The entire room went dead silent. Victoria lay on the floor, gasping for air, clutching her red cheek as tears smeared her dark makeup. The cloth covering the picture frame had slipped off during her fall, revealing a stack of yellowed, handwritten envelopes that had been taped to the back of the canvas.
Julian: Martha, take Lily for a second. Hold her tight.
Martha: Of course, Mr. Vance. Come here, little angel.
Julian gently handed his daughter to the trusted maid, then lowered himself beside the fallen picture frame. He picked up the scattered, handwritten letters lying on the cold floor right next to Lily's torn plush bunny. The handwriting on the faded paper was instantly recognizable. It belonged to his late wife, Clara.
Julian: These are Clara's... she wrote these four years ago, right before she passed away in the hospital.
Victoria: Don't read those! They're private personal thoughts! You have no right!
Julian: No right? She was my wife, Victoria! You told me she died without leaving a final message or a will!
Julian stood up, unfolding the first letter with trembling hands. His eyes scanned the crisp blue ink, his expression instantly darkening from heartbreak to cold, towering fury. He looked up, staring directly at the woman groveling on the floor before the grand flag.
Julian: You locked my daughter inside the wall just because you were afraid I'd read these letters!
Victoria: Julian... please... Clara wasn't in her right mind when she wrote those! She was sick, she was confused on medication!
Julian: She wasn't confused at all! She wrote down everything! She wrote that she discovered you were embezzling funds from her sister trust fund account while she was sick in the hospital bed!
Evelyn: What?! Embezzling from her own dying sister?!
Julian: Three hundred thousand dollars! Clara found out right before she passed, and she wrote to warn me that if anything happened to her, you would try to forge her signature to take full control of Lily's inheritance!