The heavy click of the iron lock echoed off the stone walls of the basement like a gunshot.
Clara stood up slowly, her knees cracking, refusing to show fear before the monster she had raised.
Clara: You think locking us down here will save you? The bank will notice the missing child!
Julian: The bank already closed the probate file, Mother. The certified county death certificate was accepted by the probate judge at noon.
Clara: And what happens when the private transport van arrives tonight?
Julian: Doctor Vance’s couriers will take Lily straight through private customs on a charter cargo flight.
Clara: Under a fake name? With forged papers?
Julian: A wealthy family in Argentina is adopting her under a private custodial agreement. She will have private tutors, a swimming pool, and an allowance for life.
Clara: You sold your own daughter to strangers so you could pay off your luxury lifestyle?
Julian: I didn't sell her! I secured her future away from the vultures who ruined my business!
Clara: You are lying to yourself, Julian! You threw her away because she was an obstacle between you and fourteen million dollars!
Julian: Stop yelling! Listen to me, Mother. I am offering you a way out of this room right now.
Julian unzipped a black leather duffel bag resting on an old wooden workbench, revealing stacks of banded hundred-dollar bills.
Julian: There is five hundred thousand dollars in cash right here. Take it.
Clara: You think you can buy my silence with dirty money?
Julian: Take the money, get in your sedan, and drive back to your house in Ohio. Act like you never visited this estate tonight.
Clara: And leave my six-year-old granddaughter to be smuggled out of the country like illegal cargo?
Julian: If you don't take the deal, you force my hand! Do you realize what kind of criminal charges I face if this gets out?
Clara: Grand larceny, wire fraud, conspiracy, kidnapping, and child endangerment. You will die in a federal penitentiary.
Julian: That’s why you're not leaving! I have spent seven months planning this estate transfer with corporate tax attorneys!
Clara: You planned this while Sarah was dying in the oncology ward?
Julian: Sarah never loved me! She looked down on me from her family’s high-society pedestal every single day of our marriage!
Clara: Sarah gave you a home, an executive title, and a beautiful child!
Julian: She made me sign a postnuptial agreement that left me with pennies if we divorced!
Clara: Because she caught you laundering company funds to pay off your Atlantic City bookies!
Julian: That’s none of your business! The point is, the money is legally mine now!
Lily: Grandma, my tummy hurts. Daddy, please let us go home.
Julian turned toward the child, his face contorted in a sneer of pure disgust.
Julian: Shut up, Lily! If you hadn't knocked over that water bowl, your grandmother never would have found you!
Clara: Don't you dare blame a terrified six-year-old for your botched crimes!
Julian: Take the duffel bag, Mother! Take the five hundred thousand dollars and leave through the back garden door!
Clara: I wouldn't take a single dollar of your filthy blood money if I was starving in the gutter.
Julian zipped the bag shut with a sharp, vicious tug, his eyes darkening with cold resolve.
Julian: Then you leave me no choice. Both of you will stay in this storm cellar until the transport van loads the cargo at three thirty.
Clara: And what happens to me after the van leaves, Julian? Are you going to unlock the door then?
Julian looked away, refusing to meet his mother’s penetrating stare.
Clara: You weren't planning on letting me out at all, were you?
Julian: You shouldn't have snooped around my property, Mother.
Clara: You would leave your own mother down here to die of dehydration?
Julian: The estate groundskeeper will inspect the basement next week after I land in Zurich. You'll be fine.
Clara: You are a coward and a monster, Julian Vance.
Julian turned on his heel, moving toward the stairs, when Clara noticed the corner of a heavy iron tire iron resting against the water heater.