The shattered glass glinted on the marble floor under the bright overhead lights.
Chloe backed away two steps, her hand clutching her chest as her face paled, all her confidence draining away.
Chloe: Mark! Have you lost your mind?! You smashed the Italian coffee table!
Mark: I don't care about a piece of furniture, Chloe! I care about my child!
Evelyn: You barbarian! You brought a weapon into my living room in front of high-society donors!
Mark: Call the police then, Evelyn! Call them right now and let them see what happened here!
Lily clung to Mark's pant leg, wiping her nose with her sleeve as she hiccuped softly.
Lily: Daddy... she locked me in the dark closet... she told me the monsters were going to eat me...
Mark: Look at me, Lily. Look at Daddy. Did she lock you in the basement closet?
Lily: Yes... for a long time... I kept banging on the door, but she just laughed outside with her friends...
Mark turned his eyes toward Chloe, his glare so cold that Chloe instinctively took another step backward.
Mark: You locked a seven-year-old child in a windowless basement closet during a party?
Chloe: She was running around in her muddy shoes! She was going to ruin my white carpet before the photographers arrived!
Mark: She is terrified of the dark, Chloe! You knew she has severe claustrophobia since her hospital stay last year!
Chloe: It was only for fifteen minutes! I thought it would teach her to sit still!
Evelyn: Exactly! A child needs discipline! You spoil her endlessly because her biological mother isn't here!
Mark: Do not speak about my late wife, Evelyn!
Evelyn: I will speak about whoever I want in my own house! Chloe is her stepmother, and she has every right to manage her behavior!
Mark: Locking a panicked child in a dark room isn't discipline! It is emotional abuse!
Chloe: Stop using dramatic legal terms, Mark! I didn't hit her! She doesn't have a single bruise on her body!
Mark: You broke her spirit, Chloe! You terrified an innocent girl who trusted you!
Chloe: Oh, please. She's fine now! Look at her, she's standing right next to you!
Lily: She said... she said if I told you, she would send my dog away to the shelter...
Mark froze, the wooden bat resting against his leg as he looked down at his daughter in utter disbelief.
Mark: She threatened your dog?
Lily: She said Buster would be put in a cage forever if I cried to you...
Mark took a deep, heavy breath, his chest expanding as a terrifying calm washed over his face.
Mark: You threatened to get rid of her service dog?
Chloe: That mutt sheds hair on my velvet sofas! It was just a threat to make her obey!
Mark: That dog was a gift from her late mother before she passed away in that hospital bed!
Chloe: I am sick and tired of living in the shadow of a dead woman!
Mark: You aren't fit to walk in her shadow, Chloe.