Chapter 5 - Diane Comes Back
Diane Parker called me herself.
She had been one of the women at the table.
I nearly refused the call.
Then she said:
“I should have stopped it sooner.”
That was different from denying.
I met her in a hospital conference room with Rachel present.
Diane looked nothing like the woman from the lunch footage. No jewelry. No perfect makeup. Just a gray sweater and an expression full of shame.
“How long did you know?” I asked.
“That Eleanor disliked Clara?”
“Yes.”
“Years.”
“That she was depriving her of food?”
Diane shook her head immediately.
“No. Not like that.”
I watched carefully.
“What did you think was happening?”
“Eleanor told us Clara had developed an eating disorder during pregnancy.”
My stomach turned.
“She said doctors wanted the family to control portions because Clara was secretly overeating and then becoming ill.”
Rachel wrote without looking up.
Diane continued.
“The first time I saw Clara denied a full plate, I challenged Eleanor. She told me I didn’t understand the treatment plan.”
“The video shows you trying to help.”
“I did.”
“Then why did you come back today?”
Her eyes filled.
“Cowardice.”
At least she named it.
“Eleanor is socially powerful. She knows everyone. I told myself Clara had doctors, a husband, money. I assumed somebody more appropriate would intervene.”
“No one did.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
Then:
“Today was different.”
“What happened before I arrived?”
Diane took a breath.
“Clara asked for lunch. Eleanor said she had already eaten breakfast and should stop ‘feeding the baby excuses.’ Clara said she felt faint.”
My fists tightened.
“One guest laughed. Eleanor told Clara to pick up something someone dropped. Then it became a joke.”
“A pregnant woman on the floor became a joke.”
“Yes.”
Diane began crying.
“I left the table once. I went toward the kitchen because I wanted to get her food privately.”
“What stopped you?”
“Julian.”
My head lifted.
“He was there?”
“Not at lunch. He came through the back hall.”
The security footage had not shown him in dining room.
“He told me, ‘Don’t interfere. This is a family medical issue.’”
“Then where did he go?”
“To Sebastian’s office.”
Rachel and I looked at each other.
Security review.
Time stamps.
Julian entered the house at 10:42 a.m.
I arrived at approximately 11:32.
He had left through the garage twelve minutes before I walked in.
That morning.
While Clara was under the table.
He had been in my office.
“What was he doing?” I asked.
Diane shook her head.
“I don’t know. But I heard your mother tell him, ‘Take the originals before Sebastian comes back from the meeting.’”
My black folder.
I had unexpectedly returned before the meeting.
Had Julian been searching for it?
Then Diane pulled something from her handbag.
A folded receipt.
“I took this from beneath Eleanor’s chair after security removed us.”
Luxury jewelry store.
$38,700.
Charged to the black card I had given my mother to care for Clara.
Diane’s voice shook.
“She bought a diamond bracelet yesterday.”
I stared at the amount.
Clara had told me Eleanor stopped buying her iron-rich groceries because “the household budget needed discipline.”
Rachel photographed receipt.
Then Diane said:
“There’s something else Eleanor told us.”
I looked up.
“She said after the baby was born, Clara would be sent somewhere to recover.”
“Where?”
“She called it a private wellness residence.”
My body went cold.
Rachel stopped writing.
“Did she name it?”
“Yes.”
Diane reached into her bag again.
“Lakewood House.”
Rachel searched.
Not a hospital.
Not a postpartum retreat.
A private residential mental-health treatment facility.
There was nothing inherently wrong with the facility itself.
May you like
But Clara had never asked to go.
And my mother had already been discussing sending her there.
