Chloe: You called the police on my father?! After everything he did to help your shipping business[cite: 1]?!
Julian: He didn't help my shipping business, Chloe. He used my cargo terminals to launder thirty million dollars from his fake clinics[cite: 1]!
Nora: Show her the affidavit, Julian. Let her see what the marshals found in her father's private safe[cite: 1].
Julian pulled a thick legal envelope stamped with the Department of Justice seal from his inner coat pocket[cite: 1].
Julian: Here is the sworn deposition from Dr. Marcus Vance, signed twenty minutes before he was booked into the county jail[cite: 1].
Chloe: My father would never sign a confession against me! He loves me[cite: 1]!
Julian: He gave you up the second the prosecutors mentioned twenty years in federal prison for conspiracy to kidnap[cite: 1].
Lily: Daddy, my tummy hurts... Can we go inside and get a warm blanket[cite: 1]?
Julian’s eyes softened as he looked down at his daughter, kneeling gently beside Nora on the green grass[cite: 1].
He reached out his broad hand, gently smoothing back Lily's hair and wiping the dried tears from her nose[cite: 1].
Julian: I'm so sorry, Lily. Daddy should have known... Daddy should have protected you[cite: 1].
Lily: Mommy came back from the sky, Daddy! She pulled me out of the trash can[cite: 1]!
Julian: Mommy came back to save us both, baby. She's the bravest person in the whole world[cite: 1].
Nora rested her hand on Julian’s shoulder, her fingers gripping his dark suit coat[cite: 1].
Nora: She tried to erase me, Julian. She wanted Lily to forget my face completely[cite: 1].
Julian: Lily never forgot you, Nora. Every single night she held that worn rabbit and asked when Mommy was coming home from the stars[cite: 1].
Chloe clutched her red cheek, stepping backward toward the porch stairs as her arrogance turned into wild desperation[cite: 1].
Chloe: Julian, please! We can fix this! I only did it because I wanted us to be a real family without any past baggage[cite: 1]!
Julian: A real family? By torturing an innocent child and drugging her mother in an illegal facility[cite: 1]?!
Chloe: Nora was in the way! She was going to take half of your grandfather’s inheritance trust[cite: 1]!
Julian: My grandfather’s trust was created specifically for Nora and Lily! Not for me, and certainly not for you[cite: 1]!
Chloe: What are you talking about? You are the sole surviving male heir of the Sterling line[cite: 1]!
Julian: Grandfather knew what kind of vultures circled our money. His will states that sixty percent of Sterling Enterprises goes directly to Lily’s mother[cite: 1].
Chloe gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as the true financial reality collapsed on top of her[cite: 1].
Chloe: Nora owns sixty percent of the company...?
Nora: That’s right, Chloe. Which means you are currently trespassing on my private property[cite: 1].
Chloe: You're lying! Julian, tell me she's lying[cite: 1]!
Julian: The probate judge authenticated the trust distribution at ten o'clock this morning, Chloe[cite: 1].
Two squad cars and a black unmarked federal vehicle screeched through the front gates, their emergency lights painting the white porch in vivid flashes of red and blue[cite: 1].
Special Agent Marcus Vance stepped out of the lead cruiser, unbuttoning his jacket to display his gold badge[cite: 1].
Agent Vance: Federal Bureau of Investigation! Nobody move[cite: 1]!
Chloe spun around toward the front door of the mansion, but two uniformed state troopers cut off her path on the porch steps[cite: 1].
Trooper Davis: Stay right there, ma'am! Keep your hands where we can see them[cite: 1]!
Chloe: Agent Vance! Thank God you're here! My cousin is an agent in the Houston field office[cite: 1]!
Agent Vance: Your cousin was suspended this morning for leaking Department of Justice surveillance files, Miss Vance[cite: 1].
Chloe’s knees wobbled as she gripped the wooden porch railing beneath the fluttering American flag[cite: 1].
Chloe: You can't arrest me! I haven't committed any federal crime on this property[cite: 1]!
Agent Vance: Chloe Vance, I have an arrest warrant for felony conspiracy, interstate kidnapping, child endangerment, and wire fraud[cite: 1].
The steel handcuffs clicked loudly against Agent Vance's tactical belt as he walked up the stone walkway[cite: 1].