The bright daylight continued to flood the room, illuminating every corner of the elegant wedding venue. Victoria adjusted the diamond necklace around her throat, her face tightening into a defensive scowl as she walked closer to her daughter. The two lawyers who were managing the prenuptial agreement stood by the doorway, looking uncomfortable.
Victoria: I know nothing except that this girl is trying to extort our family business on your wedding day. She probably stole that photo from an old storage unit or looked up our family records.
Emma: This photo was never in our family records, Victoria. I kept the duplicate locked in my private safe at the penthouse. Nobody knew about it. Not even my father.
Victoria: It is a common coincidence! Fair-skinned children look identical in old polaroids. Don't let your wild imagination ruin a multi-million dollar marriage alliance.
Elena slowly stood up from the floor, holding her bruised cheek. She looked at the luxury surrounding her, the expensive gowns, and the wealthy woman who had spent years hiding the truth.
Elena: It wasn't a coincidence. Our biological mother spent her entire life insurance policy trying to hire a private investigator to find you, Emma. But every time we got close, the tracking stopped at the Davis family estate.
Emma: Why did the tracking stop, Mother? What did you do?
Victoria: I protected you! I gave you a life of luxury! You have a trust fund, a private jet, and a future as the CEO of our retail division! You would have died of poverty in some broken apartment if you stayed with that woman!
Emma: So you did adopt me? But the adoption papers say I was an orphan from an agency in Chicago!
Victoria: The agency was paid to handle the paperwork properly. Your biological father was a nobody who abandoned Clara before you were even born. She couldn't afford to raise two children on a maid's salary. We did her a favor!
Elena: You didn't do her a favor! You used your husband's corporate lawyers to file a fake child endangerment lawsuit when my mother was sick in the hospital! You forced her to sign the relinquishment forms under the threat of foreclosure and jail!
Emma felt a cold fury rising in her chest. She looked down at the polaroid photo, then at her sister's wet, bruised face. The luxury life she had enjoyed for fifteen years suddenly felt like a prison built on the suffering of her own flesh and blood.
Emma: You stole me from my family. You used your money to buy a daughter because you couldn't have one.
Victoria: I raised you as my own! I loved you! I gave you everything a girl could ever dream of!
Emma: You didn't love me. You loved having a perfect accessory for your charity gala photos. And today, you slapped my sister across the face because she accidentally spilled water on your expensive lifestyle.
Victoria: She is a servant here, Emma! She signed an employment contract that allows us to terminate her without a single cent of severance if she causes damage!
Emma: Then consider her employment over. Because she is leaving with me.