The porcelain tub in the master suite was filled to the brim with scalding water, steam rising against the white Italian marble walls.
Victoria stood over the basin in her royal blue silk dress, her manicured fingers pressing four-month-old Oliver beneath the surface.
Victoria: Now Gabriel will never know what losing looks like!
Victoria: Cry into the water, little brat. Nobody is coming to pull you out.
The infant’s tiny hands flailed frantically against the surface, bubbles bursting around his gasping mouth.
Victoria: Your dead mother thought she secured your place in this mansion.
Victoria: But an estate this big belongs to a woman with power, not a helpless baby.
Heavy footsteps thundered down the tiled hallway as the bathroom door crashed open against the wall.
Elena sprinted across the wet floor in her white maid uniform, Officer Davis right behind her with his hand on his holster.
Elena: Get away from him, you monster!
Elena shoved Victoria backward into the vanity, plunging both arms into the tub to snatch the choking infant.
Oliver gasped, spitting water across Elena’s apron as high-pitched wails tore from his tiny lungs.
Victoria: How dare a filthy maid touch my child!
Elena: He isn’t your child, Victoria! You just held his face under the water!
Victoria: I was bathing him! The child slipped on the soap!
Gabriel Vance charged through the doorway in his tailored dark suit, his tie crooked and his eyes wild with terror.
Gabriel: Oliver, what is happening here?!
Victoria: Darling, she attacked me!
Elena: Look at this CCTV footage, sir! She threw your baby in the tub!
Elena unlocked her phone, shoving the live security feed inches from Gabriel’s face.
Gabriel’s jaw locked, his palm cutting through the air with a violent crack that sent Victoria crashing to the floor.
Gabriel: You monster!
He snatched his dripping baby, wrapping him in a plush white towel and burying his face into his wet curls.
Gabriel: Daddy’s here, you’re safe now... You lose the house, the money, and my name!
Victoria clutched her bruised jaw against the tiles, completely unaware that Gabriel had unsealed the private vault in the study twenty minutes ago.