Marcus tightened his grip on his crying wife, feeling her body tremble under severe stress.
He looked at the red marks on her wrists and the sheer terror filling her eyes.
His mind raced as he tried to comprehend who would dare mistreat his wife inside his own home.
Sarah clutched his arm desperately, glancing over her shoulder toward Victoria with pure dread.
Victoria strolled casually down the corridor, sipping her wine without a single hint of remorse on her face.
Her calm posture seemed unnaturally chilling against the backdrop of Sarah's intense emotional breakdown.
Victoria: She is just putting on a show, Marcus. Do not fall for her dramatic manipulation.
Marcus: A show? She was locked in a dark room while heavily pregnant!
Victoria: She became hysterical over the family trust documents and locked herself inside to cause a scene.
Sarah: That is a lie! She forced me in there because I found the hidden trust fund papers!
Marcus looked back and forth between his stepmother and his sobbing wife.
The tension in the bright luxury hallway reached an absolute boiling point.
Victoria raised her chin, her expression turning cold and remarkably strict.
Victoria: Be careful how you speak to me in this house, Sarah. You are an outsider who married into wealth.
Marcus: Stop talking to my wife like that right now, Victoria!
Victoria: I am saving this estate from a woman who wishes to steal your late father's legacy!
Marcus felt a sharp wave of anger surge through his entire body.
He had spent his whole life watching Victoria control the family business after his father passed away.
She had managed every asset, every bank account, and every real estate property with an iron fist.
Whenever anyone questioned her decisions, she used charm and emotional guilt to silence them.
But seeing Sarah terrified and bruised shattered any remaining respect Marcus held for the woman who raised him.
Sarah squeezed his arm tighter, her breath coming in shallow, ragged hitches.
Sarah: Marcus, she was looking for the updated will your father wrote before he died.
Victoria: Silence! You know nothing about your late father's true wishes!
Marcus: Why are you so terrified of what Sarah found in that room, Victoria?
Victoria turned her back to him, swirling her wine glass in a swift, deliberate circle.
Victoria: I have nothing more to say to an ungrateful son who takes a stranger's side over his own family.