Mark: Victoria, take my hand! Grab on!
Victoria: I... I can't reach!
Mark: Reach for me! Now!
Mark dropped to his knees at the poolside, extending his arm down toward the splashing water. Victoria kicked with all her strength, her trembling fingers wrapping around Mark's forearm. He pulled her upward, helping her drag her heavy, waterlogged body onto the dry stone floor.
Victoria: Thank you... oh god, thank you, Mark.
Mark: Are you hurt? Did she break your hand?
Victoria: My fingers... she stepped on them with her heel.
Mark: Don't move. Just sit right there and catch your breath.
Chloe broke the surface of the pool behind them, coughing violently and wiping blonde hair out of her face. She pulled herself toward the steps, her tailored cream outfit completely ruined and sticking to her skin.
Chloe: Mark! What is wrong with you?! Why did you pull her out?!
Mark: Are you completely out of your mind, Chloe?
Chloe: She trespassed! She walked right onto our property like she owns the place!
Victoria: I DO own this place! My father built this mansion!
Chloe: Your father left everything to me in his will! You have nothing here!
Victoria: You forged that will, Chloe! My lawyer is already contesting the entire document in court!
Chloe: Good luck proving that! You're nothing but a bitter stepdaughter looking for a payday!
Mark: Chloe, shut up! Just stop talking right now!
Chloe: Don't you dare talk to me like that! I am your wife, and this is my home!
Mark: You don't understand what you just did!
Chloe: What I did was defend our property! She was harassing me about the life insurance policy!
Victoria: Because you cut me out of my own father's policy three weeks before he died!
Chloe: He loved me, Victoria! He wanted me taken care of, not a daughter who barely visited!
Victoria: He was sick! He wasn't in his right mind, and you took advantage of him!
Chloe: That doesn't matter now. The legal documents are signed, sealed, and filed. The mansion, the trust fund, the private accounts—it's all mine.
Mark: Chloe, please, look at me.
Chloe: What, Mark?! Why are you looking at me like that?! You should be calling security to have her thrown off the estate!
Mark: Security isn't going to help you with this.
Chloe: What are you talking about? I pay the estate security team five thousand dollars a month!
Mark: It's not about the security guards, Chloe.
Chloe: Then what is it?! Why are you standing there trembling like a fool?
Mark: Look up at the ceiling.
Chloe paused, her hand dripping on the marble as she stared at her husband. The wind rustled through the palm trees, filling the heavy silence between them. Victoria looked up too, cradling her bruised hand against her chest.
Chloe: The ceiling? What are you babbling about?
Mark: Just look up at the wooden overhang right above the pool ledge.
Chloe slowly turned her head, her wet hair falling over her shoulder as her gaze tracked upward toward the dark stain ceiling beam.