Mark stood up slowly while holding his small daughter tightly against his chest.
His face turned cold as he glared up at the landing.
Sarah took a hesitant step back from the edge of the stairs.
She tried to speak, but her voice cracked with emotion.
Sarah: Mark, it is not what you think at all!
Mark: Why is my daughter crying like this?
Sarah: She went into my locked room by mistake!
Mark: That does not explain her terrible fear!
Sarah: I only wanted to grab the folder from her hands!
Mark: You frightened a young child over a simple file!
Mark held Lily tighter as the girl hid her face in his neck.
He could hear her repeating that she was so scared.
Mark raised his chin and pointed a firm finger toward the woman upstairs.
Mark: Please stay away from my daughter right now!
Sarah froze in place upon hearing his cold command.
She grasped her blue shirt near her heart and shook her head.
Sarah: I would never try to hurt Lily, Mark!
Mark: You cornered her in a room and panicked her!
Sarah: She found the adoption papers and the trust agreement!
Mark paused as those words rang through the marble foyer.
He wondered why simple legal papers would cause such intense panic.
He realized there was something much larger behind Sarah's secret files.
He carried Lily into the bright sitting room away from the stairs.
He sat her down softly on the comfortable sofa.
He wiped away her tears with the sleeve of his blue suit.
He needed to find out what was inside that locked study.
He turned back to face the woman coming down the hall.