Arthur: Put the child down, Ethan. You are making an undignified spectacle in my foyer.
Ethan: An undignified spectacle? You ordered your wife to throw my four-year-old child from a second-story balcony!
Margaret: Lower your voice, Ethan! The estate staff can hear you shouting!
Ethan: Let them hear! Let the whole city hear what kind of monsters live in this mansion!
Arthur: That girl is not an heir to the Sterling estate. She never was.
Ethan carried Lily down to the foyer sofa, setting her down gently and wrapping his blue suit coat over her shoulders.
Ethan: Lily is my biological daughter, Arthur. Her mother died giving birth to her.
Arthur: Her mother was a common kindergarten teacher with zero family pedigree.
Margaret: We offered that woman five million dollars to walk away before she died in that hospital!
Ethan: And she tore up your check because she loved me, Margaret!
Margaret: Love does not run a five-billion-dollar maritime logistics corporation!
Arthur walked slowly toward the marble staircase, his cane tapping rhythmically against the stone.
Arthur: In two weeks, our merger with Vance International goes through. You are marrying Victoria Vance.
Ethan: I will never marry Victoria Vance. She is as rotten as the two of you.
Arthur: Victoria has forty percent of the voting shares in the eastern shipping terminals!
Ethan: I don't care if she owns the entire Atlantic Ocean!
Margaret: Arthur, look at his eyes. He is completely defiant, just like his brother was.
Ethan paused, his head snapping toward Margaret as a chill ran down his spine.
Ethan: What did you just say about my brother, Margaret?
Arthur: Be quiet, Margaret! Go back into the sitting room!
Ethan: No. Margaret, finish that sentence right now.
Margaret: Your brother Thomas thought he could disobey this family too, Ethan.
Ethan: Thomas died in a car crash on the interstate three years ago!
Margaret: Thomas was driving a car with disabled brake calipers because he refused to sign over his trust fund!
The vast foyer went completely silent, the only sound being Lily's soft, frightened sniffling from the sofa.
Ethan took two slow, terrifying steps toward his father, his hands balling into tight fists.
Ethan: You sabotaged your own son's car?
Arthur: Thomas was going to liquidate eighty million dollars of company stock to start a charity foundation.
Ethan: So you murdered him?! You murdered my brother for corporate stock?!
Arthur: I protected the family legacy! An enterprise built over three generations cannot be dismantled by sentimental fools!
Margaret: And that little orphan on the sofa was going to inherit Thomas's remaining trust shares today!
Ethan looked down at Lily, seeing her tiny foot missing its shoe, the gold glitter shoe resting on the third step.
Ethan: Thomas left his trust shares to Lily in his private will...
Arthur: A will that was supposed to be destroyed by our estate lawyer yesterday morning.
Ethan: Lawyer Harrison didn't destroy that will, Arthur.
Arthur's eyes narrowed, his fingers gripping the gold handle of his cane until his knuckles turned pale.
Arthur: What are you talking about? Harrison works for me on an annual retainer!
Ethan: Harrison gave me the sealed original document forty-eight hours ago.
Margaret let out a sharp, furious gasp, her hands flying to her lace collar.
Margaret: Arthur, he has the original will! If that will reaches the probate court, we lose voting control!
Arthur: Call security, Margaret. Lock every exit in this building right now.
Ethan: Go ahead and call them, Arthur. See who answers the radio.