Chapter 15 - Diane Breaks
Diane asked to meet Emily alone.
Emily refused.
She agreed to meet with Rebecca present.
Diane arrived at Rebecca’s office carrying no lawyer.
“That is a bad idea,” Rebecca told her.
“I know.”
Diane sat.
She looked smaller somehow.
Not physically.
Power had been holding her upright.
Now it was leaving.
“I want to withdraw my challenge to the residence trust.”
Emily stared.
“Why?”
“I’m done.”
“No.”
Diane frowned.
“No?”
“You’re not done. You’re scared.”
Rebecca said nothing.
Emily continued.
“You were cruel to me before Dad died too. Just quieter.”
Diane’s eyes lowered.
“You always hated me.”
“I was twelve when Dad married you.”
“You never accepted me.”
“I wasn’t required to make you my mother.”
Diane flinched.
Emily leaned forward.
“Why the dinner?”
Diane whispered, “Grant said you had to feel like the house was no longer yours.”
Emily’s throat tightened.
“He planned it.”
“He said you would never sign while you felt secure.”
“So you humiliated me.”
“Yes.”
“Why the dog?”
Diane looked ashamed.
“Because he knew Scout mattered to you.”
Emily remembered Grant’s message.
Then use the dog.
“And you knew the key was on his collar.”
“No.”
Emily studied her.
Diane shook her head.
“I knew Thomas hid things. I knew he kept an old phone somewhere. I did not know Scout had the key until you found it.”
“Why did you panic?”
“Because Thomas used the sideboard for private papers.”
“What did you think was there?”
“Evidence of Grant and me.”
At least that was believable.
Emily asked, “Did you love Grant?”
Diane closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Do you still?”
A long silence.
“I don’t know.”
“Did you love Dad?”
“Yes.”
Emily laughed bitterly.
“You keep using that word.”
Diane looked at her.
“I did love him. I also resented him. Both can exist.”
Emily hated the answer because it was probably true.
People did not always betray because love vanished.
Sometimes betrayal grew beside love.
That made it uglier.
Diane continued.
“Thomas knew about us before he got very sick.”
“I know.”
“He told me he would divorce me but let me keep enough to start over if I helped expose Grant.”
“You chose Grant.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Diane’s eyes filled.
“Because Grant told me Thomas would leave me with nothing.”
“Dad offered you a settlement.”
“I didn’t believe him.”
“So you forged the deed.”
Diane began crying.
“Yes.”
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
The admission hung in the room.
“Did Grant provide Thomas’s signature image?” Rebecca asked.
Diane nodded.
“Did Lydia insert the deed?”
“Yes.”
“Did Grant know the notary seal was stolen?”
“Yes.”
Emily felt cold.
“Did any of you cause Dad’s death?”
Diane looked up sharply.
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“He had cancer. We did terrible things, Emily, but we did not make him sick.”
“Did you interfere with treatment?”
“No.”
“Medication?”
“No.”
“Doctors?”
“No.”
Emily believed her.
That mattered.
The story did not need murder to be monstrous.
Diane had betrayed a dying husband.
Kept his daughter away.
Forged his deed.
Stolen money.
Helped his brother rewrite his reputation.
That was enough.
“Then why did Dad warn me not to trust what Grant would say about his death?”
Diane wiped her face.
“Because Grant planned to tell you Thomas killed himself financially.”
Emily frowned.
“What?”
“He was going to say your father knew the company would discover the theft and stopped fighting his cancer.”
Emily went still.
“He was going to tell me Dad gave up because he was guilty.”
“Yes.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
Thomas’s final days had been painful.
He chose hospice when further treatment offered almost no benefit.
Grant intended to transform a medical decision into a confession.
Diane whispered, “Thomas knew.”
“How?”
“He heard Grant rehearsing it with me.”
Emily stood.
For the first time, Diane looked directly ashamed.
“I am sorry.”
Emily stared at her.
“I don’t forgive you.”
Diane nodded.
“I know.”
“I may never.”
“I know.”
“But if you mean it, testify.”
Diane closed her eyes.
Against Grant.
Against herself.
Against the story she had spent months preserving.
“That could send me to prison.”
Emily said nothing.
Diane laughed weakly.
“You really are Thomas’s daughter.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
Diane looked up.
“I’m trying very hard not to make all of his mistakes.”
Then Diane whispered, “I’ll testify.”
Grant lost his closest ally that afternoon.
And when he learned she had changed sides, he did exactly what Thomas predicted.
May you like
He stopped pretending this was a family disagreement.
He threatened to destroy everyone.
