Mark: How do you know about the documents in my private safe?
Selena: I know everything about this family, Mark. Did you really think I fell in love with a grieving widower by accident?
Mark: You hired a private investigator to break into my personal files?
Selena: I didn't have to hire anyone. Your executive assistant was more than happy to sell me the code for fifty thousand dollars.
Mark: David? David gave you the combination to my safe?
Selena: Everyone has a price, darling. And now, you're going to listen to my terms, or I'll release those papers to the press before noon.
Mark pushed past her, striding into his dark mahogany-paneled office. He walked straight to the wall portrait of his late wife, Sarah, swinging it open to reveal the digital safe keypad. With shaking fingers, he punched in six digits. The green light clicked open.
Selena: Go ahead, open it. Read the confidential medical report from six years ago!
Mark: I don't need to read anything to know how much I love my child!
Selena: Love doesn't grant you legal custody when the biological father turns up to claim his inheritance!
Mark pulled out a thick yellow envelope tied with a black ribbon. Inside was a certified lab document dated two months before Sarah passed away. His eyes scanned the legal terminology, his heart pounding against his ribs like a sledgehammer.
Mark: This... this says Sarah was carrying an embryo from a donor bank before we met...
Selena: Exactly. Lily carries zero percent of your bloodline! She has no legal right to the Kingsley family trust fund!
Mark: She is my daughter in every way that matters! I raised her! I changed her diapers! I held her when she cried!
Selena: The law doesn't care about your feelings, Mark! Under your grandfather's trust agreement, only direct biological heirs inherit the real estate portfolio!
Mark: That's why you wanted her gone... You wanted to make sure she wouldn't stand between you and the family wealth!
Selena: If she stays, the court will appoint an independent guardian to manage her share. I wasn't going to let a bastard child steal half of my empire!
Mark looked up from the document, his eyes burning with pure hatred. He slowly folded the paper and placed it inside his inner jacket pocket.
Mark: You underestimated me, Selena. You thought this paper would make me abandon her?
Selena: If you don't marry me today, I will file a petition with the state court to annul your paternity rights!
Mark: Try it. But before you do that, you better look out the window at who just pulled into the driveway.
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