Julian stopped on the third step from the bottom, adjusting the gold cufflinks on his designer suit[span_26](start_span)[span_26](end_span).
The harsh utility bulb cast deep, cruel hollows across his face as he stared down at them[span_27](start_span)[span_27](end_span).
Julian: Step away from the child, Mother. You shouldn't have snooped around my estate tonight[span_28](start_span)[span_28](end_span).
Clara: Julian, step aside right now. We are taking Lily straight to the emergency room[span_29](start_span)[span_29](end_span).
Julian: Nobody is going to any hospital. You're meddling in family finances you don't understand[span_30](start_span)[span_30](end_span).
Clara: Look at your daughter! Look at her skin! She is freezing to death on this damp cement[span_31](start_span)[span_31](end_span)!
Julian: She has plenty of blankets. She was doing fine until you poked your nose where it didn't belong[span_32](start_span)[span_32](end_span).
Clara: Fine? You held a funeral for her! You put an empty box into the cemetery ground[span_33](start_span)[span_33](end_span)!
Julian: It wasn't empty. It was weighted with ninety pounds of medical sandbags so the pallbearers wouldn't notice[span_34](start_span)[span_34](end_span).
Clara: You are sick, Julian. You are completely out of your mind[span_35](start_span)[span_35](end_span).
Julian: Lower your voice, Mother. The estate groundskeeper is patrolling the front perimeter[span_36](start_span)[span_36](end_span).
Clara: Good! Let him hear me! Let the whole town hear that Julian Vance is a fraud and a monster[span_37](start_span)[span_37](end_span)!
Julian rushed down the remaining steps, grabbing Clara’s upper arm with crushing force[span_38](start_span)[span_38](end_span).
Julian: I said shut your mouth, old woman[span_39](start_span)[span_39](end_span)!
Lily: Daddy, don't hurt Grandma! I'm sorry I woke up[span_40](start_span)[span_40](end_span)!
Julian didn't even look at the crying child clinging to Clara’s woolen coat[span_41](start_span)[span_41](end_span).
Julian: Go back under the blanket, Lily. Lie down and cover your ears[span_42](start_span)[span_42](end_span).
Clara: Do not speak to her like she is a stray dog[span_43](start_span)[span_43](end_span)!
Julian: You don't understand the pressure I was under! You never understood business[span_44](start_span)[span_44](end_span)!
Clara: What kind of business requires you to bury your own living child[span_45](start_span)[span_45](end_span)?
Julian: The family trust fund! Sarah’s father tied up fourteen million dollars in an irrevocable estate trust for Lily[span_46](start_span)[span_46](end_span)!
Clara: Because Sarah knew you were a reckless gambler who ruined every company you touched[span_47](start_span)[span_47](end_span)!
Julian: If Sarah passed away, I couldn't touch a single dollar of the principal until Lily turned twenty-five[span_48](start_span)[span_48](end_span)!
Clara: And that drove you crazy, didn't it[span_49](start_span)[span_49](end_span)?
Julian: My commercial real estate firm was thirty days away from bankruptcy court! Creditors were filing foreclosure on this entire mansion[span_50](start_span)[span_50](end_span)!
Clara: So you invented a fatal illness to rob your own daughter[span_51](start_span)[span_51](end_span)?
Julian: The estate trust had a survivorship clause. If the sole beneficiary dies before adulthood without heirs, the total capital dissolves directly into the surviving father's account[span_52](start_span)[span_52](end_span)!
Clara: You murdered your daughter on paper for fourteen million dollars[span_53](start_span)[span_53](end_span)!
Julian: She isn't dead! You see her right here! She was going to be taken care of[span_54](start_span)[span_54](end_span)!
Clara: Taken care of? In a freezing cellar behind an industrial boiler[span_55](start_span)[span_55](end_span)?
Julian: Doctor Vance arranged a private transport van to take her to a secure boarding estate in Mexico tonight[span_56](start_span)[span_56](end_span)!
Clara: Doctor Vance? The family pediatrician who signed her death certificate[span_57](start_span)[span_57](end_span)?
Julian: A four-hundred-thousand-dollar cash wire solved his medical malpractice lawsuits in one afternoon[span_58](start_span)[span_58](end_span).
Clara: You bribed a licensed doctor to drug a six-year-old girl with paralytics[span_59](start_span)[span_59](end_span)?
Julian: It was a safe sedative! She was out cold during the hospital transfer and the casket viewing[span_60](start_span)[span_60](end_span)!
Clara: She could have suffocated in the back of that van[span_61](start_span)[span_61](end_span)!
Julian: But she didn't! And the estate check cleared this afternoon at three o'clock[span_62](start_span)[span_62](end_span)!
Lily: Grandma, my throat is burning. I need water[span_63](start_span)[span_63](end_span).
Clara pulled Lily tighter against her chest, her eyes blazing with fury[span_64](start_span)[span_64](end_span).
Clara: I am walking out of here with my granddaughter, Julian. Try to stop me and I will scream until the police arrive[span_65](start_span)[span_65](end_span).
Julian reached into his heavy overcoat, pulled out a solid iron padlock, and clicked it shut on the exit grate[span_66](start_span)[span_66](end_span).
Julian: Nobody leaves this basement until my private jet takes off from the executive airport at four in the morning[span_67](start_span)[span_67](end_span).