The police officer took Diane’s wrists and pulled them behind her back.
The sharp, metallic click of handcuffs echoed across the silent room.
“Robert, please!” Diane screamed, struggling against the officer’s grip as she was turned toward the exit. “Eleanor came to me with the idea! She was the one who managed your mailbox! I only helped her hide the letters!”
Robert didn't flinch. He reached into his coat and produced a charred stack of manila envelopes, retrieved from Eleanor’s fireplace by the arriving deputies.
“Eleanor didn't just hide letters, Diane,” Robert said, tossing the burnt papers onto the table beside her discarded champagne. “She forged my signature on life insurance policies. She intercepted medical dispatches from the military veterans’ hospice where Lily was slowly dying without support.”
He stepped closer, his gaze drilling into her.
“Lily was my first love before I ever went overseas. When I returned injured, Eleanor told me Lily had married someone else and vanished to Europe. And she told Lily that I had died in the field.”
Gasps rippled through the gathered wedding guests. I felt my chest tighten, tears blurring my vision as the depth of their cruelty was laid bare.
“You watched my mother pass away of cancer six years ago,” I said to Diane, my voice trembling with indignation. “You stepped into our home pretending to be a supportive family friend, only to push Ethan toward me so you could secure the family fortune you’d been siphoning.”
Diane glared at me, her polished mask completely shattered.
“You were a naive girl with a sixty-million-dollar land trust!” Diane spat, baring her teeth. “Robert was giving everything away to charities and public parks! We deserved that fortune! We built this city’s social board!”
Ethan stepped between us, looking his mother dead in the eye.
“Take her out of here, Officer,” Ethan said, his voice completely flat. “And ensure she receives no special privileges in holding.”
The two officers escorted Diane down the central aisle of the ballroom, her designer heels dragging against the runner. The wedding guests parted like water, murmuring in disgust as she was led into the hotel lobby.
Robert turned to me, his gaze softening as he looked at little Maya resting against my chest.
“Clara,” he whispered, his eyes filling with fresh tears. “The doctors gave Lily a ten percent chance of surviving the night. We need to go.”
