Vince froze in his tracks, his tall, muscular frame stiffening as every drop of color drained from his face.
Vince: Chloe... who did you say was on that line?
Chloe: It's Mommy! She's crying in the dark, Daddy! She told me Victoria locked the cellar door at the lake house!
Victoria: Vince, don't listen to this nonsense! Clara has been dead for fourteen months. The Austin police found her car submerged in the lake!
Vince: Shut your mouth, Victoria.
Vince lunged forward across the foyer, dropping hard onto both knees beside his trembling daughter and scooping her tight against his chest.
Vince: You are safe now, my daughter. Nobody touches you in this house. Nobody.
Chloe buried her tear-streaked face into his black shirt, her small arms trembling around his neck as she pushed the speaker toward his ear.
Chloe: Press the green button, Daddy! She's still breathing on the line!
The tinny speaker crackled through static, followed by a ragged, gasping breath that Vince recognized down to his very bones.
Clara: Vince... Vince, please! Don't trust her! Don't sign the trust fund settlement!
Vince's chest seized up as his jaw tightened until the veins in his neck bulged against his collar.
Vince: Clara? Clara, is that really you? Where are you?
Clara: She has keys to the old hunting cabin behind the ranch... she bribed the local caretaker to keep me drugged... she wants the company inheritance...
The call cut out into an abrupt, dead tone of static, leaving the massive room in deafening silence.
Victoria: It's an artificial intelligence scam, Vince! You know how sophisticated scammers are with voice clones these days! Anyone could pull Clara's voice from old home videos!
Vince stood up slowly, towering over Victoria with cold, venomous fury in his gray eyes.
Vince: That phrase she just used. Clara never posted about my family trust fund online. Only three people in this entire state knew the terms of that inheritance contract.
Victoria: Vince, be rational. We are supposed to finalize our marriage license next Friday. I've taken care of Chloe while you grieved!
Vince: You never cared about Chloe. You spent the last year pushing me to liquidate my wife's life insurance policy into your offshore accounts.
Victoria: Because your corporate board was threatening foreclosure on the tech firm! I was trying to save your reputation!
Chloe: She took Mommy's diamond necklace from the safe yesterday, Daddy! I saw her hide it in her leather purse!
Victoria's eyes flared with panic as she took an involuntary step back toward the elevator doors.
Victoria: The kid is lying! She's always hated me because I'm not her mother!
Vince: Open your purse, Victoria.
Victoria: Excuse me? I am an executive partner in this firm, not your house servant!
Vince: I said open the damn purse right now, or I swear I will dump it across this marble myself.
Victoria clutched the designer bag tight against her ribs, her knuckles turning bone white.
Victoria: If you touch me, I will file assault charges and take half of this penthouse before nightfall!
Vince: You won't take a single red cent from my family ever again.
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