Chapter 5 - Diane’s Confession
Keisha stood so quickly her chair scraped backward.
Diane raised both hands.
“I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
“You helped kill my father.”
“No.”
“I heard the recording.”
“So did I.”
“You were there afterward.”
Her eyes filled with something I had never seen in them before.
Shame.
“Yes.”
I moved toward her.
“What happened?”
Diane glanced around the cafeteria.
“Not here.”
“You don’t get to choose.”
“Nora, Gavin has people watching this hospital.”
I stared at her.
“What people?”
“Employees. Tenants. Contractors. Sometimes security guards. Anyone he can pay.”
Keisha whispered, “This is insane.”
Diane looked at her.
“No. It’s organized.”
We moved to an empty family consultation room.
I kept the door open.
Diane noticed.
“Good,” she said.
“Talk.”
She sat.
“Vantage started as a legitimate house-flipping company. Gavin bought distressed properties. Then he discovered there was more money in properties that weren’t distressed yet.”
“Older homeowners.”
“Yes.”
“People like Mom.”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I stopped counting at twenty-three.”
My stomach twisted.
Keisha whispered, “Twenty-three?”
Diane nodded.
“Some transfers were legal but predatory. Others involved forged powers of attorney. A few involved relatives who were willing to cooperate.”
“Like Valerie.”
Diane closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate her.
I did hate her.
But I also needed her talking.
“What happened to Dad?”
“He discovered payments from Valerie to a Vantage shell company. He confronted her.”
“We heard that.”
“Gavin arrived. Your father tried to call police. Valerie grabbed his phone. They struggled.”
“Did she push him?”
Diane hesitated.
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“He hit the edge of the workbench.”
My throat closed.
“Was he alive?”
“Yes.”
That answer hurt more.
“He was alive?”
“For several minutes.”
“What did you do?”
Diane began crying.
“I told Gavin to call an ambulance.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No.”
“You didn’t either.”
She shook her head.
“I was terrified.”
“You let my father die.”
“I know.”
My voice became almost a whisper.
“And then you helped them hide it.”
“Yes.”
I turned away.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Diane said, “Your father had already mailed evidence somewhere.”
I looked back.
“What?”
“Gavin searched the house for months. He never found the originals.”
“The metal box?”
“Copies.”
“So where are the originals?”
“I don’t know.”
A nurse appeared at the door.
“Nora Bennett?”
I stood immediately.
“What happened?”
“Your mother is awake.”
I ran.
Mom looked tiny against the white hospital sheets.
But her eyes were clearer.
“Nora.”
“I’m here.”
Her hand found mine.
“I tried to tell you.”
“You don’t have to explain.”
“Yes, I do.”
She looked at Diane in the doorway.
Fear flickered across her face.
“Get her out.”
Diane stepped back.
I closed the door.
Mom whispered, “Your father knew.”
“I found his recordings.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“He made me promise something.”
“What?”
“That if anything happened to him, I would never tell Valerie where the real papers were.”
My pulse jumped.
“Where are they?”
Mom looked toward the window.
Then back at me.
“He mailed them to you.”
“What?”
“Singapore.”
“I never got anything.”
Mom squeezed my hand.
“Because he didn’t mail them to your apartment.”
“Then where?”
“To the one place he knew nobody in this family could touch.”
I frowned.
“What place?”
Mom whispered the name.
And suddenly I remembered a key Dad had given me twelve years earlier.
A key I still carried.
A key to a safe-deposit box in a bank forty miles outside Seattle.
May you like
But before I could say anything, Mom’s heart monitor began screaming.
---
