Dispatcher: Emergency Services. What is your location?
Maya: I am at the Vance Estate on West Ridge Road. I have just been physically assaulted by my husband, Julian Vance.
Julian: Hang up that phone right now, Maya! Are you completely out of your mind?!
Evelyn: Maya, darling, think about our family reputation! Think about the press!
Maya: My head is bleeding. I require an ambulance and police officers immediately.
Dispatcher: Officers are dispatched to your location, ma'am. Stay on the line with me.
Maya ended the call and placed the black smartphone face down on the tablecloth next to her blood-stained napkin. The rest of the dinner guests sat frozen in horrified silence, watching the red liquid soak into the white fabric.
Julian: You stupid woman! You just ruined a fifty-million-dollar corporate merger!
Maya: You threw a heavy plate at my face, Julian.
Julian: Because you humiliated me! You told my entire board of directors that you wouldn't sign the property release!
Maya: The property belongs to my family line. It has belonged to the Sterling estate for eighty years.
Evelyn: Maya, please, we can doctor your face right here! We have a private physician on retainer!
Maya: I don't want your private doctor, Evelyn. I want official medical records for the court.
Julian: Court?! You think you're going to sue me?! I am the CEO of Vance Global!
Maya: You were the CEO, Julian.
Julian: What is that supposed to mean?!
Maya: Did you really think I came to this dinner without preparing for your temper?
Julian took a step forward, his fists clenched tightly at his sides, but Maya didn't flinch. She leaned back in her chair, pressing the napkin firmly against her temple to stop the bleeding.
Evelyn: Julian, stay back! Don't touch her again!
Julian: She's bluffing! She has nothing! Her father left her a bank account, not a legal team!
Maya: My father left me fifty-one percent of the voting stock in your father's company, Julian. You just forgot to read the fine print of our prenuptial agreement.
Julian's face went pale. He looked at his mother, whose face was equally devoid of color.
Julian: What prenup clause?! My lawyers drafted that agreement!
Maya: Your lawyers drafted what you told them to draft. But my father added an ethics clause six years ago before he funded your first shipping line.
Evelyn: An ethics clause...? Julian, did you know about this?!
Julian: She's lying, Mother! There was no such clause in our contract!
Maya: Any physical violence, domestic abuse, or criminal assault committed by a member of the Vance family against a Sterling heir immediately revokes all voting rights in the joint holding company.
The room went dead silent. The sound of distant police sirens began to echo from the front gates of the estate.
Julian: You set me up...
Maya: I didn't make you throw that plate, Julian. Your own rage did that all by itself.