Eleanor: Carter! What in God's name happened out there in the main dining room?
Carter: Mother! That girl lost her mind! She slapped me right in front of the board!
Eleanor: She slapped you?! Why didn't security lock her in the holding room?!
Carter: Because Harrison was acting like she owned the place! He handed her the black leather estate folder!
Eleanor stopped dead in her tracks near the heavy oak desk inside the mansion library, her manicured hands dropping her pearl necklace.
Eleanor: The black folder? The one from your grandfather's private floor safe?
Carter: Yes! What was inside that folder, Mother? Why did Harrison give it to Clara?
Eleanor: That safe was locked with a master biometric code! Only three people had access!
Carter: Well, she has it now! She walked out toward the main executive office!
Eleanor: This is impossible. Clara Brooks is the daughter of a middle-school teacher!
Carter: That's what she told us for five years! Was she lying about who she is?!
Eleanor: I ran a background check on her three years ago when you brought her home!
Carter: And what did it say, Mother?!
Eleanor: It said her family owned a tiny farm in upstate New York! Nothing more!
The library doors swung open with a heavy creak, and Mr. Vance, the senior corporate lawyer, stepped into the room.
Vance: Mrs. Montgomery. Carter. I see you've both arrived.
Eleanor: Arthur! Thank goodness you're here! Someone stole the master estate file from my father's safe!
Vance: Nobody stole anything, Eleanor.
Carter: Clara took it! I saw Harrison give it to her with my own eyes!
Vance: Miss Brooks was granted access by court order at nine o'clock this morning.
Eleanor: Court order?! On what grounds could a probate court touch my family's private records?!
Vance: On the grounds that your late father, Charles Montgomery, was not the sole founder of Montgomery Holdings.
Carter: What are you talking about?! His name is on the plaque in the lobby!
Vance: His name is on the plaque, Carter. But sixty percent of the initial capital came from his silent business partner.
Eleanor: That silent partnership was dissolved forty years ago!
Vance: It was never dissolved, Eleanor. It was placed into a blind trust that matured on Clara Brooks' twenty-fifth birthday.
Carter took a step toward the lawyer, his fists clenching at his sides as sweat broke out across his forehead.
Carter: Who was the silent partner, Arthur?! Tell me right now!
Vance: Her grandfather, Henry Brooks.
Eleanor: Henry Brooks... the man who died in that factory fire in 1985?
Vance: The very same man. Charles Montgomery used Henry's life insurance payout and patent deeds to construct this entire ballroom complex.
Carter: So... so Clara isn't just a poor girl from upstate?
Vance: Miss Brooks owns sixty percent of the land, seventy percent of the resort stock, and the deed to this entire estate.