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“That’s why she was always around,” I said hoarsely. “All those visits. I thought she was grieving with us.”
Laura looked directly into the camera.
“She threatened to take the girls from me.”
“My love, if I’m gone, please understand. I’m doing what I have to do to protect our daughters. I’m leaving this disc as proof, in case I never get to tell you myself.”
The screen froze on her tear-streaked face.
For a long moment, none of us moved.
“Dad,” Ethan said quietly. “Aunt Diane is upstairs. Right now. She’s in the kitchen.”
I stood slowly, my legs barely holding me.
“Then it’s time she answered for every word on this disc.”
“I’m leaving this disc as proof.”
I drove straight to Diane’s house, the disc burning a hole in my coat pocket.
She opened the door with that same tight smile she’d worn for twenty years.
“Daniel? What’s wrong? You look pale.”
“Get in the car, Diane. We’re going to my house. Now.”
“What’s gotten into you?”
“You’ll see.”
“Get in the car, Diane.”
She sat on my
couch
, hands folded, eyes darting. I pressed play on the laptop without a word.
Laura’s face filled the screen again. Diane’s composure cracked the second she heard her sister’s voice.
“Turn it off,” Diane whispered. “Please, Daniel, turn it off.”
“No. You’re going to watch every second.”
“I never wanted this. I swear to God, I never wanted anyone hurt.”
“Then what did you want, Diane? Twenty years. Twenty years you sat at my table.”
“You’re going to watch every second.”
She covered her face with both hands.
“The inheritance. Mom’s house, the land, all of it. Laura got everything and I got nothing, and I just… I pushed too hard.”
“You threatened her. You threatened my daughters.”
“I threatened a custody case, Daniel, that’s all. I never touched them. I would never—”
“Then why is she dead, Diane? Why?”
She looked up at me, and something in her face shifted. Something I’d never seen before.
“Laura got everything and I got nothing.”
“Daniel. She isn’t.”
The room tilted.
“What did you say?”
“Laura isn’t dead. She staged it. The crash, the shoe, all of it.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. I swear on my life, I’m not.”
“Diane, don’t you dare—”
“Laura isn’t dead.”
“She called me three days before. She said she couldn’t fight me anymore, that she had to disappear to protect the girls. She begged me to keep quiet.”
“And you did.”
“I was terrified, Daniel! If I told you, you’d blame me. Everyone would blame me. And they’d be right.”
I gripped the back of the chair to stay standing.
“You let me grieve. You watched me bury an empty coffin. You held my sons while they cried for a mother who was alive.”
“I know.”