Victoria: "Attempted murder?! That is absurd! You have no proof of anything!"
Richard: "I don't need proof when I have my daughter's bruises and a witness!"
Victoria: "A witness?! Her word won't hold up in court against my legal team! She's just a hired servant!"
Sarah held the toddler tight, her jaw set as she looked down at the woman on the floor.
Sarah: "I might be a housemaid, Mrs. Vance, but I have something you don't."
Victoria: "And what is that, you little nobody?!"
Sarah: "I have the security access key to the high-definition foyer camera."[cite: 1]
Victoria's eyes widened in sudden terror. She slowly turned her head toward the high ceiling near the top of the grand archway, where a small black dome camera sat tucked against the white wall[cite: 1].
Victoria: "That camera is disconnected! I unplugged the main router in the study this morning!"
Sarah: "You unplugged the primary Wi-Fi router, Mrs. Vance. But Mr. Vance installed a back-up cellular feed for the entire estate last month."[cite: 1]
Richard: "That's right, Victoria. Every angle in this foyer streams directly to my personal cloud server in real time."[cite: 1]
Victoria scrambled onto her hands and knees on the light marble floor, her golden silk dress stained with dust[cite: 1]. She reached out toward Richard's legs, her voice dropping into a desperate sob.
Victoria: "Richard, wait! Don't look at the footage! Please, let's talk about this in private!"
Richard: "Get your hands off me!"
Richard pulled his smartphone out from his suit jacket pocket. He tapped the screen three times, opening the live security archive. The audio from ten minutes ago began to play out loud through the phone's speaker.
Phone Audio: "Bye-bye little one!"[cite: 1]
The sound of the toddler's terrified scream filled the quiet foyer, followed by the sharp wind whoosh and the loud thud of Sarah catching her on the stone[cite: 1].
Richard: "You lifted her over the railing with both hands. You looked right at her face and dropped her."[cite: 1]
Victoria: "I was stressed, Richard! I've been suffering from severe depression ever since we got married!"
Richard: "Depression doesn't make someone push a toddler off a balcony!"[cite: 1]
Victoria: "I felt overwhelmed! You work eighty hours a week and leave me alone in this giant house!"[cite: 1]
Richard: "You had three full-time nanny applications on your desk yesterday, and you rejected every single one of them!"
Sarah: "Because she didn't want a nanny, Mr. Vance. She wanted the baby out of the picture entirely."
Richard: "Why, Victoria? Why would you hate my daughter so much?!"
Victoria stood up slowly, clutching her swollen cheek as her face twisted into a mask of pure bitterness. She wiped a tear from her eye, no longer pretending to be innocent.
Victoria: "Because she isn't mine! Every time I look at her, I see your late ex-wife's face! She gets your mother's trust fund, she gets the estate inheritance, and what do I get?!"
Richard: "You got a luxury life, a credit line, and a husband who trusted you!"[cite: 1]
Victoria: "It wasn't enough! Your father's will clearly states that if your daughter passes away before eighteen, the entire trust fund reverts to your current spouse!"
Richard froze, his eyes staring at his wife in horror as the full, sickening truth hit him.
Richard: "You tried to murder my child for an inheritance trust fund?!"
Victoria: "She was taking everything that belonged to me! I deserved that money!"
Sarah: "You are a monster!"
Victoria: "Shut up, you pathetic housemaid! You ruined my life!"
Victoria lunged forward, reaching her long fingernails toward Sarah's face, but Richard caught Victoria by the wrists, shoving her hard back against the bottom of the white marble stairs[cite: 1].
Richard: "Touch her or my daughter again, and I won't wait for the police to handle you!"
Victoria: "You called the police?!"
Richard: "I pressed the silent alarm on my watch the second I saw Sarah holding my child on the floor."
Out on the long driveway, the sound of blaring sirens began to echo toward the grand estate gates[cite: 1].