Chapter 8 - ERIC HAD BEEN PREPARING MY SIGNATURE FOR MONTHS
Laura hired a forensic document examiner.
The result came quickly.
The signatures on the power of attorney and loan paperwork were traced from genuine documents.
One source was my prenup.
Another was our joint tax return.
Somebody had copied my signature from documents stored inside my own house.
I knew who had access.
Eric.
Then Madison called from a number I did not recognize.
I almost ignored it.
Something made me answer.
“I’m sorry,” she said immediately.
Not hello.
Sorry.
“For what?”
“Everything.”
She had moved into a short-term apartment.
Not because the new owner threw her into the street.
Adrian gave everyone the notice period allowed under the agreement.
Madison left voluntarily on day four.
“Why?”
“Because Mom wanted me to fight him.”
That sounded like Diane.
“She kept saying if I stayed, the baby would make eviction harder.”
I felt sick.
Madison continued:
“That’s when I realized I wasn’t family to her either.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was using me.”
Pregnancy had been leverage.
The baby had been leverage.
Madison’s custody situation had been leverage.
Diane used everyone’s vulnerability as a bargaining chip.
Then Madison told me something worse.
Eric had asked her months earlier to practice my signature.
“What?”
“He said he wanted to order you a surprise anniversary gift and needed something engraved.”
My hands went cold.
“Did you?”
“No. It felt weird.”
Good instinct.
Then she remembered seeing tracing paper in Diane’s handbag.
Suddenly, the forged documents were not a mystery.
They were a project.
“Does Eric know you’re calling me?”
“No.”
“Why tell me?”
“Because Mom wants me to say you promised me the house for a year.”
I stared at the wall.
“Did I?”
“No.”
“Then don’t.”
She began crying.
“I won’t.”
For the first time, Madison stopped being only the person who invaded my guest room.
She became another person Diane had trained to believe survival required compliance.
That did not erase her entitlement.
But it explained some of it.
Then she said:
“Eric is telling everyone you abandoned him for another man in England.”
I almost laughed.
Of course he was.
A wife leaving because of forged financial documents was embarrassing.
A cheating wife was easier.
Then Madison whispered:
“There’s something else you need to know.”
Eric had not intended to remain in my house after the refinancing.
May you like
He and Diane planned to sell it.
My house had only been the first step.
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