Arthur: Come upstairs to my private study, Lily. Away from these people.
Maya: Can we... can we really leave? I'm supposed to finish my shift.
Arthur: You don't work for anyone ever again. You own this venue.
Catering Manager: Mr. Vance, sir! I am so deeply sorry for the incident downstairs!
Arthur: You allowed a guest to strike one of your workers?
Catering Manager: We... we didn't know who she was! Victoria Sterling is very powerful!
Arthur: Your catering contract with my estate is terminated immediately. Clear your staff out of my home.
The manager bowed his head, turning pale as Arthur guided Maya up the grand curved staircase toward the quiet second floor. They entered a large, wood-paneled office filled with framed family photographs and leather armchairs.
Maya: It's so beautiful in here...
Arthur: Sit down, please. Let me get you some water.
Maya: I'm okay, really. My hands are just shaking a little.
Arthur walked over to a heavy portrait on the wall and swung it open, revealing a hidden steel vault. He quickly punched in a combination and pulled out a thick velvet folder.
Arthur: I kept these files on my desk every day for twenty years.
Maya: What are they?
Arthur: Private investigator reports. Police files from the night you were taken from your nursery.
Maya: The orphanage told me I was dropped off at a fire station when I was two years old.
Arthur: That matches the exact timeline of the ransom handover that went wrong.
Maya: Ransom?
Arthur: Someone paid a crew to kidnap you. We paid the ten million dollars, but the kidnappers panicked and fled the state before returning you.
Maya reached out, her fingers brushing the old black-and-white photo of a smiling baby girl inside the folder. The baby wore a tiny silver bracelet that matched the tattoo on her wrist.
Maya: My birth mother... where is she?
Arthur: She passed away five years ago, Lily. Her heart broke the day you vanished.
Maya: I wish I could have met her...
Arthur: She is looking down on us right now, my dear. She never lost faith that you were alive.
Maya: Why did someone take me? Who would do something so horrible to a baby?
Arthur: That is the question I have been trying to answer for two decades. But tonight, I finally have the piece of evidence I was missing.
Maya: What piece of evidence?
Arthur: Victoria Sterling was the only person outside our immediate family who knew the security codes to the estate nursery the night you disappeared.
Maya: Victoria? The woman who slapped me?
Arthur: She wasn't just angry about a spilled drink, Lily. She recognized your face when you dropped that tray.