Chapter 11 - Diane's Next Move
We didn't understand Diane's court threat until the papers arrived.
A process server came to our apartment that afternoon.
Diane had filed for a protective order.
Against me.
She claimed I was unstable.
Violent.
Obsessed with turning Ryan against her.
She included photographs of her bruises.
She included statements from two people who claimed I had screamed at her during family gatherings.
One of those people was her neighbor.
The other was Ryan's cousin Melissa.
Ryan looked furious.
“Melissa wasn't even in Charlotte that day.”
The attorney shook his head.
“She doesn't need to have been.”
“She claims a pattern.”
My stomach turned.
Diane wasn't trying to win with one lie.
She was building a pile of them.
The hearing was scheduled for forty-eight hours later.
My doctor was furious when she heard.
“You need rest.”
“So does my reputation.”
She couldn't argue with that.
Ryan spent the next day assembling evidence.
The doorbell audio.
The forged signature.
The login records.
Martin's emails.
Evelyn's notebook.
Then something unexpected happened.
Melissa called me.
She was crying.
“I need to tell you something.”
Ryan put the phone on speaker.
Melissa continued.
“Aunt Diane wrote the statement.”
Ryan's expression hardened.
“She wrote it?”
“She told me to sign it.”
“Why did you?”
“She said the family company was about to collapse and that Claire was trying to take everything.”
I closed my eyes.
Melissa sobbed.
“I believed her.”
Ryan asked, “Will you tell the judge?”
Silence.
Then Melissa whispered, “Yes.”
The hearing should have been our advantage.
But that evening, everything changed.
Ryan's company attorney called.
“North Pine Holdings moved money.”
“How much?”
“Almost one million dollars.”
Ryan shot to his feet.
“When?”
“Two hours ago.”
“To where?”
“A foreign account.”
Ryan looked at me.
“Can you stop it?”
“We're trying.”
Then the attorney said something worse.
“The transfer authorization carries Ryan's biometric approval.”
Ryan stared at the phone.
“That's impossible.”
Apparently not.
Someone had approved the transfer using his fingerprint credential.
He paced the room.
“My phone has been with me all day.”
The attorney asked, “What about your old phone?”
Ryan stopped.
He had replaced his phone three months earlier.
The old one had been left at Diane's house after she offered to recycle it.
Ryan turned pale.
“She still has it.”
His attorney answered quietly.
May you like
“And apparently, she still has your fingerprint profile.”
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