Clara: What do you mean, not yet? Julian, he is kissing your fiancée!
Julian: I know exactly what he is doing in that room, Clara.
Clara: You know, and you are just standing here adjusting your cufflinks?
Julian: Take a deep breath and wipe your face. You are making a scene in the corridor.
Clara: A scene?! My husband is betraying me with the woman you are supposed to marry today!
Julian: Victoria is not going to marry me, Clara. She was never going to marry me.
I took a sharp step back on the marble floor, staring at Julian as if he were a complete stranger.
Clara: What are you talking about? You two have been engaged for six months!
Julian: Victoria works for me. She has worked for me since the day Arthur tried to strip my mother's inheritance out of the family trust fund.
Clara: You... you hired her to seduce your own father?
Julian: I hired her to get close to him. Arthur is a greedy, arrogant old man who thinks every young woman in Chicago wants his money.
Clara: Julian, this is sick! This is your father!
Julian: My father stole forty million dollars from my mother's estate when she passed away, Clara. He forced you to sign a prenuptial agreement that leaves you with nothing if he divorces you.
Clara: I don't care about the prenuptial agreement! I cared about our family!
Julian: There is no family in this mansion, Clara. There is only money and control.
Julian took a silk handkerchief from his grey suit pocket and handed it to me with a cold, precise movement.
Julian: Clean your face. The guests are entering the main ballroom downstairs.
Clara: I am going to walk into that room and tell everyone what Arthur is doing in the study!
Julian: If you do that now, Arthur calls his security team, throws you out of the estate, and hides his offshore accounts before sunset.
Clara: And what happens if I wait?
Julian: If you wait ten minutes, Victoria hands him the land deed transfer papers. Once his signature is on that master document under the witnesses' eyes, he loses everything.
Clara: You are using her to steal the entire Sterling corporation!
Julian: I am taking back what my mother built before Arthur ruined her life. And if you stand beside me, you get half of the liquid assets.
Clara: I don't want your stolen wealth, Julian! I wanted a husband who loved me!
Julian: Arthur never loved anyone, Clara. He loved the power his father left him in his will.
He turned his back on me and stepped toward the grand double doors of the ballroom, his leather shoes clicking against the light marble floor.
Julian: Make your choice, Clara. Walk away with nothing, or watch him destroy himself.
I stood alone in the hallway, looking at the heavy wooden doors of the study, my heart hammering against my ribs as the sound of classical music echoed from the ballroom below.