Margarethe stood perfectly still on the manicured lawn, her face pale as a ghost.
She held a heavy metal key in her hand, clutching it tightly against her dress.
Mark stood up abruptly, placing himself directly between his daughter and his stepmother.
Mark: What did you do to my daughter, Margarethe?
Margarethe: You do not understand the danger you are bringing upon this family, Mark!
Mark: You threw a seven-year-old child down a stone shaft to protect your secret!
Margarethe took a small step backward as Mark stepped forward with burning fury.
Margarethe: That girl was snooping where she did not belong near the old well!
Mark: She is a child! What is hidden down there that is worth her life?
Margarethe: The entire fortune of this family relies on what stays hidden down there!
Mark looked back at the open shaft, then looked down at his crying child.
Mark: Sit right here on the bench, Lily, and do not move an inch.
He walked over to the well and looked down into the deep, dark opening.
The sun was directly overhead now, shining a narrow beam of light far below.
At the very bottom, Mark could see the faint outline of a iron trap door.
The lock on the trap door had been broken open recently, exposing an underground room.
Mark: My father did not die of natural causes, did he, Margarethe?
Margarethe stumbled backward, her heel catching on the thick grass of the lawn.
She fell hard onto the lawn, dropping the heavy metal key right near his feet.
Margarethe: Your father was going to sign over the entire inheritance to you!
Mark: So you trapped him down there, just like you tried to trap Lily!
Margarethe: I built this life, and I will not let you take it away!