Gabriel turned back toward Victoria with a serious expression on his face.
Maria wiped her eyes and pulled a small folded paper from her apron pocket.
Maria: She did not hire me because of my resume, Mr. Gabriel.
Victoria: Shut your mouth right now, Maria!
Gabriel: Let her speak, Victoria, or I will have security remove you now.
Victoria clenched her fists, but she stayed silent near the table.
Maria: My mother worked for her father's firm for twenty years in Houston.
Maria: When my mother passed away, she left a trust fund for my college tuition.
Maria: Victoria was the executor of that small estate before you met her.
Gabriel's eyes narrowed as he listened to Maria's trembling voice.
Gabriel: What happened to that trust fund, Maria?
Maria: Victoria wiped the account clean two months before you got engaged.
Maria: She forced me to work here for free to pay off fake legal debts.
Victoria gasped sharply and stepped backward toward the window frame.
Victoria: She is lying to you, Gabriel, she is just trying to get money!
Maria: I have the bank transfer statements right here in my hand.
Gabriel took the folded paper from Maria and carefully opened it up.
His eyes scanned the columns of numbers and legal bank stamps.
The paper showed fifty thousand dollars transferred directly into Victoria's personal account.
The signature at the bottom was Victoria's smooth and stylized handwriting.
Gabriel: You stole a orphan's college fund to buy designer clothes?
Victoria: It was a legal loan to cover estate management fees!
Gabriel: There is no legal fee that takes a girl's entire inheritance.
Victoria: You do not understand how real business works, Gabriel!
Gabriel: I understand fraud, and I understand taking advantage of the weak.
Victoria tried to snatch the paper from Gabriel's hands, but he stepped away easily.
He walked over to the landline phone mounted near the formal dining door.
Victoria: What are you doing with that phone?
Gabriel: I am calling my family attorney, and then the police.
Victoria's eyes filled with genuine fear as she realized her plan was falling apart.
She had built her entire lifestyle on stolen money and fake high-society status.
Victoria: Gabriel, please, we can talk about this in private!
Gabriel: The time for private talking ended the second you put hands on her.