The afternoon wind turned cold as Adrian read through the legal document glowing on his son's phone screen.
The paperwork was a formal petition to the state probate court, drafted by a high-profile corporate litigation firm in Manhattan.
Adrian: Petition for Emergency Conservatorship and Custody Transfer... filed by Victoria Vance?
Victoria: That was prepared purely as a precaution, Adrian! You've been severely depressed since Clara died!
Adrian: You filed this three days ago! You hired a team of private investigators to track every single move I made!
Victoria: You haven't stepped foot in the executive boardroom in five months! Our family company is suffering!
Adrian: I was mourning my wife! I was taking care of my children!
Leo: Dad, look at section three. She cited Claire's employment as proof that you were endangering Lily's welfare.
Claire: She told me yesterday that she would make sure I was removed from this estate forever.
Adrian: You planned this whole thing. You set up an accident so you could prove that I allowed a dangerous person near my baby!
Victoria: I did what had to be done to save our grandfather's fifty-million-dollar trust fund!
Adrian: The trust fund? Is that what this was all about?
Victoria: Grandfather made it crystal clear in his will! If the primary heir proves unable to provide a safe home for the bloodline heirs, the executive shares revert to the senior surviving trustee!
Adrian: Which is you.
Victoria: Yes! I built that logistics company just as much as you did! But Grandfather gave you sixty percent because you had a son!
Leo: You tried to kill my baby sister for stock shares?
Victoria: I didn't try to kill her! I knew Claire was standing right there! I knew she would catch the carriage!
Adrian: And what if her foot slipped? What if the carriage hit the rocks and flipped into the lake?
Victoria stayed silent, her jaw trembling as she looked away toward the water.
Adrian: You gambled my daughter's life against corporate stock.
Victoria: You don't deserve that wealth, Adrian. You're weak. You let a nanny raise your children while you sit in your study staring at old photographs.
Adrian: That nanny protected my daughter when her own blood tried to murder her.
Victoria: Call it whatever you want. Good luck proving intent in front of a judge with a blurry drone video.
Leo: It’s four-K resolution at sixty frames per second, Aunt Victoria. It zooms in close enough to see the serial number on your shoe.
Victoria's eyes darted frantically between the phone and the security guards standing on the lawn.
Victoria: Mark, Thomas, escort this boy inside! He is interfering with corporate family business!
Neither guard moved an inch. Mark folded his arms across his uniform, shaking his head in disgust.
Mark: We work for Mr. Adrian Vance, ma'am. Not for you.
Adrian: Mark, lock the main estate gates immediately. Call the county sheriff's department.
Victoria: Adrian! You wouldn't dare bring the police to our family home!
Adrian: You don't have a family here anymore, Victoria.
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