Attorney Hayes: Mr. Vance, please tell me you didn't bring a restaurant waitress into my private office to discuss custody.
Richard: Look at the child, Hayes. Look at the woman. Look at the birthmark behind the girl's ear.
Attorney Hayes: Mr. Vance, adoption records are sealed by state law. We cannot open these files for a stranger.
Clara: I am not a stranger! I am her biological mother, and I have the hospital wristband right here in my purse!
Attorney Hayes: A plastic band proves nothing, ma'am. Mr. Vance holds the legal adoption decree signed by Judge Sterling.
Clara: Judge Sterling? That's the same judge who handled the probate for my grandmother's estate!
Richard: Wait a minute, Hayes. What does Judge Sterling have to do with the adoption agency?
Attorney Hayes: He presided over the family court division at the time, Richard. It's routine.
Clara: It wasn't routine! My stepmother was close friends with Judge Sterling's wife!
Richard: Stepmother? What stepmother?
Clara: Evelyn! When my father passed away, he left his entire trust fund and estate to me in his will.
Richard: If you were the heir to an estate, why were you working as a waitress in Dallas?
Clara: Because Evelyn claimed I was unfit to inherit after I had my baby. She said the baby died, and then she locked me out of the family business!
Attorney Hayes: This is wildly speculative and completely irrelevant to the legal validity of the adoption.
Richard: Shut up for a second, Hayes. Clara, who was the head doctor at the delivery clinic?
Clara: Dr. Robert Miller. He was my stepmother’s personal physician!
Richard: Dr. Miller... Hayes, isn't Dr. Miller on the board of directors for the adoption agency you recommended?
Attorney Hayes: Lots of prominent doctors serve on charity boards, Richard. That means nothing.
Clara: He told me she was stillborn! He signed a death certificate!
Richard: If there's a death certificate, why did my agency have a full medical clearance for a healthy newborn six days later?
Attorney Hayes: Richard, I strongly advise you stop answering her questions. You are opening yourself up to massive legal liability.
Richard: I don't care about liability! I bought a home, built a nursery, and raised this girl believing her mother gave her up willingly!
Clara: She didn't give her up! She was stolen from me!
Richard: Hayes, open the vault. Pull out the original adoption intake file right now.
Attorney Hayes: I cannot do that without a court order.
Richard: I pay your firm a retainer of twenty thousand dollars a month. Open the vault or you're fired on the spot!
Attorney Hayes: Fine. But whatever you find in there, you brought on yourself.
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