David: "Maria! Come here right now!"
Maria: "Yes, Mr. Sterling! I'm so sorry, sir! I tried to stop her!"
David: "Tell me everything that happened before I walked through those double doors. Don't leave out a single detail."
Victoria: "Maria, remember who pays your salary! Keep your mouth shut if you value your job!"
David: "I pay your salary, Maria. And I promise you on my life, you will be completely protected. Speak."
Maria stepped forward, her voice shaking with emotion as she looked at David, wiping a tear from her eye.
Maria: "Mrs. Sterling dragged little Lily into the bathroom by her hair, sir. She locked the main corridor door so nobody could hear."
David: "She dragged her by her hair?!"
Maria: "Yes, sir! She kept screaming at the poor girl, demanding to know where a safety deposit box key was hidden!"
Victoria: "She's lying! She's making up stories to save her own skin!"
Maria: "I am telling the absolute truth, Mr. Sterling! Mrs. Sterling pulled out that red lighter from her bathrobe pocket and sparked the flame. She told Lily she would burn her arm until she gave up the location of your late brother's estate key!"
David's chest heaved as he turned his gaze back toward Victoria, who was now trembling with nervous energy.
David: "My brother's estate key...? You were torture-interrogating a child over a trust fund key?!"
Victoria: "Your brother stole millions from the family business before he died! That safety deposit box holds the stock certificates that belong to me!"
David: "My brother didn't steal a single penny! Those stock certificates were left in a legal trust for Lily's college tuition and future inheritance!"
Victoria: "That brat doesn't deserve a multimillion-dollar trust fund! She isn't a real Sterling!"
David: "She has more blood right to this family than you ever will!"
Lily: "Daddy... my arm hurts real bad..."
David: "Maria, go to the kitchen immediately. Get a cold compress, first-aid ointment, and clean bandages. Then call our private family doctor to come to the house."
Maria: "Right away, Mr. Sterling!"
Maria hurried out of the bathroom, leaving David standing face-to-face with Victoria in the heavy, suffocating silence of the room.
David: "You are a monster, Victoria. A complete, cold-hearted monster."
Victoria: "You can't prove anything! It's my word against a maid and a traumatized orphan!"
David: "You think I don't have eyes?! Look at the floor, Victoria!"
David pointed down at the red lighter lying next to a small security camera mounted near the top moulding of the bathroom ceiling.
David: "I installed high-definition security cameras in every wing of this mansion three months ago after the break-in attempt."
Victoria's eyes darted up to the ceiling, her mouth dropping open in sudden, overwhelming panic.
Victoria: "You... you put cameras in here?!"
David: "Every single second of what you just did was recorded in 4K resolution directly to our cloud server."