Serena: What... what are you doing with your phone, Victor?
Victor: Calling up the cloud server.
Serena: I told you, the system is offline! The estate manager said the wiring burned out!
Victor: The estate manager was replaced three days ago, Serena. I had a brand new security company install high-definition dome cameras yesterday afternoon.
Clara: Look at the camera, Miss Serena. The red indicator light is glowing.
Serena snapped her head upward toward the ceiling molding. Above the entry frame, a sleek white dome camera sat mounted against the plaster, its tiny red indicator light blinking with a continuous, steady pulse.
Serena: No... no, that's impossible. You didn't tell me you replaced the cameras!
Victor: Why would I need to tell my fiancée that I'm upgrading the security system in my own home? Unless, of course, she had something to hide.
Serena: Victor, darling... you know I get stressed! The wedding planning has been overwhelming, and Ethan was being disobedient!
Victor: Ethan is six years old, Serena! You dragged him across a marble floor until he bled!
Serena: I didn't mean to hurt him! I was just trying to discipline him! A stepmother has to establish authority in her own house!
Clara: You didn't try to discipline him. You tried to force him to hand over his late mother's jewelry!
Victor: Is that true, Serena? You were trying to take Catherine's locket from my son?
Serena: Catherine is dead, Victor! That heirloom belongs in the family vault, not hanging around the neck of a little boy who could lose it in the yard!
Victor: That locket was left to Ethan in his mother's will. It is part of his inheritance, managed by his trust fund!
Serena: I am going to be your wife! Everything that belongs to this estate should be under my control!
Victor: My son's inheritance will never be under your control. And neither will this house.
Victor tapped the screen of his smartphone, his face pale with intense shock and disbelief as the live video stream buffered and loaded onto the display.
Serena: Victor... please don't look at that. Talk to me instead!
Victor: The security feed just came back online, Serena. You're done.
Serena: Victor, wait! Let me explain!
Victor: Look at this screen! Look at what you did! You grabbed his arm, dragged him ten feet across the floor, and shoved him into the wall baseboard while he screamed for his life!
Clara: And then she threatened to have me fired when I stepped in to save him.
Victor: You lied straight to my face, Serena. You stood right under that American flag and told me Clara attacked my child, when Clara was the only person in this house acting like a human being!
Serena took a step back, her high heels clicking sharply against the blood-stained marble as her face flushed bright red with embarrassment and absolute terror.
Serena: Victor, you can't throw away our relationship over a silly misunderstanding! Think about our social standing! Think about the merger between our family businesses!
Victor: My family business will survive without your father's investment, Serena. But my son will not survive another day with a sociopath in his home!
Serena: I loved you, Victor! I gave you two years of my life!
Victor: You didn't love me. You loved the Sterling mansion, you loved the trust fund, and you wanted to eliminate anything that reminded you of my late wife!
Serena collapsed onto the cold marble floor in absolute panic, her glittering gold dress pooling around her knees as she began to sob hysterically, burying her face in her hands.
Serena: Please, Victor... don't call the police! If this gets out to the press, my family's reputation will be ruined!
Victor: Your reputation is the least of your concerns right now, Serena.
Victor stepped forward decisively, bypassing the weeping woman on the floor as he walked straight toward the back of the hallway where Clara and Ethan were sheltered near the American flag.