Chapter 7 - TALIA'S MOTHER KNEW
Diane Whitmore requested a meeting.
Mason refused twice.
Accepted the third time only because Amanda said:
“She may establish knowledge.”
So Diane came to Amanda’s office carrying a leather handbag and the exhausted dignity of a woman who had spent years pretending money problems were temporary.
She sat across from Mason.
“I didn’t know about Zayn.”
He believed her.
Not because he trusted her.
Because the shock on her face when Amanda mentioned him looked genuine.
“What did you know?” Mason asked.
Diane stared at her hands.
“That Talia was trying to save the house.”
“How?”
“She said she had an investment.”
“Did you know it used Hartley money?”
Diane hesitated.
“Yes.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
“How much?”
“I thought a temporary loan.”
“Approved by me?”
Diane looked away.
There.
“Did you ask?”
“She told me you would sign.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Mason leaned back.
Diane began crying.
“I was desperate.”
“I understand.”
She looked surprised.
He continued.
“I understand desperation. I do not understand why your desperation became my obligation without my consent.”
Diane wiped her face.
“Talia said you had more than enough.”
Mason almost smiled.
The old logic.
You have enough.
Therefore taking from you is less wrong.
He asked:
“Did you know she planned to get my signature during the anniversary?”
Diane hesitated again.
“Yes.”
“Did that bother you?”
“I told her not to pressure you.”
Amanda wrote something down.
Mason laughed once.
“But you were still going to accept the money.”
Diane closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Honest.
Ugly.
Useful.
Then she told him something else.
Talia had been rescuing the Whitmore family financially for years.
Small amounts at first.
Mortgage payments.
Connor’s tax debt.
Medical bills.
Credit cards.
She used her own salary.
Then joint funds.
Then, finally, company funds.
Mason had noticed lifestyle inflation and occasional missing money but assumed Talia handled family gifts within their agreed discretionary budget.
She exceeded it by almost $190,000 over four years.
Not theft in every instance.
Some came from joint accounts both spouses could legally access.
But it was hidden.
That mattered.
The affair did not create the pattern.
It revealed it.
May you like
Talia had spent years managing two families with one man’s resources and one woman’s secrecy.
Eventually secrecy required bigger lies.
