Chapter 1: The Deed They Never Checked
My husband gave me until midnight to leave the house after demanding a divorce.
There was only one problem: he had apparently never bothered to check who actually owned it.
I was running a 104°F fever.
Standing upright was difficult enough.
But Ethan came home, saw there was no dinner waiting for him, and acted as though being sick was something I'd done to inconvenience him.
Patricia encouraged every second of it.
Then Ethan produced the divorce papers.
According to his plan, I would walk away with my clothes while he kept the home, the savings, and everything else we'd supposedly built together.
I signed.
That was the moment Patricia started laughing.
"Where will you go?"
I looked at her and realized they genuinely believed I'd surrendered.
So I reached into my coat.
Before marrying Ethan, I'd practiced commercial property law.
And there was one document I'd understood far better than either of them:
the deed to our house.
My father had purchased the property before my marriage.
My name was on the ownership record.
Ethan's wasn't.
Neither was Patricia's.
Then I noticed someone moving toward the front door carrying two formal notices.
Suddenly, Ethan wasn't discussing where I would live.
He was asking what would happen to him.
But the doorbell cut us off.
His mistress was standing outside holding a newborn.
I expected Ethan to panic.
May you like
Instead, Patricia did.
And that told me the baby was connected to something I hadn't uncovered yet.
