Richard: What in God's name is happening in my house?!
Victoria: Richard! Oh, thank God you're home! Look at what your maid did to me!
Richard: Shut your mouth, Victoria!
Victoria: She lunged at me! She slapped me three times and knocked me onto the marble floor! I was just trying to play with little Liam!
Elena: She was spinning him until he threw up, Mr. Sterling! She was hurting him on purpose!
Victoria: That's a complete lie! She's trying to protect her job because she knows I caught her stealing from the master bedroom safe!
Richard took four fast, heavy strides across the white floor. He stepped straight up to Victoria as she struggled to push herself up from the marble. Enraged beyond words, he raised his hand and forcefully slapped her across the face. The heavy blow sent her crashing right back down onto the cold tile.
Victoria: Ah! Richard! You... you hit me?!
Richard: You touch my son again and you're dead!
Victoria: I am your wife! I am the mistress of this mansion!
Richard: You are a monster who put her hands on a helpless two-year-old child!
Victoria: I was disciplining him! He has no respect for me! He calls that maid his mother instead of me!
Richard: Because Elena actually cares about his life! You only care about the fifty-million-dollar trust fund my late wife left in his name!
Victoria clutched her burning, reddened cheek, her eyes darting frantically toward the double wooden doors as if searching for an escape. Richard towered over her, his fists clenched tight at his sides, his chest heaving with uncontrollable rage.
Victoria: Richard, please! I love Liam! I was just trying to teach him how to walk properly in his suit for the corporate gala tonight!
Richard: He is two years old, Victoria! He doesn't need to walk properly for your high-society fake friends!
Elena: He's safe now, Mr. Sterling... she won't hurt him ever again.
Elena knelt on the marble floor right under the shadow of the American flag, cradling the weeping baby close in a warm, protective hug. Liam buried his face in her grey apron, his small shoulders shaking as he whimpered softly.
Liam: Elena... hold me... don't let the mean lady touch me...
Elena: I've got you, my sweet boy. Nobody is going to touch you while I'm breathing.
Richard dropped to his knees on the slick tile beside them. Tears welling in his eyes, he tightly wrapped his broad arms around both Elena and his toddler, holding them close against his chest while glaring back over his shoulder at his grovelling wife on the floor.
Richard: Thank you for saving him, Elena... thank you for protecting my boy when I wasn't here.
Elena: I will always protect him, Mr. Sterling. No matter what it costs me.
Richard: It won't cost you anything. But it is going to cost Victoria every single thing she has ever owned.