Lucas: You pushed my two-year-old son down an entire flight of stairs, Victoria!
Victoria: I told you weeks ago, Lucas, I will not raise another woman's mistake in my mansion!
Lucas: This is my family's house! My late grandfather built every inch of this estate!
Victoria: Your grandfather left the estate management to my father's corporate firm until you married an approved heiress!
Lucas: And you think pushing an innocent baby makes you worthy of being my wife?
Noah trembled violently in Lucas's left arm, his small face buried against his father's neck, gasping for breath through his sobs.
Noah: Daddy... My knee hurts so bad... The lady pushed me...
Lucas: I know, baby. Daddy has you. You are completely safe now.
Victoria: Oh, stop coddling him! He barely bumped down a few padded steps! He's faking it for attention!
Lucas: He tumbled down fourteen wooden steps, you sick psychopath!
Victoria: He shouldn't have been standing at the top of the landing! Servants belong in the basement kitchen!
Lucas: Noah is not a servant, Victoria! He is the sole biological heir to the Sterling trust fund!
Victoria let out a loud, mocking laugh, tapping her manicured nails against the edge of the black document clipboard in her hand.
Victoria: Heir? He has no legal standing in any probate court in this state!
Lucas: What are you talking about?
Victoria: I just received the official courier delivery from the downtown genetic laboratory!
Lucas stepped forward, his knuckles turning white as he shifted Noah's weight into the crook of his left arm.
Lucas: Did you open my sealed medical mail?
Victoria: As the future mistress of this estate, I have full authority to review all family legal records!
Lucas: You have zero authority over my private medical mail, Victoria!
Victoria: Well, you should thank me! I just saved you forty million dollars in inheritance money!
Lucas: What did the lab report say?
Victoria: It confirmed what my mother and I knew from the very start! This boy is not your child!
Lucas went deathly still, his jaw tightening until the muscles jumped along his cheekbone.
Lucas: Did you actually read the names printed at the top of that certificate?
Victoria: I don't need to read every line of fine print! The zero-percent match is printed right at the bottom!
Lucas: You ignorant, greedy monster...
Victoria: Don't you dare insult me! You should be throwing that street rat into foster care right now!
Lucas didn't waste another second on words. He stepped directly into her space, his free right arm swinging through the air with explosive fury.
His open palm connected squarely across Victoria's face with a loud, sharp slap that echoed like a gunshot through the vaulted foyer.
Victoria let out a loud gasp of pure shock as her head snapped violently to the side.
The force of the strike knocked her off balance, sending her crashing backward onto the hard marble floor in a heap of maroon silk.
The black clipboard slipped from her numb fingers, clattering loudly against the stone beside her hip.
Lucas stood tall over her, holding his weeping child securely against his chest as his eyes burned with lethal intensity.
Lucas: Let's see whose name is written on this paper. Go on, read it!
Victoria lay on the cold stone, clutching her swelling cheek with trembling hands as her eyes locked onto the black clipboard resting beside her.