Chapter 6 - What Diane Knew
By sunrise, I had stopped feeling shocked.
Shock requires you to believe the next thing might still be normal.
Nothing was normal anymore.
Charles printed the transfer history while I sat at the kitchen island with my wrapped hand held above my heart.
"Diane approved more than one-point-one million dollars over eighteen months," he said.
"Where did it go?"
"Some to Ryan's debts. Some to Victor's firm. Some I can't trace yet."
I stared at the numbers.
"You didn't notice a million dollars leaving your company?"
His face tightened.
"I handed day-to-day finance to Ryan after my heart surgery. Diane had secondary approval authority. I trusted my family."
I almost smiled at the bitter symmetry.
"So did I."
My phone rang.
Ryan.
I answered on speaker.
"Emily, stop whatever Dad is telling you."
"Where are you?"
"That doesn't matter."
"It matters to the police."
He went quiet.
Then his voice softened into the tone he used whenever he wanted me to doubt myself.
"Baby, Christmas got out of hand. Mom shouldn't have touched you. I shouldn't have said what I said. Come meet me and we can fix this."
"Did you forge my signature?"
Silence.
"Did you use my trust as collateral?"
"You don't understand the business."
"That's not an answer."
He exhaled.
"I was protecting us."
"From what?"
"From losing everything."
Charles leaned closer to the phone.
"You already lost it, Ryan."
Ryan's voice hardened.
"Dad, stay out of this."
"You stole from your wife."
"She was never supposed to know about the trust."
I looked at Charles.
"Say that again."
Ryan realized too late what he had admitted.
Then Diane's voice came faintly through the line.
"Hang up!"
The call ended.
Charles and I stared at each other.
She was with him.
A second later, a text arrived from an unknown number.
It contained a photograph of my father's original trust agreement lying on the hood of a car.
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Under it were six words:
SIGN THE RELEASE OR IT BURNS.
