Victoria: I don't have to answer your ridiculous questions in front of a room full of strangers!
Julian: You are going to answer every single question before anyone leaves this hall tonight!
Victoria: Security! Clear these guests out through the front entrance immediately!
Two tall guards in black suits stepped forward from the doorway, looking back and forth between Victoria and Julian with uncertainty.
Guard One: Mr. Sterling... what are your orders?
Julian: Lock the front gates. Nobody enters or leaves this property until the police arrive.
Victoria: Police? You called the police over a maid's haircut?
Julian: I called the police because Clara is in severe abdominal pain, and you were hiding surgical tools from a crime scene!
Victoria: Crime scene? There is no crime scene!
Up on the second-floor balcony, Mrs. Gable supported Clara as they walked toward the guest room. Clara suddenly stopped, clutching the wooden railing tightly as she let out another breathless gasp.
Clara: Mrs. Gable... in my apron pocket... check the left side...
Housekeeper: What is it, child?
Clara: The paper... I found it under the mattress in the master bedroom...
Mrs. Gable reached into the pocket of Clara's white uniform apron and pulled out a small, crumpled piece of paper that was torn along the right edge. She unfolded it under the hallway light, her eyes widening as she read the handwritten lines.
Housekeeper: Oh dear Lord...
Clara: Take it down to Mr. Sterling... please... before she hurts anyone else...
Housekeeper: Stay right here against the wall, Clara. I'm going down right now.
Mrs. Gable hurried down the grand staircase, holding the torn slip of paper in her hand. Down in the hall, Victoria was screaming at the security guards, her voice growing more hysterical by the second.
Victoria: I pay your salaries! Unlock those front gates right now or you're both fired!
Guard Two: Our employment contract is with the Sterling Estate Trust, ma'am, not with you.
Julian: Give it up, Victoria. You don't control anyone in this house anymore.
Victoria: You think you're so smart, Julian! You think you can just kick me out after I spent two years building your father's reputation?
Julian: My father's reputation was built on fifty years of honest work, not your fake charity galas!
Mrs. Gable: Mr. Sterling! Look at this!
Julian turned around as Mrs. Gable rushed to his side, handing him the torn piece of paper. Victoria's eyes locked onto the paper, and her face drained of all color in an instant.
Victoria: Where did you get that?!
Mrs. Gable: Clara found it hidden under the mattress in the master suite while she was changing the linens this afternoon!
Julian: What is this, Victoria?
Victoria: It's nothing! It's just old trash from the renovation crew!
Julian held the paper under the bright chandelier light. The handwriting was unmistakable—it was his late father's shaky, trembling script, written during his final week of life.
Julian: This is my father's handwriting...
Victoria: Give that to me!
Victoria lunged forward, extending her hand to snatch the paper, but Julian caught her wrist in mid-air, holding her back with firm strength.
Julian: Read it aloud, Mrs. Gable.
Mrs. Gable: 'If anything happens to me, check the tea canister in the pantry. Victoria has been slipping doses of—'
The sentence cut off where the paper was torn away, but the message was clear to everyone standing in the room.
Guest A: She was poisoning him!
Guest B: My God... Arthur didn't die of a heart attack!
Victoria: That is a forged note! That maid wrote it herself to frame me!
Julian: Clara doesn't even know what my father's handwriting looks like, Victoria!
Victoria: She's working with someone else! She's trying to ruin my life!
Julian: Where is the rest of this note, Victoria?
Victoria: I don't know what you're talking about!
Julian: You tore this paper when you found my father writing it, didn't you?
Victoria backed away toward the fireplace, her steel scissors still clutched in her right hand, her breathing rapid and wild as the guests shrank away from her.
Victoria: Keep away from me, all of you!
Julian: You poisoned my father, Victoria. And tonight, you tried to do something to Clara because she found this note!