Chapter 12 - The House Had Been Watching Her
Elena looked around the living room differently.
The brown sofa.
The white door.
The playpen.
The television.
The hallway.
Home suddenly felt like evidence.
Daniel checked dates.
The suspicious approvals from Elena’s IP address began four years earlier.
Continued for eighteen months.
Then stopped abruptly.
Four years ago, Elena and Thomas had employed a live-in financial assistant for six months.
No.
Too easy.
Daniel looked deeper.
The authentication came through the home router.
That could include guests.
Devices.
Anyone with Wi-Fi.
Elena remembered Diane staying frequently during that period.
Her mother often spent weekends.
Sometimes weeks.
Thomas traveled for work.
Diane complained Elena was lonely.
Perhaps that had been the beginning of Diane’s gradual reentry into Elena’s adult life.
Elena looked at her mother.
Diane remained silent.
Daniel compared travel dates.
Two fraudulent approvals occurred when Diane was not at Elena’s house.
One when she was on a cruise.
One while attending a tournament in Florida.
So not all were hers.
Another person had access.
Thomas?
Elena’s chest tightened.
Daniel checked Thomas’s devices.
Nothing obvious.
Then he found a hardware identifier repeatedly connecting to the home network.
Device name:
GV-LAPTOP.
Elena frowned.
“Who is GV?”
Diane went pale.
Rebecca Shaw saw.
Daniel noticed.
“Diane?”
No response.
Elena stared.
“Who.”
Diane’s attorney advised silence.
Elena almost laughed.
Fine.
Daniel searched.
Gregory Vance.
Not Sloane.
A name Thomas had handwritten once in the margin of a trust document.
GV.
Gregory Vance was Diane’s younger brother.
Elena’s uncle.
Except Elena had been told Uncle Greg died when she was ten.
Daniel searched public records.
Gregory Vance was alive.
Living under his legal name in Delaware.
Elena felt dizzy.
Another dead relative resurrected by paperwork.
“My mother told me he died.”
Diane looked away.
Sofia whispered, “How many people did this woman erase?”
No one answered.
Daniel found Gregory.
Sixty-three.
Financial systems consultant.
Former employee of Howard Bell’s law firm.
Elena closed her eyes.
There it was.
Greg had technical access.
Bell had legal access.
Diane had family access.
Together?
Maybe.
Evidence first.
Gregory’s laptop identifier had been present inside Elena’s home twenty-three times.
Elena had never knowingly invited him.
How?
Thomas had security footage archived.
Daniel searched.
One exterior camera image.
Three years earlier.
Diane entered the house using her guest code.
Twenty minutes later, a gray-haired man entered behind her.
Elena was away.
Thomas too.
Diane brought Gregory into the home.
They stayed two hours.
That evening, a fraudulent beneficiary approval was submitted.
Elena stared.
Rebecca Shaw whispered, “Diane, I strongly recommend—”
Diane interrupted.
“He was helping me.”
Her lawyer closed her eyes.
Elena’s voice became quiet.
“With what.”
“Recover what Victor hid.”
“By impersonating me?”
Diane shook her head.
“Greg said the trust had technical errors.”
Daniel said, “Greg was creating approvals.”
“I didn’t know.”
Elena looked at her.
Maybe true.
Maybe not.
Diane continued despite Rebecca’s frustration.
Greg had contacted her after Victor died.
He claimed Victor cheated both siblings out of investment proceeds.
Diane believed some Twin Oak assets originated from money Victor and Greg earned together.
Greg wanted his share.
Diane wanted Emma removed.
Their interests aligned.
Howard Bell had helped at first.
After Bell died, Greg continued manipulating the digital trust system.
Diane allowed access to her accounts and later Elena’s home network.
She claimed she did not understand the technical fraud.
Elena stared.
“You knew he was using my identity.”
Diane said nothing.
That was enough.
Daniel searched fraudulent payments.
Where did the missing money go?
Diane received about two million over several years.
Gregory-linked entities received nearly five.
Another six million remained unaccounted for.
The hidden fortune was not simply Diane’s theft.
It was a long-running family extraction scheme.
Then Daniel found something that changed the direction again.
Thomas had confronted Gregory.
Not by email.
In person.
Eleven months before Thomas died.
A restaurant receipt.
A parking record.
Then a voice memo Thomas recorded afterward.
He said:
Greg knows I found the home access logs. He claims Diane does not know the full extent. I don’t believe him.
Then:
He threatened to tell Elena why I really met her.
Elena stopped breathing.
The old fear returned.
Thomas had always claimed their meeting was coincidence.
May you like
Gregory apparently knew otherwise.
What had Thomas done before meeting Elena that made Gregory believe the truth could destroy their marriage?
