Julian stared at his young son in total shock before slowly turning to look at Evelyn.
"What is he talking about, Evelyn?" Julian asked, his voice shaking with intense rising panic.
Evelyn set her martini glass down on the glass table with a sharp, deliberate click sound.
"The child lost his balance and fell, Julian," Evelyn replied without a single hint of emotion.
"He is lying to cover up his own clumsiness, just like his mother always does," she added.
Clara stood up, holding Noah firmly against her hip while confronting the wealthy older woman directly.
"Look at his arm, Julian! Look at the red mark where someone grabbed him hard!" Clara yelled.
Julian knelt beside his son and inspected the faint red bruise forming on Noah's tender skin.
His face grew pale as he realized his young boy was telling the absolute truth.
"Why would you touch my son, Evelyn?" Julian demanded, his tone turning dark and furious.
Evelyn narrowed her eyes, dropping her polite fake act completely as she stood up slowly.
"I put up with your weak behavior for years because of your late father's memory," she snapped.
"That boy does not belong in this family line or near my vast financial estate," she spat.
Clara stepped between Evelyn and Julian, her heart burning with fiercely protective maternal instincts.
"You invited us here today just to humiliate us and hurt a child!" Clara accused loudly.
"I invited you here to hand over a final legal document," Evelyn revealed with a dark smile.
She reached into her silk robe pocket and pulled out a thick folded piece of white paper.
"This is an amendment to your father's original trust fund and real estate holdings," she said.
"If you bring this woman and her brat onto my property again, you lose everything," she warned.
Julian took the paper with trembling hands, staring at the harsh legal language written inside it.
He realized his stepmother had planned this confrontation from the very beginning to force a breakup.
She wanted full control over the family money and hated that Julian had started his own independent life.
"You think money gives you the right to abuse people?" Julian asked, his voice steadying with anger.
"Money gives me total control over this entire family," Evelyn answered coldly without any remorse.
Noah buried his wet face deeper into Clara's neck, still sniffling softly from the awful trauma.
Clara looked at her husband, waiting to see if he would finally stand up for his family.
"We are leaving right now," Clara said firmly, turning her back on the elderly woman completely.
"If you walk away today, Julian, your allowance and business backing end forever," Evelyn called out.
Julian looked down at the paper in his hand, then looked back at his shivering, terrified son.
He ripped the legal document in half and tossed the pieces onto the wet floor.