Ethan: Stand up, Vanessa. Stand up right now and look me in the eye.
Vanessa: Ethan, sweetheart, listen to me! That camera was disconnected months ago! The technicians told us the wiring was completely dead!
Camila: It isn't dead, Mr. Vance! You reconnected the whole security hub on your phone before you left for your flight on Monday!
Ethan: She's right, Vanessa. I turned every single lens back on forty-eight hours ago because money was disappearing from my mother's medical trust account.
Vanessa: You... you didn't tell me you did that!
Ethan: Why would I need to tell my wife that my home security system is working, unless she had something to hide?
Ethan set his heavy silver suitcase down against the marble counter, his shoes clicking against the stone as he walked straight over to Camila[cite: 1]. He dropped down on one knee, gently inspecting the raw, bleeding scratch mark tearing through her blue scrub sleeve[cite: 1].
Ethan: Are you okay, Camila? Can you stand up?
Camila: My elbow hurts from the fall, Mr. Vance, but I'm okay. Please check on your mother. Her blood pressure was spiking before Vanessa walked into the kitchen.
Ethan: Mom? Mom, can you hear me? It's Ethan.
The elderly woman in the wheelchair, seventy-year-old Eleanor, reached out with trembling hands, clutching her son's coat sleeve with a look of pure relief.
Eleanor: Ethan... don't let her touch Camila... Camila was trying to give me my heart medicine...
Vanessa: Eleanor is confused, Ethan! You know her memory lapses have been getting worse every week! She doesn't know what she's saying!
Eleanor: I am not confused, Vanessa! You took my pill bottle off the tray! You hid it behind your back!
Ethan: Is this true, Vanessa? Did you take my mother's prescription bottle?
Vanessa: Of course not! Why would I take her medication?! That nurse is making up stories to cover up her own neglect!
Camila: Check her apron pocket, Mr. Vance! She slid the bottle into her black skirt pocket right before she shoved me to the floor!
Ethan stood up slowly, his height towering over Vanessa as his shadow stretched across the bright white kitchen walls[cite: 1]. He reached out his hand, his voice deathly quiet.
Ethan: Hand me whatever is in your pocket, Vanessa.
Vanessa: Ethan, this is humiliating! You're taking the word of a thirty-dollar-an-hour nurse over your own wife?!
Ethan: Hand me the bottle, or I will have my estate security guards empty your pockets for you.
Vanessa's lower lip trembled as she backed away toward the kitchen island, her hands clutching her designer handbag tightly against her waist.
Vanessa: Fine! Take it! I was only holding it because she was giving Eleanor the wrong dose!
She pulled a small brown prescription bottle out of her skirt pocket and slammed it onto the marble island counter[cite: 1]. Ethan picked it up, reading the label under the bright daylight[cite: 1].
Ethan: This is my mother's blood pressure prescription. The bottle was filled yesterday with sixty tablets. Why are there only ten pills left in here, Vanessa?
Vanessa: How should I know?! Ask your precious nurse where the rest of them went!
Camila: I administered two pills this morning at eight o'clock, Mr. Vance! The logbook on the counter shows fifty-eight pills were in that bottle when I started my shift!
Ethan: Fifty pills don't just vanish into thin air in twenty-four hours, Vanessa.
Vanessa: Maybe she flushed them down the sink! Maybe she's trying to sell them on the street! How can you trust a woman who lives in a rented studio apartment over me?!
Ethan: Because Camila has cared for my mother for three years without a single issue, while you spent the last six months asking my estate lawyer how much money you would inherit if my mother passed away!
Vanessa: That was a legitimate legal question about our family prenup, Ethan! I have a right to know our financial standing!
Ethan: You don't have a right to touch a single cent of my mother's estate, Vanessa. And you certainly don't have the right to lay your hands on her medical staff!
Ethan pulled his smartphone out of his jacket pocket, unlocking the screen with a quick swipe of his thumb.
Ethan: Let's take a look at what the ceiling camera actually recorded while I was driving home from the airport.