Chapter 16 - Diane Price
They did not let Owen go alone.
Brooks, two detectives, Maria, and Alexander followed at a distance.
The house had been empty for years.
Tonight, the porch light burned.
Owen entered first.
A woman sat at the kitchen table.
White hair.
Thin face.
Alive.
"Mom?"
Diane Price looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Owen did not move closer.
"For which part? Being alive or helping kill Julia?"
Diane flinched.
Alexander stepped into the doorway.
She looked at him and whispered, "You have your father's eyes."
"Answer him."
Diane confessed in pieces.
Charles Blackwood had used her for years to move money and silence problems. When Nathan discovered the system, she helped fake his death to save him from Charles.
Later, Martin took over the same network.
Julia uncovered it.
Diane wanted to protect Nathan and Owen.
Martin wanted to protect the money.
Caleb Dunn wanted cash.
"Who changed the brake job?" Alexander asked.
Diane cried harder.
"I did."
Owen turned away as if struck.
Alexander went completely still.
"Why?"
"Martin said Julia had copies of everything. He said if she reached the FBI, Owen would be charged because his father's name was on the accounts."
Owen stared at her. "So you killed a woman to protect me?"
"I thought I was protecting my son."
"You destroyed me."
Diane covered her face.
Brooks stepped forward with cuffs.
Then Diane looked at Maria.
"You need to know one more thing."
Maria's stomach tightened.
"About Elena?"
Diane nodded.
"Elena wasn't the only person Julia trusted with a copy."
She pointed toward Alexander.
"Julia gave one to your son."
Alexander stared.
"Ethan was three."
"Exactly," Diane said. "Nobody searches a three-year-old's toys."
Maria thought of the red mitten.
May you like
Then Ethan's old stuffed bear.
And remembered Vanessa had tried to throw it away two months earlier.
