Martha: You cannot evict me from my own home, Jack[cite: 4]!
Jack: This was never your home. You were a gold-digger who preyed on a sick old man[cite: 4].
Martha: I cared for your father when you were working overseas on military cargo contracts[cite: 4]!
Jack: You put him in a nursing home thirty miles outside Austin so you could throw parties here[cite: 4]!
Martha: He needed specialized care that this mansion couldn't provide[cite: 4]!
Jack: You told him I had died in the Persian Gulf so he would sign over the deed[cite: 4]!
Martha backed up against the tool chest, her hands trembling as she smoothed down her lapels[cite: 4].
Martha: That was an honest misunderstanding based on military news reports[cite: 4]!
Jack: There was no news report, Martha. You forged the Department of Defense casualty letter yourself[cite: 4].
Martha: That letter was delivered by a courier service! I didn't forge anything[cite: 4]!
Jack: The courier was your personal driver, Todd[cite: 4]!
Martha: Todd was running errands for the estate! That proves nothing[cite: 4]!
Jack: Todd surrendered his phone to the Texas Rangers forty minutes ago, Martha[cite: 4].
Martha's eyes flared with sudden, desperate panic as her jaw dropped open[cite: 4].
Martha: Todd was arrested...?! Why would they arrest my driver[cite: 4]?!
Jack: Because he carried the five hundred thousand dollars in cash you withdrew from Lily's inheritance trust[cite: 2, 4].
Martha: That money was an advance on my monthly spousal allowance[cite: 4]!
Jack: Your spousal allowance is ten thousand dollars a month, Martha. Not half a million[cite: 4].
Martha: I had large corporate expenses for the estate maintenance[cite: 4]!
Jack: You were paying off the clinic doctor who signed the false death certificate for my father's sister[cite: 4]!
Martha took two fast steps toward the doorway, her high heels clicking loudly against the concrete[cite: 4].
Martha: Let me pass, Jack! I am calling my private legal team in Houston[cite: 4]!
Jack stepped into the door frame, his towering frame blocking her path like an iron wall[cite: 4].
Jack: You aren't calling anyone, Martha. Your phone service was shut down at noon[cite: 4].
Martha: You had no legal authority to disconnect my private cellular line[cite: 4]!
Jack: The phone account belongs to Sterling Logistics, and I am the chief executive officer[cite: 4].
Martha: My brother sits on the executive board! He will remove you by tomorrow morning[cite: 4]!
Jack: Your brother was escorted out of the corporate headquarters in handcuffs two hours ago[cite: 4].
Martha stopped dead in her tracks, her manicured fingers clawing at the wall for balance[cite: 4].
Martha: Marcus... In handcuffs?! What did Marcus do[cite: 4]?!
Jack: He tried to wire twelve million dollars to a shell corporation in Belize before the market opened[cite: 4].
Martha: That money belonged to our joint family venture[cite: 4]!
Jack: That money belonged to the employee pension reserve that my father built over forty years[cite: 4].
Martha: We were going to replace it after our logistics merger closed[cite: 4]!
Jack: There is no merger, Martha. There is only a criminal indictment for grand fraud[cite: 4].
The interior kitchen door opened slightly, and Mrs. Gable stepped back into the garage[cite: 4].
Mrs. Gable: Jack, the pediatrician is on speakerphone. He says we need an emergency thermal wrap immediately[cite: 2, 4].
Jack: Is she warming up, Mrs. Gable[cite: 2]?
Mrs. Gable: Her skin is still pale white, and she can't bend her knees without screaming[cite: 2, 3].
Jack closed his eyes for a split second, a cold shiver of rage washing over his spine[cite: 2].
Jack: Did you hear that, Martha? My daughter can't even bend her legs[cite: 2, 4].
Martha: She will thaw out in an hour! Children are resilient, Jack[cite: 2, 4]!
Jack: If I hadn't come home early today, she would have suffocated in that metal box by sunset[cite: 1, 2].
Martha: I would have let her out before dinner! I just wanted her to be quiet for a little while[cite: 2, 4]!
Jack: You put a padlock on a commercial chest freezer and walked away[cite: 1, 4]!
Outside the open garage door, the heavy crunch of gravel signaled the arrival of several vehicles[cite: 1, 4].
Flashing red and blue emergency lights painted the white garage walls and the American flag hanging from the rafters[cite: 1, 4].