Victoria: Ethan, you struck me! A billionaire CEO laid his hands on a Vance heiress!
Ethan: I should have thrown you out of these front gates six months ago, Victoria!
Victoria: That maid is lying through her teeth! She tripped over the area rug and panicked!
Rosa: Look at the iron lying on the floor, Mr. Sterling! The heat switch is set all the way to maximum!
Ethan stepped over the fallen iron, his boots clicking hard against the stone as steam rose toward the ceiling.
He knelt beside Rosa, his hands shaking as he reached for his sobbing infant son.
Ethan: Give him to me, Rosa. Let Daddy hold him.
Rosa: Be careful with his chest, sir. His skin is burning hot from the steam.
Ethan pulled back the yellow cotton onesie, his heart stopping as he saw the angry red flush across Noah's ribs.
Ethan: God in heaven... He was inches away from being disfigured for life.
Victoria: I was steaming the silk pillows before our dinner guests arrived, Ethan!
Ethan: You don't steam sofa cushions with a dry metal iron held two inches over an infant's chest!
Victoria: The cord snagged on my bracelet! The iron slipped out of my hand!
Rosa: She held it right over his chest and screamed at him to shut up, Mr. Sterling!
Victoria: Silence, you common peasant! You speak when you are spoken to in this house!
Ethan: Do not raise your voice at Rosa in my presence, Victoria!
Victoria: I am your lawful fiancee! We are announcing our formal wedding date at the charity gala tomorrow!
Ethan: There is no wedding date, Victoria. There is no wedding at all.
Victoria pushed herself up onto her elbows, her gold sequined sleeves rustling against the cold marble.
Victoria: You cannot cancel our wedding! We have six hundred high-society guests flying in from New York!
Ethan: Tell every single one of them to stay home, because you are leaving this estate in handcuffs.
Victoria: On what possible criminal charge?! You have zero proof of anything that happened in this room!
Ethan: I have Rosa's sworn word, and I have the burn marks scorched into my sofa fabric.
Victoria: A judge will never take the word of a cleaning lady over a Vance family member!
Rosa: A judge will look at the burns on that cushion, Victoria. And the marks on the baby's legs.
Ethan froze, his fingers tightening gently against the soft wool of Noah's blanket.
Ethan: What marks on his legs, Rosa?
Rosa: Unbutton his little booties, Mr. Sterling. Look at his ankles.
Ethan slipped off the yellow knitted booties, his teeth grinding together until his jaw ached.
Four dark purple bruises were dug deep into Noah's tender skin where adult fingernails had pinched him.
Ethan: Did you pinch my seven-month-old child, Victoria?
Victoria: He was kicking his feet while I tried to change his diaper! He bruised himself!
Ethan: Babies do not leave adult fingernail gouges on their own legs!
Victoria: You're blaming me for everything! What about the stress I have been under trying to manage your broken household?
Ethan: This household was never broken until you walked through these doors, Victoria.
Victoria: Your late wife left this place in total disarray! I stepped in to give this family a real social standing!
Ethan: Clara had more grace and honor in her little finger than your entire bloodline will ever possess.
Victoria: Clara died two years ago, Ethan! Her software patents belong to the Sterling estate now!
Ethan: Those patents belong to Noah's inheritance trust, Victoria. Not to you, and not to me.
Victoria sneered from the floor, wiping the blood from her lip with the back of her manicured hand.
Victoria: A trust that transfers sixty percent of the voting equity to your lawful surviving spouse if the child passes away!
Ethan looked down at the woman on the floor, a dark, sickening chill running down the back of his neck.
Ethan: So that was your plan all along, wasn't it?
Victoria: I don't know what ridiculous conspiracy theory you are inventing in your head, Ethan.
Ethan: You knew about the survivorship clause in Clara's will.
Victoria: Everyone in Dallas knows Clara Sterling left a massive trust fund behind!
Ethan: But only three people on earth had access to the sealed clause regarding child survivorship.
Victoria's eyes darted toward the library archway, her breath catching in her throat.
Victoria: My father's wealth advisors reviewed the public probate filings! It was common knowledge!
Ethan: The public probate filings were heavily redacted by order of the federal district court, Victoria.
Victoria: Then how was I supposed to know about any survivorship clause?!
Ethan: Because you paid my private notary two hundred thousand dollars to break into my office safe.
Victoria went dead silent, the color draining from her cheeks until she looked like damp chalk.