Harrison: What on earth happened to this room?!
Eleanor: Harrison! Thank goodness you arrived with the trust documents!
Chad: Harrison, call the police right now! Evelyn assaulted me in front of all our business partners[cite: 1]!
Harrison: Chad, why are you covered in dust? And why is there shattered glass across the entire hall[cite: 1]?
Evelyn: Ask him why he shoved my seven-year-old child through a display case, Harrison[cite: 1]!
Harrison stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes darting down to the trembling little girl on the floor[cite: 1].
He saw the blood soaking through the white silk napkin, the deep crimson cuts across her wrists, and the pale terror on her face[cite: 1].
Harrison: Chad... Did you lay your hands on Lily[cite: 1]?
Chad: The brat bumped into the case, Harrison! Stop interrogating me like I'm a criminal[cite: 1]!
Lily: He called me a stray, Uncle Harrison! Then he shoved both hands into my shoulders[cite: 1]!
Harrison: Good Lord... A seven-year-old child[cite: 1]?
Eleanor: Harrison, do not indulge this foolishness! We are here to sign the corporate merger papers with Sterling Logistics!
Harrison: The merger papers cannot be signed tonight, Eleanor.
Eleanor: What do you mean they cannot be signed?! The board directors are standing right by the bar!
Harrison: The merger has been halted by order of the United States District Court.
The entire grand ballroom fell into a dead, suffocating silence, the whispering guests freezing mid-conversation.
Chad pushed himself up against a banquet table, adjusting his torn maroon collar with trembling fingers[cite: 1].
Chad: Halted?! On what possible legal grounds could our family merger be halted?!
Harrison: On grounds of grand corporate forgery and active trust embezzlement, Chad.
Eleanor: Harrison, watch your tongue! I pay your legal firm's annual retainer!
Harrison: My firm doesn't work for you anymore, Eleanor. We resigned as general counsel at five o'clock this afternoon.
Chad: You resigned?! Who authorized you to resign right before the biggest deal in Texas history?!
Evelyn: I authorized him, Chad.
Evelyn stood up from the floor, cradling Lily against her hip as her teal satin gown rustled over the glass shards[cite: 1].
Her face was still red from Chad's slap, but her green eyes burned with cold, untouchable power[cite: 1].
Eleanor: You authorized him?! You are a penniless widow with zero voting shares in Vance Holdings!
Evelyn: Open your leather briefcase, Harrison. Show Eleanor what my late husband left in his safe.
Harrison clicked open the dual brass locks on his black portfolio, pulling out a thick cream-colored document.
Stamped across the front page in raised crimson wax was the official seal of the State of Texas Probate Division.
Chad: What is that? My father's will was probated two years ago! I received sixty percent of the company!
Harrison: The will you probated two years ago was a fraudulent draft, Chad.
Eleanor: Fraudulent?! That will was prepared by Arthur Vance's personal notary!
Harrison: The notary who signed that document was paid two hundred thousand dollars to forge Arthur's signature while he was in a medical coma.
Chad gasped, his hand flying to his throat as his knees wobbled beneath his tailored trousers[cite: 1].
Chad: That's... That's a complete lie! My father wanted me to run the shipping lines!
Harrison: Your father knew you were gambling with cartel front companies in Macau, Chad.
Eleanor: Harrison, shut your mouth! You are slandering the name of my son in front of his peers!
Harrison: I am stating federal facts, Eleanor. The authentic holographic will was deposited with the state archives forty-eight hours before Arthur passed.
Evelyn: Read section four, Harrison. Read who actually owns the ground they are standing on.
Harrison adjusted his reading glasses, his deep voice carrying across the high ceiling of the ballroom.
Harrison: 'To my beloved wife, Evelyn, and our biological daughter, Lily Rose Vance, I leave eighty-five percent of all corporate voting stock and full ownership of the family trust.'[cite: 1]
Chad stumbled backward, his back slamming into a waiter's tray of champagne glasses, sending crystal crashing to the floor[cite: 1].