Chapter 2: What Was on That Phone
She arrived forty minutes later.
No knock.
Just pounding.
"Emily.
Open this door right now."
Ethan stepped in front of me.
I put my hand on his arm and opened it myself.
Diane pushed inside before I could speak.
Lauren was right behind her.
"Where did you get the money?" Diane demanded.
"That house cost four hundred thousand dollars.
You've been pretending to struggle for a year."
"I never said we were struggling.
You told people that."
"Don't twist my words." Her voice cracked.
"Your grandmother left that money to this family."
"She left it to me.
Directly to me.
I have the documents."
Lauren crossed her arms.
"How convenient."
I looked at her.
"You searched the county records on Christmas morning, Lauren.
Why?"
She didn't answer.
Diane stepped closer.
"You owe us an explanation."
"I owe you nothing.
You spat in my face in front of my daughter."
The room went quiet.
Then Lily appeared in the hallway, still holding her stuffed rabbit from the night before.
Diane's expression shifted for just a second.
Then her phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen and went completely still.
I watched the color leave her face.
"What is it?" Lauren asked.
Diane didn't answer.
She turned the phone over in her hand and wouldn't look up.
That was the moment I realized this wasn't only about the house.
There was something else.
Something she hadn't expected me to find out.
---
What was on that phone — and what has Diane been hiding all along?
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