"Come back?" Ethan breathed. "What does she mean, come back?"
"Shhh. Listen."
"It hurts me to say this, but you need to know the whole truth."
"Diane has been pressuring me for months," Laura continued, her voice cracking. "About my mother's inheritance. The land, the accounts, all of it. She says it should have been hers."
"Aunt Diane?" Adam said. "Our Aunt Diane?"
"She threatened to take the girls from me. She said she'd tell the courts I was unstable. I begged her to stop."
I felt the room tilt.
"That's why she was always around," I said hoarsely. "All those visits. I thought she was grieving with us."
Laura looked directly into the camera.
"She threatened to take the girls from me."
"My love, if I'm gone, please understand. I'm doing what I have to do to protect our daughters. I'm leaving this disc as proof, in case I never get to tell you myself."
The screen froze on her tear-streaked face.
For a long moment, none of us moved.
"Dad," Ethan said quietly. "Aunt Diane is upstairs. Right now. She's in the kitchen."
I stood slowly, my legs barely holding me.
"Then it's time she answered for every word on this disc."
"I'm leaving this disc as proof."
I drove straight to Diane's house, the disc burning a hole in my coat pocket.
She opened the door with that same tight smile she'd worn for twenty years.
"Daniel? What's wrong? You look pale."
