…still legally married. There’s no record of their divorce ever being finalized.”
The officer, Sergeant Hayes, held up the document from the box. It was a “spousal waiver” with my forged signature, giving up any claim to my husband’s pension and our house. It was dated three weeks earlier.
“If they file this, and he dies,” Sergeant Hayes said, “everything goes to his legal wife. And that would be her.”
My husband, Greg, and his ex-wife, Donna, had filed for divorce fifteen years earlier but never signed the final decree. Greg knew. He’d married me anyway. Donna had kept her key to the house, and they’d been planning together for months. The photos of me sleeping were meant to “prove” I was unstable and paranoid, so no one would believe me if I said the signature was forged.
That’s why Greg kept telling me I was imagining things moving around the house.
My marriage of nine years was never legal. My lawyer filed for an annulment and a fraud claim. Greg and Donna were charged with forgery and trespassing.
Because I’d paid half of the house, the court ruled that I was entitled to half its value. Greg had to sell it to pay me.
I bought a small townhouse with my share. I’m the only one with a key. Sometimes I still check under the bed before I go to sleep. There’s never anything there anymore.
