Chapter 10 - The Woman in Mercer’s Office
Lydia Ames disappeared.
Not internationally.
Not mysteriously.
She stopped answering her phone, emptied her apartment, and went to stay with her sister in Pennsylvania.
Investigators located her within forty-eight hours.
Her attorney contacted prosecutors.
Lydia wanted immunity.
She did not get it.
She did get a proffer meeting.
What she told them changed everything.
Grant had paid her for information for five years.
At first, routine information.
Draft contracts.
Probate schedules.
Documents passing through Mercer’s office.
Then Diane asked her to intercept Rebecca Sloan’s power-of-attorney revocation.
Lydia did.
She also supplied Grant with a scanned copy of Thomas’s signature.
“What about the deed?” prosecutors asked.
Lydia admitted receiving the forged original from Diane.
She placed it into Mercer’s filing stack after Mercer had drafted a legitimate but unsigned version based on the fake email instructions.
Mercer filed it believing his client executed it.
“Did Grant know?”
Lydia looked at her lawyer.
“Yes.”
“Did Diane?”
“Yes.”
“Did Thomas sign anything?”
“No.”
Emily heard the summary from Rebecca.
She sat completely still.
“So Diane handed her the forged deed.”
“Yes.”
“Can Lydia prove it?”
“There are messages.”
Diane’s attorney immediately attacked Lydia as an admitted thief and liar.
That was fair.
But the messages corroborated her.
Diane:
DM has draft. Use C’s old seal.
Lydia:
Signature?
Diane:
G has it.
G.
Grant.
The deed was not a misunderstanding.
It was manufactured.
Rebecca filed an emergency motion to invalidate it.
This time the court acted quickly.
The deed was suspended from legal effect pending full adjudication.
Diane remained in the house only under the original trust’s temporary occupancy provision.
Seven months remained.
Then Emily discovered something worse.
Lydia told investigators Diane had also intercepted letters between Thomas and Emily.
Emily stared at Rebecca.
“What letters?”
“Apparently Thomas wrote you from the hospital.”
“I never got anything.”
Rebecca obtained copies from Thomas’s phone backup.
The first began:
Em, I know Diane told you I want you to stay at school. I’m not sure that’s true anymore. I miss you.
Emily stopped reading.
The second:
If you can come this weekend, I’d like that. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t.
Emily broke.
For months she had lived with the belief her father had specifically asked her not to come home.
Diane had reinforced it every time Emily called.
“He’s sleeping.”
“He doesn’t want you seeing him like this.”
“He says finish exams.”
Some of that had been Thomas’s pride.
But near the end, he changed his mind.
And Diane hid it.
Emily drove to the house.
Rebecca tried to stop her.
Failed.
Diane opened the door.
Emily held up the letters.
“Why?”
Diane’s face changed.
“You shouldn’t have those.”
“Why did you keep me away?”
“He was confused.”
“He wrote my name.”
“He changed his mind every hour.”
“You intercepted them.”
“He was dying!”
“That doesn’t answer me!”
Diane’s face twisted.
“Because when you were there, he changed.”
Emily froze.
“What?”
“He became stronger.”
“That was bad?”
“For me.”
The honesty stunned them both.
Diane looked away.
“When you were there, he asked questions. He wanted files. He wanted Rebecca. When you were gone, he relied on me.”
Emily felt physically cold.
“You kept me away so you could control him.”
Diane whispered, “I needed time.”
“To forge the deed?”
“No.”
“To protect Grant?”
“No.”
“To protect yourself?”
Silence.
Emily stepped closer.
“Did Dad know about you and Grant?”
Diane’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Did he confront you?”
“The week before the hospital.”
“What did he say?”
Diane stared at the floor.
“He said he would tell you everything.”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“And then?”
“He got worse.”
“You must have been relieved.”
Diane slapped her.
The sound cracked through the hallway.
Scout barked violently from outside with Rebecca.
Emily staggered.
For one second, rage consumed her.
She raised her hand.
Then stopped.
Diane stared.
Emily lowered it.
“No.”
Rebecca entered with Scout.
She had seen enough through the open door.
“We’re leaving.”
Emily touched her cheek.
Diane began crying.
Not apologizing.
Crying.
Emily looked at her.
“You threw my dinner into a dog bowl because you thought humiliation would make me easier to control.”
Diane whispered, “You don’t understand what I lost.”
Emily stepped toward the door.
“You lost Dad long before he died.”
May you like
Then she stopped.
“And now you’re losing the lie you built afterward.”
