I pulled up the Alaska public court records for their divorce.

Greg had painted my daughter—a sweet schoolteacher who bought winter coats for her poorer students out of her own pocket—as erratic, verbally abusive, and financially unstable.

He had awarded himself the house, the luxury vehicles, the liquid cash, and the entirety of their joint assets. He’d achieved this because the only person who could have contested it was medicated, vomiting from chemotherapy, and utterly alone.

Then I checked her employer benefits portal. I found the life insurance policy.

Payout: $500,000. Status: Active.

Primary Beneficiary: Gregory Lawson. I stared at the glowing screen until the letters blurred into a sickening smear of pixels. He hadn’t just abandoned her. He had meticulously structured her ruin.