Chapter 7 - Diane’s Visits
Natalie did not want Diane near Lucas.
Michael had allowed it anyway.
That was the first thing I learned.
The second was worse.
Lucas did not know Diane had helped keep his father away for ten years.
To him, she was Grandma Diane.
She brought expensive sneakers.
A new gaming console.
Bulls tickets.
The kind of gifts children remembered.
“She told him Michael had been trying to find us for years,” Natalie said.
My jaw tightened.
“Which is a lie.”
“Yes.”
“She told him the adults had made mistakes.”
“Which adults?”
Natalie held my gaze.
“Mostly me.”
I felt fury rise again.
Diane had rewritten history while the people she harmed were still alive.
“Why did you let her come back?”
“I didn’t at first.”
“Michael begged.”
“He said if Lucas was going to have a relationship with him, he wanted Lucas to know his family.”
I nearly smiled at the hypocrisy.
His family.
Everyone except his wife and daughter.
When I got home, Michael was sitting on the porch.
He stood when I parked.
I walked past him.
“Inside.”
Emma was at Rachel’s apartment for the afternoon.
I wanted no chance of her hearing what came next.
Michael followed me into the kitchen.
I placed Thomas’s photograph on the table.
Then I placed copies of the fake paternity report beside it.
“Explain your mother’s visits.”
His shoulders dropped.
“Natalie told you.”
“I asked you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I thought Mom needed to face what she’d done.”
I stared at him.
“Did she apologize?”
“No.”
“Did she tell Lucas the truth?”
“No.”
“Then she wasn’t facing anything.”
Michael sat.
“I thought it might soften her.”
“You rewarded her.”
“She took ten years from that boy and you gave her courtside tickets to his childhood.”
Michael flinched.
“That’s not fair.”
I leaned closer.
“Fair?”
“Do you want to discuss fair?”
“Let’s call Natalie and ask what fair looked like when you accused her of cheating while she held your newborn.”
His eyes filled.
“I know what I did.”
“No.”
“You know what happened.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Michael looked down.
For the first time, I saw something beyond fear.
Shame.
“I failed her.”
“Yes.”
“I failed Lucas.”
“Yes.”
“And now I failed you.”
“Yes.”
He nodded slowly.
I expected relief from hearing him finally admit it.
I felt none.
Then Michael pulled an envelope from his pocket.
“There’s something I should have shown you before.”
I did not reach for it.
“What is it?”
“A notice from Mom’s bank.”
“Why do you have it?”
“She accidentally forwarded it to my house with some tax documents.”
“Our house.”
He nodded.
“Our house.”
He placed it on the table.
Diane’s property had a lien.
Not for the amount Michael had told me.
For nearly $190,000.
I looked at him.
“You said seventy-one thousand.”
“That’s all I gave her.”
“Then where did the other money come from?”
Michael swallowed.
“I don’t know.”
I picked up the notice.
One line showed the original creditor.
Bennett Family Education Trust.
I looked at Michael.
“What is that?”
His face went blank.
“I have no idea.”
May you like
I believed him.
Which meant we had just found a secret Diane had kept even from her own son.
