My Husband Had a Mistress, But When His Mother Arrived at My Door, I Discovered a Terrifying Family Secret That Changed Everything
PART 3
I opened the door. “Are you Mrs. Bradshaw?” “Yes. Who are you?” “My name is Diane Miller. I’m Brad’s sister.” I blinked.
Brad had told me his sister lived in another state. They hadn’t spoken much in recent years, and I had only met her twice during our marriage.
But she had never visited our house without calling first. “What happened?” I asked.
Diane glanced over my shoulder. “Is Brad here?” “No. He left.”
Her eyes moved toward the phone on the floor.
Then she looked at the pharmacy bag.
Her face changed. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “What?”
She stepped inside after I moved aside and carefully closed the door.
“Please tell me you haven’t taken anything from that bag.”
I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
She picked up the bag, examined the label, and let out a shaky breath.
“Where did you find this?” “On the floor. It has my name on it.”
Diane looked at me as if she was trying to decide how much truth I could handle.
Then she placed the bag on the kitchen counter.
“Listen carefully. I came here because Chloe contacted me last night.”
My heart began beating faster.
“Chloe?”
“Yes. Brad’s secretary.”
“What does she want with you?”
Diane pulled out her phone.
“She told me something about your husband that I don’t think you know.”
I folded my arms.
“At this point, I know he is cheating on me. What else could possibly surprise me?”
Diane looked down.
“Your husband isn’t simply having an affair.”
She paused.
“He has been preparing to leave you for months.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That’s not exactly breaking news.”
“No,” she said. “But what he planned to do before leaving you is.”
She opened her phone and showed me a photograph.
It was a document.
A document bearing my full legal name.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I stared at it.
Then I looked closer.
It was a financial authorization form.
According to the document, I had agreed to transfer my ownership interest in our jointly held investment property to Brad.
The date was three months earlier.
I had never seen it.
I had never signed it.
And I certainly had never agreed to give him anything.
“Where did you get this?” I whispered.
“Chloe sent it to me.”
“Why would she have this?”
Diane pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Because she recently discovered that Brad was using company funds and personal assets to cover debts he never told you about.”
I felt my knees weaken.
“What debts?”
“Almost $180,000.”
The number seemed to hang in the air.
One hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
I thought about the new car.
The expensive watches.
The weekend trips.
The restaurant reservations.
All those little luxuries I had assumed came from the successful business Brad constantly talked about.
“How?” I asked.
Diane shook her head.
“I don’t know everything yet. But Chloe found irregular transactions while preparing financial reports. She said Brad had been moving money between accounts, creating false invoices, and using documents that appeared to have your approval.”
I looked at the authorization form again.
My signature was convincing.
Almost perfect.
But there was something wrong with it.
The final letter of my surname was slightly different.
Someone had copied it.
“He’s forging my signature,” I whispered.
Diane nodded.
“And there’s something else.”
I looked at her.
“Please don’t tell me there’s more.”
She took a deep breath.
“Brad has been telling people that you’re mentally unstable.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“He told his business partners that you’ve been experiencing emotional problems. He said you were becoming forgetful, making irrational decisions, and that he might eventually need to take control of some financial matters on your behalf.”
For several seconds, I couldn’t speak.
I wasn’t just being cheated on.
I was being prepared to look unreliable.
My husband had apparently been building a story about me while I was still cooking his dinner, washing his shirts, and asking him how his day had gone.
I slowly sat down.
“Why would he do that?”
Diane looked directly into my eyes.
“Because if people believe you’re incapable of managing your own affairs, they might not question why he’s making decisions for you.”
I covered my mouth.
Then I remembered something.
The pharmacy bag.
I turned toward it.
“Diane, what’s inside?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she carefully opened the bag.
Inside was a small prescription bottle, a folded medical document, and a receipt.
The prescription label carried my name.
But the medication wasn’t something I recognized.
Diane examined the paperwork.
Her expression became increasingly serious.
“Did you visit a doctor recently?”
“No.”
“Did you authorize anyone to collect medication for you?”
“No!”
She placed the paper on the counter.
“Then you need to speak with a medical professional and verify this prescription. Don’t take anything from that bag.”
I felt sick.
Why would Brad arrange medication under my name?
Was he trying to make me appear ill?
Was it connected to the story he had been telling people?
I looked at Diane.
“Why is Chloe helping me?”
For the first time, Diane looked away.
“Because she feels guilty.”
“Guilty about sleeping with my husband?”
“Yes. But that’s not the only reason.”
Diane took another document from the brown envelope.
It was a printed email.
The sender was Chloe.
The recipient was Diane.
And the subject line read:
I CAN’T KEEP COVERING FOR HIM.
I began reading.
The email explained that Chloe had initially believed Brad was separated from his wife.
He had told her our marriage was effectively over.
He said I knew about their relationship.
He said we were only waiting for the right time to make the separation official.
But after several months, Chloe discovered that none of it was true.
Then she found the financial records.
And finally, she discovered something that made her question everything Brad had told her.
There was another woman.
Not Chloe.
Someone else.
Someone Brad had been involved with long before Chloe entered his office.
The email ended with one sentence:
“Diane, I think Brad is planning something much worse than divorce. Please get to his house before he returns.”
I lowered the paper.
“Who is the other woman?”
Diane rubbed her forehead.
“Her name is Vanessa.”
I searched my memory.
I had never heard that name.
“Who is Vanessa?”
Diane hesitated.
Then she said something that made my blood run cold.
“She’s Brad’s former wife.”
I stared at her.
“Former wife?”
