Victoria: You hit me! A billionaire laid hands on an heiress in front of the servants!
Marcus: You dropped an eight-year-old child off a thirty-foot balcony, Victoria!
Victoria: He climbed over the stone spindles on his own! I tried to catch his shirt!
Toby: That's a lie, Dad! She grabbed both of my wrists and shoved me over!
Victoria: The boy is lying to keep from getting grounded for playing on the rail!
Marcus: Toby has never lied to me in his entire life, Victoria.
Victoria: He was trying to touch the crystal chandelier from the ledge, Marcus!
Toby: I was standing right by the library doors waiting for Daddy's car!
Marcus set Toby down gently behind a marble column, checking his yellow shirt with shaking hands.
Marcus: Are you hurt anywhere else, buddy? Tell Daddy right now.
Toby: My ribs hurt where she pinched me this morning, Dad.
Marcus lifted the boy's yellow cotton hem, revealing three deep purple bruises along his ribcage.
Marcus: Did you put your hands on my son this morning, Victoria?
Victoria: He spilled oatmeal on the dining room carpet! A parent has to set discipline!
Toby: She dumped cold water on my head because I asked for a photo of my mommy!
Marcus: You poured water on my grieving son because he wanted to see his mother?
Victoria: Sarah died three years ago, Marcus! He needs to stop dwelling on a dead woman!
Marcus: Sarah built this logistics company with me from nothing, Victoria. You will never replace her.
Victoria: I am your legal fiancee! I run this entire household now!
Marcus: You run nothing in this house, and you never will.
Victoria: We signed our prenuptial agreement on Friday! We file the marriage certificate tomorrow!
Marcus: That wedding is canceled. It was canceled the moment you touched my boy.
Victoria took a fast step back, her green satin top catching the glare of the chandelier.
Victoria: You cannot cancel our wedding! We have six hundred high-society guests arriving!
Marcus: Tell every single one of them to stay home, because you're leaving in a police cruiser.
Victoria: On what possible charges?! You have no proof of anything that happened up here!
Marcus: I saw you let go of his wrists with my own eyes, Victoria.
Victoria: I slipped! My high heel caught on the edge of the Persian rug runner!
Marcus: The rug runner ends six feet from the stone railing, Victoria.
Victoria's eyes darted toward the floor, her face draining of color as her story fell apart.
Victoria: My father invested forty million dollars into your maritime logistics firm last winter!
Marcus: Your father didn't invest forty million dollars of clean money, Victoria.
Victoria: What are you talking about?! Vance Maritime is the biggest shipping partner in Texas!
Marcus: Vance Maritime is an insolvent shell company that went bankrupt four months ago.
Victoria froze on the balcony tiles, her painted lips parting in sudden, paralyzed shock.
Victoria: That is slander! My father is a respected commissioner on the Dallas commerce board!
Marcus: Your father was arrested at his private hangar thirty minutes ago by federal marshals.
The grandfather clock in the gallery chimed loudly, echoing through the tense, heavy silence.
Victoria: Arrested...?! You're bluffing! You're making up insane fairy tales to scare me!
Marcus: Check your phone, Victoria. See how many calls you missed from your family lawyers.
Victoria snatched her gold phone from her designer clutch, her fingers trembling violently.
Her display was completely flooded with forty missed calls and breaking news alerts from the local press.
Victoria: 'Vance Maritime raided by federal task force... Chairman Arthur Vance in custody'...
Marcus: The Department of Justice unsealed the grand jury indictment at noon today.
Victoria dropped the phone onto the floor, the glass screen shattering against the hard marble.