Chapter 15 - DIANE RUNS
Diane had left the courthouse during the lunch recess.
Her attorney claimed he did not know where she went.
Security footage showed her entering a restroom.
Five minutes later, a woman wearing a janitor’s coat exited through a service hallway.
Diane had removed the electronic monitor.
She left it inside a trash bin.
Police issued an alert.
Mara moved Lily and me to another secure location.
Jason and Brooke were placed under protection.
Diane had access to money, properties, and employees across three states.
She also knew our routines.
The trial paused.
For twelve hours, no one knew where she was.
Then Calvin Reese called detectives from jail.
He remembered driving Diane to an unused lake house near the Wisconsin border.
The property belonged to a company controlled by Martin’s former business partner.
Police surrounded it before dawn.
Diane was not inside.
They found clothing, cash, and three prepaid phones.
They also found photographs of me leaving Lily’s preschool months earlier.
Diane had been planning for the possibility of my escape long before the birthday dinner.
A map lay across the kitchen table.
Several locations were circled.
My office.
Mara’s firm.
Lily’s preschool.
The pediatric clinic.
One address was circled twice.
It belonged to Leah, the cousin who preserved the livestream.
Police reached Leah’s house minutes before Diane.
Diane’s rented car was stopped at the end of the street.
Inside the trunk, officers found zip ties, a blanket, and forged identification documents bearing Lily’s name.
Diane claimed the items were planted.
She said she was visiting Leah to repair the family.
No one believed her.
She was arrested for violating the court order, witness intimidation, and attempted custodial interference.
At the police station, Diane refused to answer questions.
She demanded her attorney.
Then she asked to speak with Jason.
The detectives refused.
She asked for Brooke.
They refused again.
Finally, she asked for me.
I stared at Mara when the request reached us.
“Why?”
“She says she will confess only to you.”
Mara advised against meeting her.
The prosecutor agreed.
Then Diane sent a handwritten note through her attorney.
Emily, you still do not know what Jason did.
I had spent years allowing secrets to control me.
I would not start again.
The meeting took place behind reinforced glass.
Mara and two detectives remained in the room.
Diane entered wearing a jail uniform.
Without her silk clothes and jewelry, she seemed smaller.
But her eyes remained sharp.
“You think Jason saved you,” she said.
“I think he finally told part of the truth.”
Diane smiled.
“He never told you where your money went.”
“What money?”
“The inheritance your grandmother left you.”
I had never received an inheritance.
Diane leaned closer to the glass.
May you like
“You did.”
“And your husband gave every dollar to me.”
