Chapter 4 - The Divorce Sarah Never Signed
The next morning, Sarah’s attorney brought a laptop into Room 107.
We did not push.
We asked.
“Sarah, do you want to know what we found?”
She nodded.
The attorney explained slowly.
The divorce waiver carried Sarah’s signature.
The handwriting looked close.
But not close enough.
Sarah stared at the screen.
“I didn’t sign that.”
Greg had told her they were preparing temporary financial paperwork in case she became too weak to manage bills.
She remembered signing one document.
One.
Not six.
The divorce packet contained six signatures.
One signature had a loop in the S that Sarah had not used since college.
Her attorney noticed because Sarah’s original teaching certification carried the same old style.
Someone had copied an outdated specimen.
I asked the obvious question.
“Where would Greg get an old signature?”
Sarah’s eyes filled.
“Our marriage license.”
That was twenty-two years old.
Greg had access.
But the bigger issue was Lauren Keene.
The notary journal claimed Sarah personally appeared at 2:30 p.m.
Sarah’s medication record showed she was asleep from 1:48 until after four.
Nurse Brenda was on duty.
“She never left the room.”
The attorney’s face changed.
That gave us a witness.
Then another surprise surfaced.
The divorce petition claimed Sarah and Greg had been separated for more than a year.
They had not.
Bank records showed joint household spending until eight weeks earlier.
Family photographs from Christmas showed Greg beside her.
A hotel reservation in Seattle from January listed both names.
The story was collapsing.
But Sarah barely reacted.
She stared toward the window.
“I don’t want him back.”
“No one is asking you to take him back,” I said.
“I just don’t want people thinking I’m fighting because I still want the marriage.”
I squeezed her hand.
“This isn’t about keeping him.”
Her attorney nodded.
“It’s about whether documents affecting your rights were obtained lawfully.”
Sarah finally looked at her.
“Then fight.”
There was my daughter.
Weak.
Thin.
Still there.
That afternoon, the attorney filed an emergency motion concerning the divorce record and financial transfers.
Greg’s lawyer responded within hours.
Aggressively.
They claimed Sarah was confused.
Unduly influenced by me.
Inconsistent.
Then they made one mistake.
They attached a medical declaration from Dr. Martin Keene stating Sarah had been cognitively impaired for months.
I read it twice.
If Sarah had been cognitively impaired for months, then how could Greg rely on her signature for divorce papers signed during that same period?
By trying to destroy Sarah’s credibility, Greg had just damaged his own case.
But our attorney found something even worse.
Dr. Keene’s declaration included a diagnosis.
Metastatic pancreatic cancer.
May you like
No pathology report was attached.
Because no pathology report existed.
