Victoria entered the wide sunlit library with a sharp sneer across her face.
She looked around the room, making sure no other servants were standing nearby.
She noticed the boy hiding behind the plush armchair near the tall bookcase.
Victoria: Why are you skulking around like a stray dog, boy?
Leo: I was just reading my mother's old storybook quietly.
Victoria: That book is dusty garbage and belongs in the furnace outside!
She snatched the vintage hardcover book right out of his small tremble hands.
Leo gasped loudly and tried to reach up to grab his book back.
Victoria shoved him away coldly, making him stumble against the mahogany desk.
She loved exerting power over the defenseless child when his father was gone.
Her true goal was driving Leo out of the family's legal inheritance completely.
She wanted Arthur to send the boy away to an elite boarding school overseas.
That way, she could control the family trust fund and vast property investments.
Victoria: Your father is signing the new legal will this very evening.
Leo: My dad loves me and won't send me away from home!
Victoria: He listens to everything I say because he trusts me blindly.
She laughed sinisterly, adjusting her expensive diamond necklace with a flick of her hand.
Leo wiped a hot tear from his cheek and backed away slowly into the corner.
Meanwhile, Elena was polishing the silver tea set near the open dining door.
She heard Victoria's harsh tone echoing sharply down the vast stone corridor.
Elena set down her polishing cloth with quiet anger boiling inside her chest.
She could no longer stand by while a innocent child suffered daily emotional cruelty.
She pulled her mobile phone secretly out of her grey apron pocket.
Elena pressed the record button to capture the cruel stepmother's real harsh words.
She tiptoed softly along the carpeted floor toward the half open library door.
Victoria: By next month, you will be in a strict foreign school forever!
Leo: Please don't take me away from my home and my dad!
Victoria: This mansion belongs to me now, you helpless little parasite!
Victoria reached down forcefully to grab the silver photo frame from his hands.
Leo pulled back tightly, refusing to let go of his mother's portrait.
Victoria grew furious and grabbed his small wrist with a tight squeeze.
Elena caught the entire aggressive encounter clearly on her phone screen.
She knew she needed solid evidence to break Arthur's blind trust in Victoria.
Without proof, the wealthy CEO would simply brush off a servant's quiet warnings.
The tension inside the quiet mansion reached a dangerous boiling point right then.