It was Diane!
I didn’t trust my voice yet.
My stepmother walked in as if she owned the place, a leather folder tucked under one arm and that same tight smile she wore at Thanksgiving, the one she’d worn last November when my father raised a glass and said, “To Diane Vanessa, the woman who keeps this family running.”
“Hello, Sandra,” Diane said. “Sit down, sweetheart. We have some paperwork to go over.”
I felt the floor tilt.
Years of pieces rearranged themselves in a single breath.
“We have some paperwork to go over.”
- The “Vanessa” on Aaron’s phone was my stepmother; only older family members tended to use her middle name.
- The separate bank accounts.
- The locked drawer clearly hid whatever my husband held.
- The way my husband had nudged me to put the house in his name.
Diane. It had always been Diane!
“You two know each other,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
Aaron finally brought his hand forward, set a stack of documents on the counter, and slid them toward me.
It had always been Diane!
“Sign the top page, Sandra. You’re going to sign either way. You have no savings that aren’t tangled up with mine, and a father who’ll back whatever Diane tells him to back. You’ve got nothing and nowhere to go. So let’s stop pretending you have a choice and start being honest with each other. It feels better. Trust me,” Aaron said.
