Diana's Confession
Chapter 09 - Diana's Confession
Diana Ashworth arrived at the hospital where Eleanor was being treated three hours after the rescue, her face carrying something considerably more complicated than simple parental relief.
Sophie, still in the waiting area, watched her mother approach with a specific, guarded wariness she'd never once directed at her before tonight.
"I need to tell you something," Diana said, sitting beside her daughter, hands folded tightly in her lap. "Before the police ask you questions I can't answer honestly if I'm not the one who explains first."
"I already know," Sophie said quietly. "Grandma told me. About the financial transfers. About your signature on documents she never authorized."
Diana flinched, though she didn't deny it. "I want you to understand how it started. Not as an excuse. Just so you have the full picture."
"Then tell me," Sophie said.
"Marcus approached me five years ago," Diana said, voice unsteady. "He said the estate's accounts were considerably more complex than your grandmother understood, that certain investments required flexible handling, that redirecting small amounts through simplified channels would actually protect the estate's overall tax position."
"You believed that," Sophie said.
"I wanted to," Diana admitted. "The money he offered me for my cooperation was considerable, and my own finances were already strained. I told myself I was helping manage the family's assets more efficiently. I stopped asking questions when the answers started sounding less convincing, because by then, the money had already changed my life enough that losing it felt worse than understanding exactly where it was coming from."
"Grandma could have died in that room," Sophie said, voice hardening. "Nineteen days, Mom. Tied to a pipe, in a house nobody was looking for her in."
Diana's composure cracked entirely, tears falling freely now. "I didn't know he was going to do that. When she confronted him about the transfers, I thought he'd simply deny it, the way he'd always denied things before. I didn't know he was capable of this. I swear to you, Sophie, I didn't know."
"But you didn't stop it either," Sophie said. "You knew she was missing for nineteen days. You sat through police briefings and search coordination, knowing exactly who had taken her, and you said nothing."
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Diana had no answer for that, the specific, complete collapse of every justification she'd apparently been constructing since the day her mother disappeared.
"I've already called the detective," Diana said finally. "I'm going to tell them everything. The transfers, Marcus, all of it. I understand what that means for me legally. I just need you to know, before it becomes public, that I'm choosing the truth now, even though I should have chosen it considerably sooner."
