Victoria: Why are you still standing there, Mark? Put that woman out on the street!
Mark: Victoria, stop screaming for one second. Let me look at Lily.
I reached down and gently lifted Lily from Elena’s trembling arms. I checked her tiny arms, her legs, and the back of her head. Aside from being frightened, she was completely uninjured. Not a single scratch or bruise marked her skin.
Elena: She’s okay, Mr. Vance. I swear to God, I caught her before her head hit the floor. I would never let anything happen to her.
Victoria: Don’t speak to my husband! You dropped a infant off a ten-foot drop! You’re reckless, incompetent, and dangerously unstable!
Mark: If Elena dropped her from the top balcony, how is Lily completely unharmed?
Victoria: Because she got lucky! She was leaning over the railing trying to wipe the dust off the top ledge while holding Lily! I saw the whole thing from the hallway! She lost her grip and the baby slipped right out of her arms!
Elena: Mrs. Vance, how can you say that?! You know that’s not what happened!
Victoria: Shut up! Just shut your mouth! You’re a hired maid, a nobody! You think my husband is going to take your word over his own wife's?
Elena pushed herself up off the cold floor, wiping her tears with the back of her uniform sleeve. Her hands were still trembling so violently she could barely hold herself steady.
Elena: Mr. Vance, please listen to me. I was downstairs in the laundry room fixing the linen press. I heard baby Lily crying frantically from the balcony. I ran up as fast as I could...
Victoria: Lie! Pure lies! She’s trying to cover her own neck so we don’t sue her into poverty!
Mark: Victoria, let her finish her sentence!
Victoria: No! I am the mother of this child! I know what I saw! She dropped our baby, Mark! Are you really going to stand in our luxury home, looking at the mother of your child, and side with a maid who makes minimum wage?
Mark: It’s not about taking sides, Victoria. It’s about understanding how my baby almost died!
Victoria: She almost died because of HER! Elena, you are fired! Right now! You have ten minutes to clear your room out in the staff quarters or I’m calling Sheriff Miller to drag you out in handcuffs!
Elena: Please, Mrs. Vance... I have nowhere to go. My mother’s medical bills... I need this job...
Victoria: Then you should have thought about your sick mother before you tried to murder my daughter! Get out!
Victoria grabbed Elena by the arm and pulled her toward the servant stairs. Elena didn't fight back. She just hung her head, sobbed silently, and walked down the steps. I held my crying daughter against my chest, watching Elena leave, but a heavy, sickening feeling sat deep in the pit of my stomach. Something about Victoria’s story didn't add up at all.
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