Chapter 5: What Diane Didn't Know
Diane had moved to the garden by the time Daniel found her.
She was standing near the rose bed with her phone in her hand, her back to the house, her posture arranged into something that looked like composure.
She heard his footsteps on the stone path and turned before he reached her.
"Daniel, I know what you're going to say—"
"Then don't make me say it."
She looked at the tablet in his hand.
He had pulled a screenshot from the footage — the timestamp, her position in the garden, the clear angle showing she had never been near the pool.
Her jaw moved.
She recovered quickly.
"That angle is misleading.
I was near the pool.
I stepped back when she came out of the water."
"You came from the side gate, Diane.
You weren't on the patio at all until after Maya had the baby."
"That's not—"
"I watched it four times."
She was quiet for exactly three seconds.
Then something in her expression changed — not remorse, not fear.
Calculation.
"All right." She lowered her phone.
"I wasn't as close as I said I was.
But I did see her near the stroller before it went in.
I genuinely believed—"
"You told me the camera wasn't working."
She blinked.
"I thought it wasn't."
"You thought." He held the tablet up.
"You walked directly to her.
You looked at her for two seconds.
Then you walked to the door and waited for me.
That is not a woman who witnessed something and panicked.
That is a woman who made a decision."
Diane set her phone down on the garden wall.
She folded her hands in front of her.
When she looked up, her eyes were dry and direct.
"I don't think that woman is good for this household," she said.
"I've seen the way she looks at you.
I've seen the way she manages things when your wife isn't here.
I was trying to protect your family."
"By accusing her of trying to kjll my son."
The word landed between them like something dropped from a height.
Diane did not flinch.
"I may have overreacted."
"You lied.
To my face.
While my son was crying in my arms."
"Daniel—"
"My wife trusted you." His voice did not rise.
It went quieter, which was worse.
"She has known you for fifteen years.
She called you last week from London and told you she was worried about leaving the baby.
And you used that.
You used her fear and you used my son and you used a woman who jumped into a pool to save his life — and you turned it into whatever this is."
Diane's composure cracked at the edges.
Not much.
But enough.
"I think you should leave," Daniel said.
"Daniel, if you'd just let me—"
"I'm not asking." He stepped back toward the house.
"Your bag is in the front hall.
I'll call you a car."
"You're making a mistake."
He stopped walking.
He turned back once.
"Rosa was at the kitchen window," he said.
"She saw everything.
Whatever story you were planning to tell — it was already over before you opened your mouth."
Diane stood in the garden with the roses behind her and the afternoon light going flat and gray around her, and for the first time since she had walked onto that patio, she had nothing left to say.
Daniel went inside.
The side gate clicked shut behind him.
Diane stood alone for a long moment.
Then she picked up her phone and made a call.
The person on the other end answered on the first ring.
May you like
"It didn't work," she said.
"We need another way."
