Chapter 11 - THE HOUSE THEY TRIED TO STEAL

Foreclosure was the point where I stopped feeling surprised.

Every layer revealed another crime.

Forgery.

Fraud.

False notarization.

Identity theft.

Bigamy.

Possible conspiracy involving my military position.

Sarah filed an emergency injunction.

The judge froze the foreclosure within hours.

Then investigators traced the original loan application IP address.

My home.

Date: while I was deployed overseas.

Ryan had submitted it from my kitchen.

He uploaded photographs of my identification, forged my signature and used a fake notarization by Linda.

The lender claimed it had been deceived too.

That did not erase its failure to verify.

Negotiations began.

Sarah was ruthless.

“You do not pay one dollar of this fraudulent debt,” she told me.

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“Good.”

The house had been mine before Ryan.

Now it became evidence.

Investigators photographed everything.

Afterward, I returned for the first time.

Linda’s floral curtains.

Ryan’s recliner.

The kitchen table where I had paid bills while he complained I worked too much.

I found a framed wedding photograph.

Ryan smiling.

Me in dress uniform.

Linda between us.

I removed the picture and placed it facedown.

Ryan was prohibited from approaching.

But it wasn’t Ryan.

Melissa stepped out.

She had flown in for a formal interview.

“I hope this is okay.”

“Yes.”

She looked at the house.

“So this is the place.”

“Apparently.”

She smiled sadly.

“Mine had beige walls.”

We sat on the porch.

Two women who had married the same man without knowing it.

She said, “I spent years wondering how I could have been so stupid.”

“You weren’t.”

“Neither were you.”

It was strange how easily I believed her about herself and struggled to believe her about me.

“I found this in an old storage box.”

Ryan, Victor and Linda at a restaurant.

Date stamped nine years earlier.

On the back, Linda had written:

ONE DAY WE’LL FIND THE RIGHT WOMAN.

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Melissa looked at me.

“I think they were planning this long before you ever met him.”