Victoria: Carter, we can work this out privately! Think about your corporate image! The board of directors meeting is tomorrow morning!
Carter: The board of directors is going to see this exact video tomorrow morning, Victoria.
Victoria: No! You can't show that to the board! It will ruin the merger with Vance Logistics!
Carter: The merger with Vance Logistics was contingent on your father's estate guarantee, wasn't it?
Victoria: My father is a major stakeholder in Sterling Enterprises!
Mia: Daddy... she took Mommy's gold lockets out of our room yesterday.
Carter's eyes narrowed. He looked down at Mia, then looked back at Victoria, who was slowly backing away toward the pantry door.
Carter: Where are Sarah's lockets, Victoria?
Victoria: I don't know what she's talking about! I didn't touch her late mother's jewelry!
Lily: She put them in her red designer handbag! I saw her lock them in her purse before she hit us!
Carter stood up from the floor, stepping over to the kitchen counter where Victoria's leather handbag rested beside a vase of fresh roses. He unzipped the main compartment and dumped the contents onto the marble island.
A diamond-encrusted brooch, two vintage gold heart lockets, and a thick leather folder dropped onto the white marble with a heavy clatter.
Carter: Is this your mother's heirloom brooch, Victoria? The one you accused my daughters of stealing?
Victoria stayed silent, her breathing rapid as she pressed her back against the pantry frame.
Carter: You had the brooch in your own purse while claiming seven-year-old girls stole it from your dressing room.
Victoria: I... I put it in my bag for safekeeping!
Carter: And what is this leather folder doing in your bag?
Carter picked up the thick cream-colored folder, opening the front page under the bright kitchen lights. His eyes scanned the typewritten text, his face darkening with every second.
Carter: This is a petition for emergency legal guardianship over the Sterling Family Trust Fund.
Mia: What does that mean, Daddy?
Carter: It means Victoria drafted legal papers to declare both of you mentally incompetent heirs so she could take full control of your mother's fifty-million-dollar estate.
Lily gasped, holding her sister's hand tightly as Carter flipped to the final page of the document.
Carter: Look at the signature line, Victoria. You forged my signature using a stolen digital notary stamp.
Victoria: That's not forgery! My lawyer said as your fiancée, I had the right to prepare emergency estate filings!
Carter: Your lawyer lied to you, Victoria. Forging a federal officer's signature on an estate trust is a Class One felony.
Distant police sirens began to echo through the long estate driveway outside, their red and blue lights flashing against the tall kitchen windows.
Victoria: The police... Carter, tell them it was an accident! Tell them we had a family argument!
Carter: The only thing I am telling the police is where to take your luggage.