My Ex Listed Me as His Beneficiary Years After Our Divorce—But What His New Wife Tried to Do...

Описание: The lawyer's voice crackled through my phone speaker as I stood in the cereal aisle of my local grocery store, trying to decide between granola brands. Mrs. Dawson, I'm calling regarding the estate of David Hartley. According to his life insurance policy and investment accounts, you've been listed as the primary beneficiary. The box of cereal slipped from my fingers, scattering oats across the linoleum floor. David was dead.

My ex-husband of seven years, the man I hadn't spoken to in nearly a decade, had somehow left me everything. And his widow, Vanessa, was already threatening to make my life a living hell over it. Before we jump back in, tell us where you're tuning in from, and if this story touches you, make sure you're subscribed because tomorrow, I've saved something extra special for you! The notification had arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, unremarkable in every way except for the message it carried.

I'd been working from my small home office in Bellhaven, Oregon, a coastal town I'd escaped to three years prior when the noise of Portland had become too much. My consulting work in graphic design kept me busy enough, and the rhythmic sound of waves outside my window provided the kind of peace I'd spent years searching for. The call from Denise Cho, an attorney I'd never heard of, shattered that peace like a rock through glass. I need you to come to Portland as soon as possible, Denise had said after the initial shock wore off.

There are complications. His current wife is contesting the beneficiary designation, and we need to move quickly to protect your interests. The word current echoed in my mind. Vanessa Hartley, the woman David had married two years after our divorce was finalized. I'd never met her, never wanted to. Our separation had been clean, or so I thought. No children to complicate things, just a division of assets and a mutual agreement to move forward separately. I sat down heavily on my kitchen floor, the phone still pressed to my ear, trying to process this information.

Why would David keep me as his beneficiary? We'd had a cordial divorce, as far as these things go. He'd wanted different things, I'd wanted different things, and after six years of marriage, we'd acknowledged we'd grown into incompatible people. There had been no dramatic fights, no infidelity that I knew of, just a slow realization that we were roommates playing at being a couple. The money involved wasn't insignificant.


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