Chapter 7 - LILA
Diane arrived without makeup, jewelry, or the confidence she usually wore like armor.
"I was cruel to your mother," she said.
"Yes."
"I knew Ruth owned the estate."
That surprised me.
"You knew?"
"Frank told me after your father died."
"And you still treated her like staff?"
Diane looked down.
"Every time she entered that house, I remembered what I owed her."
Shame had turned into cruelty.
It did not excuse her.
But it explained the shape of it.
Then she opened Frank's ledger.
Ryan had paid years of hotel losses through Red Birch.
He had also paid Lila Grant's rent.
Diane whispered, "I didn't know."
Neither did I.
Maya contacted Lila through an attorney.
She agreed to meet.
She brought a seven-month-old baby boy.
"He told me you were separated," she said.
"We were married."
Her face fell.
Lila was not the enemy I had expected.
She had messages.
Ryan wrote:
If Claire finds out, I'll lose access to the Carter shares.
Another said:
Mom will handle Claire. I just need her angry enough to leave.
Then Lila handed me a life insurance policy.
Five million dollars.
Insured: Claire Whitmore.
Beneficiary: Red Birch Consulting.
My signature was forged.
Again.
"Why do you have this?" Maya asked.
Lila swallowed.
"Ryan asked me three weeks ago whether anyone would question it if Claire died in a car accident."
The room went silent.
Detective Marisol Vega was called.
She asked about my car.
"The brake warning light came on last week," I said.
"Who took it to the mechanic?"
"Ryan."
Police impounded the car from the estate.
The report came back that evening.
The brake line had been deliberately loosened.
Not enough to fail immediately.
Enough to leak slowly.
I stared at the page.
I had almost driven that car home after the memorial dinner.
If the dinner had not exploded...
If Noah had not taken me away...
Diane's cruelty had accidentally changed my route.
Vega looked at me.
"Where is Ryan now?"
No one knew.
May you like
Then Carter Logistics security called.
Someone had entered our west warehouse using my dead father's executive code.
