Chapter 9
Diane should have been in jail.
That was my first thought.
My second was Lily.
I pressed my baby against my chest and backed behind Michael.
Detective Monroe lifted her weapon toward the stairs.
“Diane Bennett, show your hands.”
Diane laughed from above.
“Still giving orders in my house?”
Harper whispered, “How is she here?”
Michael’s face was white with fury.
“Someone let her out.”
Sophia gripped the arms of her wheelchair.
“She came back for the vault.”
Diane appeared at the top of the stairs.
Her hair was loose.
Her gala dress was gone, replaced by a dark coat.
A bruise marked her cheek from the arrest, but she still held herself like a queen.
Behind her stood a man in a sheriff’s uniform.
Deputy Chief Alan Rhodes.
Michael cursed under his breath.
Rhodes had been at Bennett charity dinners for years.
He aimed his gun downward.
“Everyone stay calm.”
Detective Monroe shouted, “Rhodes, put it down.”
Diane smiled.
“Rachel, dear, you are out of your depth.”
Rhodes looked nervous.
That made him more dangerous.
Diane’s eyes found Lily.
Pure hatred flashed there.
Michael stepped fully in front of us.
“You will never look at her again.”
“She stole everything by existing,” Diane snapped.
“She is a baby.”
“She is a signature with a heartbeat.”
Sophia’s voice cut through the vault.
“That is how you saw Michael too.”
Diane’s face twisted.
“You were nothing.”
“I was his mother.”
“You were staff.”
Michael took a step up.
“I am done hearing you speak.”
Diane pointed at him.
“I made you.”
“No,” he said. “You caged me.”
Rhodes shouted, “Stop moving.”
Detective Monroe kept her weapon trained.
“Alan, think carefully.”
He swallowed.
“She said you all fabricated evidence.”
Harper barked, “There are six officers outside.”
Diane laughed.
“Not anymore.”
My blood went cold.
Then a siren wailed.
Not outside.
Inside.
The manor security alarm.
Mason, Michael’s head of security, appeared behind Diane with two police officers.
His face was bruised.
His arm hung at an awkward angle.
But he was standing.
“Wrong,” he said. “There are eight.”
Diane spun.
Rhodes panicked.
Michael moved.
Detective Monroe shouted.
I turned Lily’s face into my shoulder before the struggle erupted.
No gun fired.
Thank God.
Mason tackled Rhodes against the bookcase.
Detective Monroe rushed up the stairs.
Michael grabbed Diane’s wrist as she reached toward her coat pocket.
A small vial fell to the floor.
It shattered on the wood.
A bitter smell filled the air.
Sophia whispered, “Arthur.”
The poison.
Or something like it.
Diane screamed as officers cuffed her again.
This time, she did not look royal.
She looked small.
Old.
Furious.
Human in the ugliest way.
Michael stood over her.
“You killed my father.”
Diane spat, “Arthur betrayed me.”
“You imprisoned my mother.”
“She was going to ruin us.”
“You tried to kill my daughter.”
“She is not mine.”
Michael’s voice dropped.
“No. She never was.”
That broke something in Diane.
Her face collapsed for half a second.
Then hate returned.
“You will regret choosing them.”
Michael looked at Sophia.
At me.
At Lily.
“No,” he said. “I regret waiting so long.”
Rhodes was arrested.
Mason was taken to the hospital.
Diane was moved to federal custody before dawn.
No private cell.
No friendly judge.
No phone calls without recording.
The vault contents went straight to evidence.
By morning, Bennett Group’s board had called an emergency meeting.
By noon, Michael walked into the conference room with Harper, Detective Monroe, and three federal agents.
I watched through video from the hospital with Lily asleep in my lap and Sophia beside me.
Michael stood at the head of the table.
The board looked terrified.
Good.
“My mother has been removed from all positions,” he said.
One director cleared his throat.
“Michael, these accusations—”
“Are supported by trust documents, financial records, and a murder investigation.”
Silence.
Michael placed Arthur’s amended trust on the table.
“Effective immediately, controlling voting authority transfers to me as Lily Bennett’s father and trustee.”
Another director said, “You cannot just—”
Harper stepped forward.
“He can. Arthur Bennett made sure of it.”
Michael looked into the camera, directly at me.
May you like
Then at Lily.
“For years, this company protected a lie. That ends today.”
