Mark pushed open the heavy wooden doors and stepped directly into the grand marble foyer.
The house was quiet, but a strange tense feeling hung heavy in the high-ceilinged room.
He heard the sound of soft weeping coming from the far corner near the arched hallway.
Mark walked briskly across the white marble floor with his security guards following close behind him.
He stopped dead in his tracks as his eyes registered the shocking scene before him.
His sweet daughter Lily was sitting directly on the cold stone floor near a thick column.
She was wearing dirty clothes and crying quietly as she held a metallic pet dish in her hands.
Her tiny shoulders shook with deep sobs as tears streamed down her red flushed cheeks.
Mark felt his breath catch in his chest as anger and sorrow washed over his entire body.
Sarah stood a few feet away in her grey uniform, weeping silently into a white tissue.
Victoria came walking down the grand staircase wearing an expensive gold sequin dress.
She looked startled to see Mark standing in the center of the entrance hall so early.
Her face went pale for a second before she quickly tried to put on a pleasant smile.
Mark turned his eyes toward Victoria with a glare that was colder than steel.
Victoria stopped at the bottom step and placed her hand nervously over her own throat.
She began to speak rapidly, trying to explain why the little girl was sitting on the floor.
She claimed that Lily was just playing a game and refusing to sit at the dinner table.
Mark ignored Victoria's fast excuses completely as he stepped toward his sobbing child.
Lily raised her wet eyes and called out for her father with a shaking raspy voice.
She dropped the silver bowl onto the hard marble floor with a sharp metallic clatter.
Mark dropped down onto his knees without worrying about his clean designer suit trousers.
He reached out his arms and pulled his young daughter tightly against his broad chest.