The petitioner listed was my husband. I asked the girl to repeat it because I thought I’d misheard her. She said the guardianship petition had been filed two weeks earlier and that the hearing was already scheduled. I asked why anyone would be petitioning for guardianship over my daughter when she was healthy, eighteen, and living at home with me. The girl hesitated and said the paperwork described her as “unable to manage her own affairs.” I knew that wasn’t true. Then she read the address listed for my daughter. It wasn’t ours. It was Bonnie’s old house.
I waited until my husband came home and put the paperwork on the kitchen table. He didn’t look surprised. He just sat down and asked where I’d gotten it. I asked him why he’d filed for guardianship of our daughter. He said it wasn’t what I thought and that Bonnie had been “worried about her.” I reminded him Bonnie hadn’t spoken to us since the wedding. He said his mother had changed her mind. Then I asked why he’d made fourteen trips to Bonnie’s town and why he’d been shredding documents at his shop. He finally admitted there had been an estate dispute. I asked what my daughter had to do with it. He said Bonnie’s will left something to her — but only if she was under a guardian’s care.
I called the lawyer’s office myself the next morning. The attorney pulled up the petition and told me something my husband hadn’t mentioned. My daughter wasn’t just named as the proposed ward. She was listed as the beneficiary of Bonnie’s estate. The guardianship petition would give my husband control over the money until my daughter turned twenty-five. I asked when the will had been changed. The attorney said three months ago. I asked who had witnessed it. There were two names. One was Bonnie’s neighbor. The other was my husband. Then the attorney went quiet and said there was one more document attached to the file. It was a handwritten letter from Bonnie, dated the night she slapped my daughter at the wedding. It said, “If they ever try to take control of her inheritance, give her this first.”
