Evelyn: Arthur, think about what you are doing. If security escorts me off this property, the story will break to the press before sunset.
Arthur: Then let it break. I am done covering up your greed.
Evelyn: Greed? Everything I have done was to preserve our family legacy!
Arthur: By trying to trigger an anaphylactic shock in your own son?
Evelyn: It wasn't poison! It was just a pest! You are exaggerating a silly incident because you want an excuse to push me out of the family business!
Arthur: I didn't push you out, Mother. My father made that decision in his last will and testament.
Evelyn: Your father was weak in his final months! He was influenced by his lawyers!
Arthur: He knew you were spending millions from the private accounts without his permission. He saw what you were doing long before I did.
Evelyn: That money was mine by right! I spent thirty years building his social status in this city!
Arthur: That didn't give you the right to embezzle from the corporate charity foundation.
Evelyn's posture stiffened, her cold eyes narrowing as she stepped closer to the dining table.
Evelyn: How do you know about the charity foundation accounts?
Arthur: The forensic auditors finished their review yesterday morning. Did you really think I wouldn't notice five million dollars missing from the youth grant fund?
Evelyn: That was a temporary transfer! I intended to replace every cent after the estate property was liquidated!
Arthur: Liquidated? That land belongs to Jamie's trust fund! It isn't yours to sell!
Evelyn: He is an eight-year-old boy! He doesn't need fifty million dollars in real estate assets!
Arthur: It doesn't matter what he needs right now. My father willed that property directly to Jamie, with me acting as the sole trustee until he turns twenty-one.
Evelyn: And if you were hospitalized or deemed medically unfit to serve as trustee today, who do you think the board would appoint as temporary guardian of those assets?
Arthur: You.
Evelyn: I am the eldest surviving Vance! I am the rightful head of this family!
Arthur: You actually staged this whole scene just to force an emergency medical guardianship vote at today's meeting.
Evelyn: You are too soft to manage the board, Arthur! You let nanny opinions and child tantrums dictate how you run this house!
Arthur: My son saved my life today because he has a conscience! Something you clearly lost years ago!
Evelyn: Don't lecture me about conscience! You enjoy living in this luxury mansion, don't you? You enjoy the tuxedo, the servants, the prestige! I made all of this possible!
Arthur: I would live in a tiny two-bedroom apartment if it meant protecting my son from people like you.
Evelyn: You talk big, but you don't have the stomach to destroy your own mother in front of the board of directors.
Arthur: Test me, Evelyn. Just try me.
Evelyn: The board members will be walking through those front doors in twenty minutes. If I am not sitting at the head of that table, I will initiate a public lawsuit challenging your father's sanity when he signed the will.
Arthur: Go ahead and file it. My divorce lawyers and corporate attorneys have already prepared the counter-suit.
Evelyn: Counter-suit for what?
Arthur: Attempted corporate fraud, grand larceny from the charity fund, and now, reckless endangerment of a minor.
Evelyn took a step back, her sharp composure finally cracking as she looked down at the smashed cupcake still sitting on the marble counter.
Evelyn: You wouldn't press criminal charges against your own blood.
Arthur: My blood is upstairs in his bedroom, crying because his grandmother threatened him. You are no longer family to us.