Ethan: Victoria... what happened in this room?
Victoria: She came at me, Ethan! I was just standing here having my morning juice, and she started screaming about her father's estate!
Clara: Ethan... don't listen to her... she pushed me...
Victoria: Look at what she did! She threw herself into the table just to frame me! She's crazy, Ethan! She wants to ruin my reputation before the board meeting!
Ethan: Clara, don't move. Stay on the floor. Don't touch the glass.
Ethan stepped carefully around the sharp shards scattered across the marble, kneeling beside Clara. He gently lifted her shoulders, keeping her away from the larger broken pieces on the floor.
Clara: Please... call an ambulance... my stomach hurts so bad...
Ethan: I'm calling them right now. Keep your eyes on me, Clara. Breathe slowly.
Victoria: Ethan, why are you helping her?! She attacked your stepmother! Look at my hands, I'm shaking!
Ethan: Victoria, stop screaming.
Victoria: You need to call the police and have her taken away! She's a danger to this family!
Ethan: The police are already on their way, Victoria. I called them from the driveway before I walked through those doors.
Victoria's hysterical weeping stopped instantly. She looked up at Ethan, her tear-stained face suddenly frozen with uncertainty.
Victoria: You... you called the police before coming inside?
Ethan: I did.
Victoria: Why would you call the police before you even saw what was happening?
Ethan: Because my security app sent a real-time motion alert to my phone two minutes ago.
Clara closed her eyes, letting out a weak breath as Ethan pulled his smartphone from his tuxedo pocket. He held the screen up, unlocking it with his thumb.
Victoria: What security app? The estate cameras have been turned off for maintenance all week!
Ethan: The maintenance crew you hired turned off the ground-floor system. They didn't know I installed an independent cloud camera on the ceiling last month.
Victoria's eyes darted upward to the small white dome mounted near the chandelier[cite: 1]. The tiny red light pulsed steadily in the bright daylight[cite: 1].
Victoria: That... that camera isn't connected to the main house server!
Ethan: It streams directly to my personal server in Chicago, Victoria. And it records audio in high definition.
Clara: Ethan... the video...
Ethan: I watched the live feed in my car while my driver pulled up to the gate. I saw you put your hands on my pregnant wife's chest. I saw you shove her straight into the glass table.
Victoria backed away on her knees, her velvet dress dragging through small bits of broken glass. Her face turned completely pale.
Victoria: Ethan, listen to me... it wasn't what it looked like! She provoked me! She was threatening to take my inheritance!
Ethan: It wasn't your inheritance, Victoria. It was her father's estate. And you just committed attempted murder on video.