Julian: Do not step another inch closer to her, Mother!
Evelyn: Julian, get away from that woman! Look at what she is wearing!
Julian: You tore her dress off in front of two hundred people!
Evelyn: She wore a cheap dress into my ballroom to humiliate our name!
Julian: She wore a black lace dress that my father gave her before he passed away!
Clara stood shivering against Julian’s chest, her hands clutching his tuxedo lapels as tears ran down her cheeks.
Clara: Julian... my locket. It broke on the floor.
Julian: I see it, Clara. Stay right here under my jacket.
Evelyn: What locket, Julian? Where did a servant girl get a green jade locket?
Julian: The same green jade crescent locket you stole from my sister's crib twenty-two years ago!
Evelyn’s breath hitched in her throat, her emerald green gown rustling loudly as she backed away toward the grand staircase.
Evelyn: That is a lie! My daughter died in the hospital twenty-two years ago!
Julian: My sister didn't die, Mother! You paid the head nurse to take her away because you wanted your nephew to inherit the entire Sterling trust fund!
Clara: She told everyone my mother abandoned me on the clinic steps...
Evelyn: Be quiet! Shut your mouth, you filthy girl!
Julian: Do not raise your voice at her again!
The surrounding guests began whispering furiously, pointing their fingers at the pale matriarch standing near the stairs.
Guest A: Did Julian just say she gave away her own daughter?
Guest B: Look at the green locket on the floor! That's the Sterling crescent design!
Evelyn: It's a fake! She bought a cheap piece of glass to trick my son!
Julian: It isn't glass, Mother. It's solid jade carved by grandfather in 1980.
Julian slowly unbuttoned his tuxedo jacket and wrapped it around Clara’s shoulders, covering her exposed black bra and panties. He knelt down on the white marble floor, his fingers carefully hovering over the two halves of the split green crescent.
Julian: The inner crest is stamped with the family notary seal. Look at it yourself.
Evelyn: I don't need to look at anything! I want this girl dragged out of my mansion!
Julian: This is Clara's mansion, Mother! According to Father's will, the primary heir owns fifty-one percent of the estate!
Evelyn dropped her jaw, staring at her son in absolute horror as the reality of the situation crashed down upon her.