FABLE

Tensions in the Ballroom

The Silver Locket Revealed at the Dallas Mansion Gala

Victoria: Ethan, drop that trashy coin right now! You are making a massive scene in front of our board members!

Ethan: Shut your mouth, Victoria. Where did she get this coin?

Victoria: How should I know?! She probably stole it from my safe upstairs! She is a thief!

Lily: I am not a thief! My mother gave this to me in the hospital before she died!

Ethan: What was your mother's name, Lily?

Lily: Her name was Clara. Clara Vance.

Victoria's face turned pale, all the color draining from her cheeks as the crowded ballroom gasped in unison.

Victoria: She is lying! She searched my records in the office! Security, throw this girl out on the street!

Ethan: Nobody touches her! Security, step back right now!

Ethan stood up slowly, pulling Lily behind his back to protect her from the aggressive security guards.

Victoria: Ethan, I am the head of this household! You cannot command my staff during my charity gala!

Ethan: This mansion belongs to the Vance estate, Victoria. You only live here because of my father's will.

Victoria: And I am his legal widow! That gives me full authority over this estate and every servant in it!

Ethan: Authority does not give you the right to strike a worker with a leather belt!

Lily: She has been hitting me for months... whenever nobody was looking in the kitchen.

Ethan: Is this true, Lily? Has she put her hands on you before tonight?

Lily: Yes... she threatened to send me to jail if I ever tried to quit or tell anyone.

Victoria: She is a psychotic liar! Look at her clothes! She is ungrateful!

Ethan: Look at her face, Victoria! She has bruises on her wrists!

Victoria: She fell down the stairs yesterday because she is clumsy!

Ethan: You think everyone in Dallas is stupid? We all saw you swing that strap five seconds ago!

Lily: Mr. Vance, I don't want any trouble... I just want my paycheck so I can leave.

Ethan: You aren't leaving anywhere, Lily. Look at me. Turn the coin over.

Lily reached up with trembling fingers and flipped the silver coin locket over in her hand.

Lily: It has letters carved on the back. E.V. and C.V.

Ethan: Ethan Vance and Chloe Vance. My father had two identical coins minted when my baby sister was born.

Victoria: That is a common silver dollar! Anyone could buy that at a pawn shop in Fort Worth!

Ethan: Not with my mother's handwritten signature engraved along the outer rim, Victoria.

Lily: My mother told me my real name was Chloe... but the orphanage lost my birth certificate.

Ethan: My God... Chloe? Is it really you?

Victoria: Stop this madness! Chloe died in a car accident twenty years ago! The police confirmed it!

Ethan: The police said her body was never recovered from the river! You were the one who pushed father to close the search!

Victoria: Because it was hopeless! We had to move on with our lives!

Ethan: Or because you wanted father's entire inheritance to go to you instead of his biological children!

Lily: I... I don't understand... Are you saying my mother didn't abandon me?

Ethan: She died trying to save you, Chloe. And this woman made sure you never found your way home.

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