Chapter 7 - Diane’s Other Life
The first proof of the affair came from a hotel bill.
Emily wished it had not.
Financial investigators working for the audit committee traced D.H. Interiors payments.
Diane’s company had little legitimate business activity.
Yet it paid recurring charges at a boutique hotel in Manhattan.
Same suite.
Same weekends.
Grant’s company credit card showed restaurant and transportation expenses in the same city on the same dates.
Rebecca did not call that proof.
“People can be in the same city.”
Then they found messages.
Lydia Ames had archived a corrupted email folder from Grant.
Digital forensics recovered enough.
G: He suspects Northstar.
D: Then stop coming here.
G: You said that last month.
D: I mean it.
Then:
G: Once the house is secure, we won’t have to hide.
Emily closed the file.
She felt nauseated.
“How long?”
Rebecca checked dates.
“Earliest recovered message is two years ago.”
Her father had been alive.
Healthy enough to work.
Coming home each night to Diane.
Sitting across the dinner table from a woman who was sleeping with his brother.
Emily walked to the bathroom and vomited.
Rebecca waited outside.
When Emily returned, her face was wet.
“Did Dad know?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“I want to know.”
“Then we find evidence.”
Not assumptions.
Evidence.
Thomas’s phone gave them the answer later that night.
A photograph of Grant and Diane entering the Manhattan hotel.
Taken seven months before Thomas died.
Beneath it, Thomas had written:
I know. Do not confront yet.
Emily began crying.
Not because her father had been betrayed.
Because she suddenly imagined him discovering it alone.
Cancer diagnosis.
Company theft.
His wife.
His brother.
All at once.
Rebecca sat beside her.
“Why didn’t he leave her?”
“I don’t know.”
A voice recording answered.
“I found out about Diane and Grant after my diagnosis.”
Thomas sounded tired.
“I considered confronting them that day. Instead, I called Rebecca.”
Emily looked at her.
Rebecca nodded.
Thomas continued.
“I was angry enough to destroy everything. That would have been satisfying and stupid.”
Emily almost laughed through tears.
“I needed to understand whether the affair was separate from Northstar.”
It wasn’t.
Diane had used her access to Thomas’s home office to photograph vendor records.
Grant used her company to receive money.
The affair was emotional betrayal and operational access.
Thomas continued.
“I also made a terrible choice. I did not tell Emily.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“I told myself I was protecting her from one more ugliness while I was dying. The truth is I could not bear the thought of seeing pity in her face.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Thomas’s voice became softer.
“Em, that was cowardice.”
Diane entered the hotel lobby before the recording ended.
She had followed them.
Emily stood.
Rebecca immediately stepped between them.
Diane looked terrible.
No makeup.
Hair tied back.
Not the composed woman from the dinner table.
“You’re enjoying this.”
Emily stared.
“What?”
“Going through our marriage. Reading private messages.”
“You slept with Dad’s brother.”
Diane flinched.
“You have no idea what your father was like as a husband.”
“Then tell me.”
“He controlled everything.”
“Money?”
“Everything.”
“Did he hit you?”
“No.”
“Threaten you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Diane’s anger broke.
“He never needed me.”
Emily stared.
Diane laughed bitterly.
“Your father loved two things without reservation. You and the company.”
“So you stole from both?”
“I didn’t think of it as stealing.”
“Of course not.”
“Grant said Thomas was hiding money from me.”
“And sleeping with Grant solved that?”
Diane slapped the table with her palm.
“I was lonely!”
People in the lobby turned.
Emily did not lower her voice.
“Dad was dying.”
“This started before he was sick.”
“That makes it better?”
“No!”
Diane’s eyes filled.
For the first time, shame replaced cruelty.
Then she said something Emily did not expect.
“Thomas was going to leave me.”
Emily froze.
“When?”
“Before his diagnosis.”
Rebecca looked up.
“Why?”
Diane swallowed.
“Because he found the Northstar payments.”
Not the affair.
The money came first.
Diane continued.
“He told me if I cooperated, he would settle the divorce privately.”
“Did you?”
“I called Grant.”
Emily’s stomach turned.
“And what did Grant say?”
Diane looked away.
“To make sure Thomas never controlled the company investigation.”
Rebecca asked quietly, “How?”
Diane hesitated.
May you like
Then answered.
“By making Thomas look like the person who created the theft.”
