The warm porcelain slipped from my fingers, shattering against the gray Italian marble in an explosion of amber liquid and jagged ceramic shards.
Julian: You lunatic! Look at what you just did!
Julian grabbed Maya roughly by the arm, trying to force her back toward the hallway, but she kicked wildly against his shins.
Maya: Touch me again and I scream loud enough for every neighbor on this street to hear! Clara, look at the tea on the floor!
I stepped back instinctively, pressing my hand over my swollen belly, my breath catching in my throat.
Clara: Julian, let her go right now! Let go of her!
Julian: Clara, she’s completely insane. This is Maya, my brother’s ex-fiancée. She’s been harassing our family for six months because of the inheritance dispute.
Evelyn: She’s an addict looking for a handout, Clara. Step away from her. She could be carrying a weapon.
Maya: An addict? Is that what you told your naive little bride, Evelyn?
Maya ripped her arm free from Julian's grip and threw a crushed plastic syringe and an empty amber vial onto the kitchen counter.
Maya: Look at the label, Clara. Pick it up and read it!
Evelyn: Don't you dare touch that garbage in my son's house!
I moved toward the counter before Julian could block me, my fingers closing around the cold glass vial.
Clara: It’s... concentrated pennyroyal extract and veterinary prostaglandin. Where did this come from?
Maya: I found it in the guest house trash can twenty minutes ago. Evelyn bought it cash in upstate New York yesterday. Ask her about her credit card charge at the rural pharmacy.
Julian: That’s an outrageous lie! She planted it! She snuck into our guest house and planted it to blackmail us!
Clara: Why would she do that, Julian? Why would anyone do that?
Maya: Because of the family trust fund, Clara. Because your baby changes everything.
Evelyn stepped forward, her face turning pale beneath her heavy makeup, her fingers digging into the strap of her designer handbag.
Evelyn: That is entirely family business, and you have no right to air our private affairs to an outsider.
Clara: An outsider? Evelyn, I am his wife! I am carrying your grandchild!
Maya: She doesn't want your child, Clara. If that baby is born alive, Julian loses control of forty million dollars.