It was Diane!
I didn’t trust my voice yet.
My stepmother walked in as if she owned the place, a leather folder tucked under one arm and that same tight smile she wore at Thanksgiving, the one she’d worn last November when my father raised a glass and said, “To Diane Vanessa, the woman who keeps this family running.”
“Hello, Sandra,” Diane said. “Sit down, sweetheart. We have some paperwork to go over.”
I felt the floor tilt.
Years of pieces rearranged themselves in a single breath.
“We have some paperwork to go over.”
- The “Vanessa” on Aaron’s phone was my stepmother; only older family members tended to use her middle name.
- The separate bank accounts.
- The locked drawer clearly hid whatever my husband held.
- The way my husband had nudged me to put the house in his name.
Diane. It had always been Diane!
“You two know each other,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
