I showed up to Christmas dinner on a cast, still limping from when my daughter-in-law had shoved me days earlier. My son just laughed and said, “She taught you a lesson—you had it coming.” Then the doorbell rang. I smiled, opened it, and said, “Come in, officer.”

Playing Senile and Hiring a PI

I began “forgetting” little things: asking the same question twice, leaving a pot a bit too long on the stove, misplacing my keys and then magically finding them. Nothing dangerous just enough to feed Melanie’s story.

She pounced on it. In front of Jeffrey and her friends she’d say, “I’m really worried about Sophia’s memory.” Jeffrey would suggest maybe I needed “help” with the business accounts.

Outwardly I looked worried about myself. Inwardly, I took notes and hit “record.”

I also hired Mitch, a private investigator and former cop. I wanted to know what they did when they were “at work” or “visiting friends.”

Mitch’s report shattered the remaining illusions. Jeffrey and Melanie had never given up their old apartment—they were using it as a secret base, funded by my money, where they enjoyed expensive wine, restaurants, and shopping.

Melanie wasn’t working; her “client meetings” were spa days and luxury malls. She was also meeting regularly with a lawyer named Julian Perez, a specialist in elder guardianship cases. Mitch confirmed she’d consulted him about having me declared legally incompetent so they could gain full control over my finances and medical decisions.

Then came the most chilling piece: before marrying Jeffrey, Melanie had been married to a seventy-two-year-old man who died less than a year later, leaving her nearly half a million dollars. Another previous husband, in his sixties, had also died conveniently soon after their wedding. Officially, both deaths were natural. Suddenly, they didn’t look so natural.

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