Chapter 6 - DIANE USED MY FACE
The phone company restored access with me present.
That mattered because I did not want anyone copying files recklessly or changing evidence before it could be preserved.
My attorney entered the story then.
Her name was Laura Mendes.
Thirty-eight.
No dramatic speeches.
She told me constantly to stop touching things.
I hated her immediately.
Then trusted her.
The device logs showed repeated use during my hospitalization.
Face unlock.
Passcode.
Email.
Banking.
Messages.
My father knew my passcode.
I had given it to him after Mom died because he managed accounts.
I never changed it.
Diane knew it too.
Probably from Dad.
But some apps used Face ID.
“How?” Ethan asked.
Laura frowned.
Then a horrifyingly ordinary explanation surfaced.
Hospital photographs.
While I was unconscious, Diane had held the phone near my face.
Not enough to access everything—the phone occasionally required a passcode—but enough for some authentication attempts.
A nurse remembered Diane standing beside my bed with the device.
She assumed Diane was trying to help me call family.
No one knew she did not have permission.
The logs showed messages to Ethan came from my phone.
The job-decline email too.
Apartment cancellation.
Investment distribution.
Then a new email address had been added as account recovery.
The address contained Diane’s birth year.
Dad stared at it when Laura showed him.
“You didn’t know?”
He shook his head.
That was the first moment I believed him about something.
He knew money would be moved.
He did not know the full operation.
“Whose idea was the thirty-eight thousand?”
He looked down.
“Mine.”
“Whose idea was using my phone?”
“Diane said you would approve it when you woke up.”
I laughed.
“You thought I’d approve impersonation?”
“She said we only needed temporary access.”
“So you let her take my phone.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she broke off my engagement?”
“No.”
“Canceled my job?”
“No.”
“Apartment?”
“No.”
His face had gone gray.
For the first time, Dad looked frightened of Diane.
That did not make him innocent.
He had handed her the door key because he wanted one room robbed.
Then seemed shocked when she walked through the whole house.
The financial transfer was frozen before completion.
Only $12,000 had actually cleared into an account associated with Dad’s home-equity payment.
The remaining amount was stopped once I disputed it.
That was good.
It was also beside the point.
My father had authorized taking at least some of it.
Diane had expanded the plan.
Then Laura found a deleted message between them.
Dad:
JUST THE ACCOUNT. NOTHING ELSE.
Diane:
IF SHE LEAVES WITH HIM WE LOSE EVERYTHING ANYWAY.
Dad:
DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID.
Diane:
I’M FIXING THIS FAMILY.
There it was.
Money was Dad’s motive.
Control was Diane’s.
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But I still did not understand why Diane believed my marriage threatened “everything.”
The answer was buried in a document she had been hiding from Dad too.
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