Victoria: Julian, please! Think of our social circle! Think of what our friends at the country club will say!
Julian: Our friends at the country club will be reading your federal booking charges on the front page tomorrow morning.
Victoria: I will sign a complete legal waiver! I'll surrender all claims to the shipping shares!
Julian: You have no shares to surrender, Victoria. The Dallas district court voided your family's proxy votes at noon.
Victoria: What about the prenuptial settlement?! You signed a guarantee for ten million dollars if the engagement ended!
Julian: Paragraph fourteen of that agreement states that any act of violence against an immediate family member voids all financial liabilities.
Victoria pushed herself up onto her elbows, her red silk dress stained with muddy water from the patio planter.
Victoria: That agreement was drafted by my father's legal team! We never included a violence clause!
Julian: My chief corporate counsel inserted that clause forty-eight hours before we signed, and your father was too greedy to read the fine print.
Victoria: You tricked us! You planned this entire humiliation from the very start!
Julian: I gave you every chance to show compassion to my boy, Victoria. I watched you treat him like dirt for six months.
Victoria: He reminded me of Clara! Every time he looked at me with those green eyes, I saw her face!
Julian: Clara had more grace, beauty, and kindness in her soul than your entire corrupt bloodline.
The glass patio doors clicked open again, and Dr. Reynolds walked out onto the stone terrace carrying his medical bag.
Dr. Reynolds: Julian, I just finished examining Toby in the master sitting room.
Julian: Doctor Reynolds! How are his lungs? Did he aspirate any pool water?
Dr. Reynolds: Miraculously, Julian, his airway is completely clear. Nadia got to him within three seconds of impact.
Julian: Thank God... Oh, thank God Almighty.
Dr. Reynolds: But the psychological trauma is severe. His pulse was over one hundred and forty when I checked him.
Julian: And the bruises on his arm?
Dr. Reynolds: Deep subcutaneous contusions from adult fingernails. I have photographed the injuries and completed the state forensic report.
Victoria: Dr. Reynolds, you are my family's private physician! You cannot file reports against me!
Dr. Reynolds turned around slowly, his weathered face filled with absolute, unyielding professional disgust.
Dr. Reynolds: I took an oath to protect human life, Victoria. I do not protect sociopaths who shove seven-year-old boys into deep water.
Victoria: You will never practice medicine in Dallas again! My father will have your medical license revoked!
Dr. Reynolds: Your father was escorted out of his office in federal handcuffs an hour ago, Victoria. He has no power left.
Victoria slumped back down against the wet stone, clutching her bruised cheek as her eyes filled with bitter tears.
Victoria: What about the jewelry in my suite? The diamond tennis bracelets in the safe?!
Julian: Every single piece of jewelry you bought over the last six months was purchased with stolen pension funds.
Victoria: You can't take everything from me! I have nowhere else to go!
Julian: You have a concrete cell waiting for you at the Dallas County jail, Victoria.
From beyond the high stone perimeter walls of the estate, the rising wail of police sirens began to echo down the oak-lined avenue.
Flashing red and blue emergency lights swept across the white columns of the mansion, painting the pool water in sharp crimson strokes.
Victoria's hands flew to her throat, her breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps as heavy boots pounded along the side driveway.
Victoria: Julian, please! Don't let the patrolmen see me like this! Let me go upstairs and change into my clothes!
Julian: You will leave this estate in the exact clothes you wore when you shoved my son into that pool.