Eleanor: Freeze our assets?! Who do you think you are, coming into my mansion in velvet and threatening my family?!
Victoria: I am Victoria Vance. The primary trustee of the Vance Global Corporation, and the majority owner of this entire estate.
A collective gasp went through the two hundred high-society guests standing along the marble pillars. Board members pulled off their glasses in shock, while high-society ladies covered their mouths in disbelief.
Board Member Miller: Victoria Vance?! The lost daughter of Arthur Vance?!
Board Member Davis: She owns sixty percent of the voting shares in Sterling Global!
Victoria ignored the murmurs of the crowd, turning her back on Julian and dropping to her knees on the cold marble floor beside her crying daughter. She carefully avoided the sharp glass shards, pulling a silk handkerchief from her clutch and gently wrapping it around Lily's bleeding palm.
Victoria: Shh... Mommy's here, sweetie. Mommy's got you. Look at me, baby girl.
Lily: Mommy... my hand hurts... the mean man kicked my cake and shoved me!
Victoria: I know, sweetie. I saw what he did. The mean man is never going to hurt you again. I promise you on my life.
Julian: Mother... help me up! My ribs feel broken!
Eleanor: Stay right there, darling! Thomas, call our private estate doctors immediately!
Eleanor rushed over to her son, helping Julian sit up on the marble floor while glaring up at Victoria with deep, venomous hatred.
Eleanor: You may be a Vance, Victoria, but you are in the Sterling mansion! My late husband left this ballroom to my son!
Victoria: Your late husband borrowed forty million dollars from my father's trust fund to build this ballroom, Eleanor. And the mortgage deed sits on my desk downtown.
Eleanor: That's a complete lie! My husband paid off that loan fifteen years ago!
Victoria: He paid off the interest, Eleanor. The primary principal was defaulted six months ago when Julian lost twenty million dollars in his illegal offshore gambling accounts in Nassau.
Julian's face drained of all color. He stopped groaning, his eyes widening in pure horror as he looked at Victoria from the floor.
Julian: How... how do you know about Nassau?
Victoria: Because my private forensic accountants bought your debt at nine o'clock this morning, Julian.