Arthur: Chloe, take your hands off your stomach and step away from the table.
Chloe: Arthur! Are you insane?! You’re going to question me because a little kid made a silly comment?!
Arthur: I asked you to step away from the table, Chloe.
Chloe: I am six months pregnant with your child! The heir to your estate! How can you humiliate me like this in front of your board of directors?!
Eleanor: She isn't lying, Arthur. Tell him about the master suite closet, Chloe.
Chloe: Shut up, Eleanor! You're just jealous because Arthur left you! You used your own daughter to invent a sick lie!
Lily: It's not a lie! It has blue flowers and a white zipper! I saw you wrap a strap around your back this morning!
Chloe: You little brat! I'll have security throw you both out on the street!
Arthur stood up slowly from his leather chair, his tall frame looming over the table. The silence in the dining hall was so absolute that the hum of the air conditioner sounded like a roar. Guests behind them whispered frantically behind their silk napkins.
Guest 1: Did the little girl just say it has a zipper?
Guest 2: Look at Chloe’s face! She’s trembling!
Arthur: Eleanor, speak clearly. What did you see?
Eleanor: Two hours before the gala, Lily went up to the second floor to use the private restroom. She walked into the guest room by mistake. Chloe was standing in front of the mirror, unbuckling a foam maternity pad from her waist.
Chloe: That is an absolute fabrication! A slanderous lawsuit waiting to happen! Arthur, call security right now!
Arthur: If it’s a lie, Chloe, let my personal doctor examine you right here in the side room.
Chloe: What?! You want me to undergo a medical exam in the middle of a corporate party?! I have my dignity!
Arthur: Doctor Evans is sitting at table four. He’s been our family physician for twenty years. It will take two minutes.
Chloe: No! I refuse to be degraded like this! This is emotional abuse!
Eleanor: You aren't refusing because of dignity, Chloe. You're refusing because Doctor Evans is the one who supposedly signed your ultrasound reports three months ago—reports he told me yesterday he never generated.
Chloe took a frantic step backward, her golden sequins catching the chandelier light. Her eyes darted toward the grand exit doors at the back of the hall, but two large security guards were already standing firmly in front of the brass handles.
Chloe: Arthur, please... let's go upstairs and talk about this in private. Just you and me.
Arthur: No, Chloe. We are talking right here, in front of everyone you tried to fool.
Chloe: I did it for us! I did it because I loved you so much and I knew how badly you wanted a son!
Arthur: You... you actually faked a pregnancy?!
Chloe: It wasn't a fake! I was going to adopt! I had a surrogate arranged in California! I was going to give you the baby you always dreamed of!
A collective gasp rose from the entire dining hall. Arthur’s face turned stone-cold, his eyes darkening with a rage that made every guest hold their breath.