…you were in excellent health. It was signed by a doctor in Florida who has never examined you.”
I felt sick. “Who asked for the beneficiary change?” I asked.
The agent, Mr. Greene, hesitated. “The request was made by your daughter-in-law. But Mrs. Thompson, I need to tell you something. We only caught it because your son called me three weeks ago.”
My son, Peter, had phoned the insurance office on his own. He told Mr. Greene that he was worried about some things he’d overheard at home. He asked him to call me personally if anyone ever tried to change my policy.
I called Peter from the agent’s office. He drove over in fifteen minutes.
“I didn’t want to believe it, Mom,” he said, sitting beside me. “I heard her talking to her sisters about your policy. I didn’t have proof. I didn’t want to accuse my wife of something I couldn’t prove.”
My daughter-in-law, Vanessa, and her sisters had planned to change my primary beneficiary to Vanessa, then take out a second policy on my life to borrow money against it. They had used my personal details from the paperwork Peter had helped me fill out.
Peter gave a statement to the insurance company’s fraud department. So did I. The second policy was cancelled before it was issued. The fake medical declaration was reported to the state medical board.
Peter filed for divorce a month later. It broke his heart, but he said he couldn’t stay married to someone who saw his mother as a payout.
My policy still lists my grandchildren as beneficiaries. Peter is the trustee. When I told him that, he laughed and said, “I promise I’ll never change it.” I believe him. He proved that when it mattered.
