talking about? What drive?
Elena: The three months of private investigator logs you thought were wiped from the cloud storage last Friday.
Victoria took a quick step backward, her high heels almost slipping into the pink frosting behind her.
Victoria: You had me followed? In my own city?
Richard: When fifty million dollars of trust fund capital is tied to a marriage contract, I verify everything.
Victoria: You paranoid monster! I loved you!
Richard: You did not love me. You loved the trust fund my late wife set aside for our daughter.
Elena: Page four shows the wire transfers, Richard. To an offshore account in the Cayman Islands registered under her brother's alias.
Victoria grabbed the edge of the grand piano to steady herself, her breath coming out in ragged, uneven gasps.
Victoria: That money was for the wedding event planners! It was a legitimate business deposit!
Elena: Wedding planners do not operate out of shell companies under investigation for bank fraud.
Richard slowly stood up from the floor, his tall frame towering over the room as his eyes locked onto Victoria with ice-cold fury.
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