Victoria grabbed the heavy carved wooden box containing the fragile family inheritance papers.
She walked deliberately toward the edge of the second-floor balcony overlooking the foyer.
Elena gasped in horror as she realized what the cruel woman was about to do.
Elena: Mrs. Sterling, please put that box back down onto the wooden table!
Victoria: Mind your own business, you pathetic servant, or you will suffer the consequences!
Victoria held the heavy antique box directly over the drop toward the marble floor.
Below them lay the hard checkered tile floor of the mansion's massive front entry.
If the delicate glass-lined heirloom box smashed below, the irreplaceable records inside would tear.
Victoria smirked cruelly as she relaxed her grip on the heavy carved wooden handles.
Victoria: Oops, my hands just slipped off the smooth wooden surface of this box!
The heavy box slipped past the thick wrought-iron banister and plunged straight down toward tile.
Elena did not hesitate for even a single fraction of a split second in that moment.
She threw herself forward down the polished wooden stairs toward the grand lower landing.
Her knees hit the hard checkered floor with a loud, echoey impact across the foyer.
She slid across the marble, reaching her hands out as far as she possibly could.
The heavy box landed squarely inside Elena's arms just inches above the solid floor.
She cradled the fragile wooden heirloom tightly against her chest, panting heavily from panic.
The glass cover on the box remained completely intact without receiving a single crack.
Upstairs, Victoria stood on the landing, gasping in shock at Elena's quick reflexes.
Elena: I caught it before it could shatter onto the marble floor downstairs!
Victoria: You foolish girl, you were supposed to let it crash and break!
Victoria rushed down the wooden staircase, her face flushed red with furious disappointment.
She intended to snatch the wooden box away and claim Elena had dropped it herself.
Victoria: Give that to me right now so I can throw you out permanently!