The seaside property was supposed to rescue him.
“Was our entire marriage a lie?” I asked that evening.
Eric sat alone on the porch while the others walked along the beach.
“No.”
“You lied about my mother, my sister, my daughter, our savings, and this house.”
“I loved you.”
“Love is not an answer to fraud.”
He cried.
Part of me wanted to comfort him out of habit.
I didn’t.
The following morning, Eric left with an attorney.
I filed for divorce two weeks later.
The forged transfer was canceled. The developer recovered most of its advance, and Eric faced charges for fraud and document falsification.
He eventually accepted a plea agreement requiring restitution and community service. He lost his accounting license.
Some relatives believed I should forgive him because he had been frightened when Sophie was born.
Fear explained the first terrible decision.
It did not explain 25 years of lies or his attempt to steal the inheritance.
