Julian: Clara, look at me! Are you okay?
Clara: Mr. Sterling... it hurts... my stomach feels like it's on fire!
Victoria: Julian, take your jacket off her this instant! She's filthy!
Julian: Shut your mouth, Victoria!
Victoria: She's only a maid! You are making a complete spectacle of yourself in front of our board members!
Julian: I don't care about the board members right now! Look at what you did to her hair!
Victoria: She was hovering around the gentlemen at the bar! She was trying to entice the guests!
Clara: I wasn't... I swear I was only carrying the water tray...
Dark hair strands lay scattered across the wet marble tiles beside the broken silver pitcher. Clara held Julian's suit jacket tight around her neck, her hands shaking violently as she pressed her forehead against his chest.
Julian: Mrs. Gable! Call an ambulance right now!
Housekeeper: Right away, Mr. Sterling!
Victoria: Don't you dare call an ambulance to my home! There is nothing wrong with her!
Julian: She is in severe pain, Victoria! Can't you see she can barely breathe?
Victoria: She's putting on an act! She saw you coming down the stairs and started crying for attention!
Clara: Ahhh! Please... make it stop!
Clara let out a sharp, high-pitched scream of agony, doubling over as she clutched her waist tighter. Julian wrapped his arm around her back, pulling her close to support her weight.
Julian: Take her somewhere safe, Mrs. Gable! Take her up to the second-floor suite!
Housekeeper: Yes, sir. Lean on me, Clara.
Victoria: You are putting a servant in the master guest suite? Have you completely lost your mind, Julian?
Julian: She is a human being in distress, Victoria! Something you clearly know nothing about!
Victoria: I am your fiancée! I am the future mistress of this estate!
Julian: You are acting like a cruel, heartless monster in front of two hundred people!
Guest C: He's right, Victoria. This is horrific behavior.
Guest D: To cut a poor girl's hair like that... it's barbaric!
Victoria: Mind your own business, all of you! You are guests in my house!
Julian: This is my house, Victoria! My late father built this mansion, not you!
Victoria: Your father left me in charge of the estate management until our wedding day!
Julian: That management contract ends the second I decide to cancel our engagement!
Victoria's face turned white with rage. She stepped toward Julian, pointing the steel scissors directly at his chest.
Victoria: You wouldn't dare cancel the engagement! Your company needs my family's trust fund to survive the quarterly audit!
Julian: I would rather go bankrupt a thousand times over than spend another day bound to a woman as malicious as you!
Victoria: You ungrateful fool! After everything I did for your father?
Julian: What you did for my father is looking more suspicious by the minute, Victoria.
Julian stood up slowly from the marble floor, his gray trousers stained with ice water. He looked down at the uneven clumps of dark hair lying on the tiles, then turned his gaze back to Victoria's cold, angry eyes.
Victoria: What is that supposed to mean?
Julian: My father was healthy three months ago. Then you moved into this house, and he suddenly passed away from a mystery illness.
Victoria: His heart failed! The doctors signed the death certificate!
Julian: Doctors that you hired and paid for out of the corporate account!
Victoria: How dare you accuse me of such a thing!
Julian: Where did you get those scissors, Victoria?
Victoria: From the kitchen drawer! Where else?
Julian: The kitchen scissors have plastic handles. Those are surgical steel scissors from my father's locked medical cabinet upstairs.
Victoria swallowed hard, her hand flinching slightly as she held the metal handles. A quiet murmur swept through the crowd of guests as everyone watched the confrontation escalate.
Julian: Why were you inside my father's locked cabinet tonight, Victoria?
Victoria: I... I was looking for a bandage!
Julian: You don't keep bandages in a locked steel vault, Victoria. What were you really doing up there?