Carter did not wait for the party guests to leave. He picked Maya up in his arms, wrapping his tuxedo jacket around her tiny shoulders to keep her warm. The little girl held onto his neck tightly, her small face buried in his collar. For the first time in her life, she felt protected from the harsh insults of the woman who had tormented her.
Carter: Where did Evelyn keep your mother's old belongings, Maya?
Little Maya: In the big locked room upstairs... behind the painting with the gold frame.
Evelyn: Get out of my master bedroom! You have no right to trespass in my private quarters!
Carter marched up the grand staircase, ignoring Evelyn's frantic screams as she chased after him in her high heels. He reached the master suite, walked directly to the large portrait hanging above the desk, and pushed it aside. A heavy steel wall safe was revealed underneath.
Carter: What is the combination, Evelyn?
Evelyn: I am calling the police on you for breaking and entering!
Carter: Go ahead! Call them! Let them come here while I show them the hidden child you kept unregistered in this house!
Evelyn froze near the doorway. Her hands shook violently. She knew that if the local authorities investigated the household, they would discover that Maya had been kept without proper legal adoption papers or schooling records, kept solely to prevent her from claiming her legal portion of the massive family fortune.
Carter: Give me the code, or I will bring a crowbar up here and rip this wall apart myself.
Evelyn: It is zero... four... eight... two.
Carter punched the numbers into the keypad. The heavy metal door clicked open with a deep mechanical thud. Inside were stacks of legal files, real estate property deeds, and a thick leather folder stamped with the official seal of the state family court.
Carter: Let us see what you were hiding in here.
He pulled out the leather folder and opened it under the bright bedroom light. Inside was an official birth certificate bearing the name Maya Vance, along with a certified letter written by Carter's late father just weeks before his death. The letter explicitly named Maya as his lawful daughter and directed that fifty percent of his entire wealth be placed in a trust fund managed solely for her education and living until her twenty-first birthday.
Carter: You hid my father's final amendment letter!
Evelyn: He was sick! He was not in his right mind when he wrote that!
Carter: He was completely sharp! You stole her biological inheritance and tried to erase her life!