Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN INSIDE
Karen disappeared before anyone could confront her.
Her office was empty.
Her company phone had been wiped.
Her car was gone from the parking garage.
Michael immediately froze her corporate access and called the company’s outside counsel.
Diane called him nineteen times.
He answered none.
On the twentieth call, I took the phone.
“Claire?”
Diane sounded furious.
“Where is my son?”
“Not with you.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“You’re right.”
I looked at Michael.
“For years I thought the problem was that you hated me.”
Diane scoffed.
“You are not important enough to hate.”
“I understand now.”
I lowered my voice.
“You hate anyone you can’t control.”
Silence.
Then she said, “Tell Michael to come home.”
“He is home.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
The Callahan house.
Her house.
Her territory.
Her rules.
“No.”
Diane’s breathing changed.
“You think that little slap made you powerful?”
“No.”
I touched the bruise on my cheek.
“It made you careless.”
I ended the call.
Michael stared at me.
“I should have done that years ago.”
“Yes.”
He accepted it.
That surprised me.
Rachel entered from the office.
“We found Karen.”
Michael stood.
“Where?”
“She booked a hotel near O’Hare under her maiden name.”
Lauren crossed her arms.
“Running?”
“Maybe.”
Rachel looked at Michael.
“But before she left, she emailed me.”
“What did she say?”
Rachel turned the laptop.
One sentence.
DIANE WILL DESTROY ALL OF US BEFORE SHE ADMITS WHAT SHE DID.
Michael shook his head.
“What exactly did she do?”
Rachel opened the attachment.
It was a photograph.
A handwritten letter.
Frank’s handwriting.
Michael recognized it immediately.
The letter was dated nine years earlier.
Three days before his death.
Michael read aloud.
“If anything happens to me, Thomas has the original trust documents.”
He stopped.
Rachel continued.
“Diane cannot know where they are.”
Nobody moved.
Lauren whispered, “Thomas Reed.”
The attorney who had witnessed the original agreement.
Michael grabbed his phone.
“Find him.”
Rachel already had.
Thomas Reed was seventy-eight.
Retired.
Living in Wisconsin.
Michael exhaled.
“We’re going.”
Then the doorbell rang.
I looked through the window.
Two police officers stood outside.
Beside them was Diane.
She wore dark sunglasses.
One side of her face was red.
She had called the police.
May you like
And she was smiling.
*
