Vanessa dropped her champagne glass, the crystal shattering across the hardwood floor with a sharp crash.
Vanessa: You promised me! You swore the prenup left her with zero dollars and an old sedan!
Richard: Calm down, Vanessa! The postnuptial agreement still overrides personal property distributions in our divorce filing!
Karen: Does it, Richard? Did you actually read the document you forced me to sign while I was in the hospital recovering from surgery?
Richard: You signed it freely in front of a licensed notary public! It is completely ironclad!
Karen: A contract signed under medical duress is voidable within seven years. And tomorrow morning marks precisely six years and three hundred and sixty-four days.
Richard: You wouldn't dare contest it. The litigation costs alone would bankrupt you before we ever reached discovery.
Karen: My personal accounts might be frozen by your financial team, but my family trust fund holds forty percent of your company's preferred voting stock.
Richard froze, his face draining of color until he looked like a ghost standing under the foyer chandelier.
Richard: What did you just say?
Karen: Did you honestly believe my father left all his shares to a blind management company without my direct power of attorney?
Vanessa: Richard, what is voting stock? What does that mean for our vacation trip to Saint-Tropez?
Richard: Be quiet, Vanessa! Karen, you gave up voting rights during the initial public offering!
Karen: I delegated operational proxies to you as my spouse. The moment you filed for divorce this morning, those spousal proxies legally dissolved.
Officer Davis: Mr. Vance, I need to know if there is an active restraining order, or if I should step outside while you contact legal counsel.
Richard: Step outside, Davis! Don't you dare leave the gate house!
Officer Davis: Understood, sir. Mrs. Vance, call the gate desk if you require physical assistance.
The security guard turned on his heel and stepped into the stormy night, letting the heavy door latch shut.
Vanessa: Richard, look at her! She's smiling! Why aren't you throwing her down the front steps?!
Karen: Because he knows if he lays a single finger on me, the domestic assault charge will trigger the morality clause in his CEO contract.
Richard: You set this entire trap. You knew about Vanessa months ago.
Karen: I knew the day you purchased two identical diamond bracelets from the jeweler in Manhattan and only brought one home.
Vanessa: He gave me that bracelet because I appreciate him! You only cared about board meetings and old charity auctions!
Karen: I cared about protecting the business my father spent forty years creating while Richard used company expense accounts to pay your penthouse rent.
Richard: That penthouse was leased under a secondary shell corporation. You have no legal proof of company embezzlement.
Karen: The forensic accountant finished his audit three hours ago. The wire transfers from the corporate mortgage reserve lead straight to your personal offshore account in the Caymans.
Richard gripped the foyer table, his knuckles turning stark white under the hall lights.
Richard: You hired a forensic team behind my back? That requires executive board clearance!
Karen: Not when the inquiry is initiated by the majority shareholder. Tomorrow at nine in the morning, the board convenes an emergency session.
Vanessa: An emergency session for what? Richard runs the company!
Karen: To vote on Richard's immediate termination for gross financial misconduct and breach of fiduciary duty.