Margarethe let out a sharp, mocking laugh, taking a step backward toward the grand staircase. "You think you can just march in here and order me around? You've been out of the country for three years, David! You don't know how things work here anymore. Your father left me in charge of the Vance estate. I have the legal paperwork signed by his personal attorney. If I want Martha to scrub every single inch of this marble floor with a toothbrush, she will do it, or she will be thrown out onto the street without a pension!"
Sarah returned from the kitchen, holding a warm glass of water and a soft towel. She gently helped Martha sit up into a plush velvet chair near the hallway, wrapping a throw blanket around the shivering elderly woman. Martha watched David with wide, frightened eyes. "David, please don't get into a fight with her," Martha whimpered softy. "She has high-powered corporate lawyers. She threatened to sue me if I left before my contract expired."
David reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a thick, sealed yellow envelope tied with a red ribbon. He didn't tear it open immediately; instead, he held it up in front of Margarethe's face. The bright foyer lights caught the official seal of the Dallas County Probate Court stamped across the front of the paper.
"Do you know what this is, Margarethe?" David asked, his tone steady, calm, and deadly serious.
Margarethe's eyes darted to the envelope, and for the first time, a flicker of genuine fear crossed her features. She tried to maintain her calm composure, crossing her arms tightly over her red dress. "I don't care about whatever corporate garbage you brought back from your trips. My lawyers assured me that the primary estate trust gives me sole authority over this property."
"Your lawyers lied to you, or maybe you just didn't read the fine print of my father's original trust fund agreement," David said, sliding his thumb under the seal and opening the document. He pulled out several crisp white pages covered in legal text and held them up. "Three weeks ago, I hired a team of private forensic accountants to look into my father's bank accounts. We found something very interesting. Over the last eighteen months, you transferred over four million dollars from the family business account into a private offshore account in the Cayman Islands."
Margarethe's face went completely pale. Her red lipstick stood out in stark contrast against her drained, ghostly skin. "That... that was legitimate personal maintenance money! Arthur allowed me to manage household expenses!"
"Household expenses don't cost four million dollars," David countered sharply, taking another step forward. "You thought my father was senile when he signed the revised will two months before he died. But what you didn't know is that my father created an irrevocable family trust twenty years ago. That trust dictates that if any spouse or heir attempts to steal or misappropriate funds from the family estate, their rights to the house, the money, and the family name are instantly revoked."
Margarethe swallowed hard, her hand shaking so violently that her iced tea spilled over the rim of her glass, splashing onto her red dress. "That's impossible! Arthur never mentioned any irrevocable trust! You're making this up to scare me!"
"I don't need to make anything up," David said, pulling out a signed court injunction from the back of the file. "This is a freeze order issued by a federal judge two hours ago. Every single one of your credit cards has been cancelled. Your bank accounts are locked. And most importantly, your right to stay in this house ended the second this order was signed at nine o'clock this morning."
Sarah gasped in shock, clutching her hands together in excitement. Martha stared at David with tears streaming down her cheeks, unable to believe what she was hearing. The heavy silence in the foyer was deafening.
Margarethe looked around the massive foyer, her eyes wide with panic as the reality of her situation began to sink in. Her arrogant smile was completely gone, replaced by a desperate, trapped expression. "David... please," she stammered, her voice losing all of its former power. "We are family. We can talk about this in private like reasonable adults. We don't need to make a scene in front of the servants."
"These aren't servants, Margarethe," David said, looking her straight in the eyes with absolute disgust. "They are human beings. And you are a thief."