Jessica pulled her warm winter coat tight against the bitter Texas frost.
She carried two grocery bags from her tiny silver sedan up the driveway.
The white marble mansion stood tall against the dull grey morning sky.
Her father had built this massive house twenty long years ago.
Now her wealthy stepmother Victoria lived inside all by herself.
Jessica noticed her three year old son Leo playing near the porch glass.
The heavy glass door suddenly slammed shut with a loud clatter.
Victoria stood behind the thick glass with her arms crossed tightly.
Victoria: Stay outside where you belong!
Leo pressed his small hands against the cold icy glass pane.
Leo: Mommy, please let me in!
Jessica dropped her brown paper bags onto the snow covered lawn.
She sprinted across the slippery driveway as fast as she could.
Jessica: Open this glass door right now, Victoria!
Victoria smiled coldly and flipped the small brass lock inside.
Victoria: You are not coming back in here today!
Jessica scooped her shivering toddler into her warm loving arms.
Jessica: Oh my sweet baby, what happened out here?
Leo pointed his little finger at the locked glass door nervously.
Leo: Mean lady shut the door on me, mommy!
Jessica held him tight against her warm beige trench coat.
Jessica: You are safe with me now, my sweet boy.
Victoria pulled the heavy velvet curtains shut across the large window.
Jessica carried her crying son back to her running silver car.
She turned on the heater high to warm his freezing hands.
Jessica: We are going straight to our lawyer's office now.
She buckled Leo into his blue padded child car seat carefully.
Her hands trembled violently as she gripped the leather steering wheel.
Her late father Arthur had passed away just two months ago.
Arthur had always promised that Leo would inherit the family estate.
Yet Victoria had produced a sudden new will right after his funeral.
The new legal document gave Victoria every single dollar and house.
Jessica had suspected fraud from the very first minute she saw it.
Now Victoria was acting desperate and aggressive toward little Leo.
Jessica drove down the icy suburban avenue toward the town center.
She called her legal counsel Arthur's trusted friend Marcus on speakerphone.
Jessica: Marcus, Victoria just locked Leo out in the freezing cold!
Marcus: Is the boy alright, Jessica?
Jessica: He is warm now, but she has completely lost her mind!
Marcus: Come straight to my office on Main Street right away.
Marcus: We just received the official forensic audit on Arthur's estate.
Jessica felt a sudden spark of hope ignite inside her chest.
Jessica: Did you find proof of the forged signature?
Marcus: It is much bigger than just a fake signature, Jessica.
Jessica pressed down on the gas pedal with renewed quiet determination.