Chapter 8: The Morning Diana Chose Wrong
Ruth had told him to wait.
He waited two days.
On the morning of the third day, Diana made the call.
Caleb was in the kitchen when he heard her voice from the bedroom — low, deliberate, the tone she used when she wanted something done without discussion.
He didn't move.
He let her finish.
She came out twenty minutes later dressed for the day, her bag over her shoulder, and stopped when she saw him at the table.
"You're home late this morning," she said.
"I took the morning off."
She poured coffee.
"I have a lunch."
"Cancel it."
She turned around.
"Excuse me?"
"You made a call this morning." He kept his voice even.
"To the staffing agency.
About Olivia."
Diana set the coffee pot down.
"I told you she needed to go."
"You told them she had falsified her employment history.
That she had stolen from a previous client." He looked at her.
"Neither of those things is true."
"I protected this household."
"You committed defamation.
And because Olivia is a material witness in an active legal matter, Ruth is filing an additional complaint this morning for witness interference."
Diana's face went very still.
"What legal matter?"
"Sit down, Diana."
"I'm not going to — "
"Sit down."
She sat.
Caleb placed a folder on the table.
Inside was a copy of the wire transfer record.
A copy of the LLC registration.
A copy of the contract clause.
And a printed enlargement of the photograph from Olivia's phone.
Diana looked at the documents.
She didn't touch them.
"The forty thousand dollars you sent to Marcus's LLC," Caleb said.
"I need you to tell me what that was for."
"That was a household expense — "
"It went to a private LLC registered to my business partner.
Try again."
"Caleb, you don't understand the full picture — "
"Then help me understand it." He leaned forward.
"Because what I currently understand is that you paid Marcus to build a legal mechanism to remove Olivia from this household.
And I want to know why.
What did you think she knew?"
Diana's jaw tightened.
"She was a risk."
"To what?"
Silence.
"Diana.
To what?"
"To everything." Her voice came out hard and flat.
"You have no idea how much I have managed in this marriage.
How much I have kept quiet, kept clean, kept away from you so you could keep building your perfect company and your perfect reputation." Her chin lifted.
"Marcus and I made decisions that needed to be made.
You were too busy to make them yourself."
"You stole from my company."
"I protected it."
"Two point three million dollars, Diana."
The number landed.
She looked at the table.
"That money was going to come back," she said.
"It was a temporary arrangement."
"It was fraud."
"It was — "
"It was fraud." He closed the folder.
"And Olivia was sleeping in a park with three babies because you were afraid she might accidentally see something in this apartment that connected you to it."
Diana looked up.
Something in her face broke open for just a moment — not remorse, but something close to the recognition of how far things had gone.
"I never wanted her to end up in the park," she said.
"But you didn't stop it."
"I didn't think — "
"No." He stood up.
"You didn't."
He picked up the folder.
"Ruth is meeting with the financial crimes unit this afternoon.
Marcus was arrested this morning at his office." He watched her face.
"You have until four o'clock to decide whether you want to cooperate or whether you want to find out what the DA does with the wire transfer records on their own."
Diana's hand was on the table.
It wasn't shaking.
That was the thing about Diana — she had always been steadier than she should have been.
"You would do this to your own wife," she said.
"You did this," he said.
"I'm just the one who found out."
He walked to the door.
Behind him, he heard the sound of her chair pushing back.
Then silence.
Then, very quietly, the sound of her picking up her phone.
He didn't know if she was calling her lawyer or calling Marcus.
It didn't matter anymore.
Ruth had everything she needed.
He stepped into the elevator and pressed the lobby button.
Olivia and the babies were at his father's house.
George had insisted, two days ago, with the particular quiet authority of a man who has decided something and will not be moved.
Caleb had agreed.
May you like
It was the right place for them to be.
He had one more stop to make before this was over.
