Emma: Look at him, Dad! He's covered in dust and bruises! How long has he been living inside this secret space?!
Richard: He wasn't living in there! It was just for the evening while the gala was taking place!
Boy: No it wasn't! I sleep in there every night! They only let me out when the house staff goes home!
Guest 1: Dear Lord... every night?! That child has been living inside the walls of this mansion!
Guest 2: Richard Sterling is an absolute monster! Someone get the police here immediately!
Richard: Everyone shut up! You don't know the first thing about what goes on in this house!
Emma: Tell them the truth, Dad! Tell them why you didn't want anyone to see Leo!
Richard: I don't have to explain anything to you or these gossiping fools!
Emma: It's the trust fund, isn't it?! Uncle David's will specified that Leo had to be living in a public, registered school environment by his eighth birthday, or the thirty-million-dollar estate would transfer to a charitable foundation!
Richard's face drained of all color as he stared at his daughter in stunned silence.
Richard: How... how do you know about that clause in the trust agreement?
Emma: Because I read Uncle David's original paperwork in the library safe last week! You've been pretending Leo was at a boarding school overseas so you could collect the two-hundred-thousand-dollar monthly management stipend from his estate!
Boy: He told me if I ever spoke to anyone, he would send me away to a terrible place where I'd never see my family again.
Emma: You threatened a orphan child, Dad? Your own brother's son?!
Richard: I did what I had to do to keep this mansion running! Do you have any idea how much debt your uncle left behind?!
Emma: That gives you the right to turn him into a prisoner in his own home?!
Richard: I provided him with food, clothes, and a roof over his head! He has a bed inside that space!
Emma: A bed inside a dark, windowless crawlspace behind a painting! You are sickening!
A tall woman in an elegant silver gown stepped forward from the crowd, holding her phone to her ear with a cold, hard expression.
Woman: Richard, I am the chief trustee for the Sterling Foundation. I've just personally placed a call to the state attorney general and Child Protective Services.
Richard: Victoria, wait! Let me explain this privately in my office! It's a huge misunderstanding!
Woman: There is nothing to explain. We all heard the boy, and we all saw you try to force your daughter to cover it up.
Richard: You can't freeze the trust accounts based on the word of a confused child!
Woman: We can and we will. Effective immediately, your access to the Sterling family estate is completely suspended pending a federal investigation.
Richard: Emma, tell her she's wrong! Tell her I've taken good care of you both!
Emma: I will never tell another lie for you as long as I live, Dad.
Sirens began to wail in the distance, their sharp echoes growing louder as emergency vehicles turned down the long, gated driveway toward the front foyer of the mansion.