My Husband Called Me A “Worthless Incubator” And Left While I Was 6 Months Pregnant. Now He’s Back To Steal A $200k Inheritance Using My Name. How Do I Make Him Regret Every Single Day?

Building the Case

At Lydia’s office I spread everything out on her conference table. Two years worth of documentation showing exactly what kind of father Brett had been. The text from when Haley was born where he said I should handle it. Screenshots of his social media posts from expensive vacations while I was buying diapers with spare change.

Witness statements from Kaia and my brother and the neighbors who’d seen him abandon us. Bank records proving zero child support payments despite him working and earning money.

Lydia went through it all methodically making notes and organizing things into folders. When she finished she looked up at me and said: “This was one of the strongest abandonment cases she’d ever seen.”

Said Brett’s own words admitting he wasn’t ready to be a father would destroy any custody claim he tried to make. She explained that Brett’s threats were completely empty. No judge would give significant custody to a father who’d voluntarily abandoned his child for 2 years and only returned when he needed something. His credibility was shot before he even walked into a courtroom.

The documentation I had would prove a pattern of neglect and self-interest that made him look terrible. Add in the witnesses willing to testify about him bringing dates around Haley and complaining about basic parenting responsibilities and he had no case at all.

Lydia said we could push for full legal and physical custody with him getting only supervised visitation and we’d probably win without much fight. Said the child support claim was solid too since he’d been working and deliberately hiding income. Brett had backed himself into a corner and the only way out was going to cost him a lot of money.

I left Lydia’s office with a folder full of paperwork and a plan that felt solid for the first time in years. She’d laid out everything in terms even someone as exhausted as me could understand. Full custody wasn’t just possible it was likely. Back child support wasn’t just fair it was enforceable. And half the inheritance wasn’t greedy it was my legal right as his wife.

Brett had trapped himself by staying married to me and now that trap was going to cost him everything he thought he’d won. The drive home felt different. I wasn’t scared anymore. I wasn’t second-guessing myself or wondering if I was being too harsh.

Brett had made his choices and now I was making mine. Haley was asleep in her car seat, her little hand clutching the stuffed rabbit she took everywhere. She deserved better than a father who only showed up when he needed something. She deserved stability and security and a parent who put her first. I was going to make sure she got that no matter what Brett tried to pull.

Serving the Papers

When I unlocked the apartment door Brett was sprawled across my couch with his feet on my coffee table, eating chips straight from the bag and watching some action movie at full volume. He didn’t even look up when I came in, just kept shoving chips in his mouth like he owned the place.

I set Haley’s carrier down gently in the corner and pulled the divorce papers from my bag. My hands weren’t shaking. I walked over and stood between him and the TV until he had no choice but to acknowledge me.

He looked annoyed at first like I was interrupting something important. Then I held out the papers and his expression changed. He took them from me without saying anything and started reading. I watched his face go from confused to shocked to angry in about 30 seconds. His jaw clenched, his neck turned red.

He flipped through the pages faster and faster and I could see the exact moment he understood what he was looking at. Full custody. Two years of back support calculated at his old corporate salary not his fake trainer income. And half of his daddy’s money that he’d been counting on to fund his new life.

Brett jumped off the couch so fast he knocked the chip bag onto the floor. He was yelling before he even fully stood up, waving the papers in my face and saying I couldn’t do this. That I didn’t earn his inheritance and I had no right to take it. That his father left that money to him, not me.

I stayed calm which seemed to make him even madder. I pointed out that we were legally married which made it marital property under state law. That his father’s will requiring him to be married actually worked in my favor now. That he’d been so busy trying to use our marriage as leverage that he’d forgotten I could do the same thing.

He threatened to refuse to sign anything. Said he’d drag this out in court for years if he had to. That he’d make my life so difficult I’d give up and settle for whatever he offered.

I reminded him that he couldn’t access the inheritance without being married and I was the only wife he had. That every day he delayed was another day without his money. That he was trapped by the same situation he’d tried to use against me and the only way out was going to cost him more than he wanted to pay.

Brett’s face went from red to purple. He threw the papers on the floor and stormed toward the door already pulling out his phone. I heard him in the hallway his voice loud and angry as he presumably called Owen.

I picked up the papers, smoothed them out, and put them back in the folder. Then I got Haley out of her carrier and started making her dinner like nothing had happened. Mac and cheese, her favorite. She babbled at me while I stirred the pot completely unaware that her father was outside losing his mind over paperwork that was going to change all our lives.

After dinner I gave Haley her bath, let her play with her bath toys until the water got cold, then got her into pajamas and read her three books before bed. The whole time I felt calmer than I had in weeks. I had a real plan now. Documentation that proved everything, a lawyer who knew what she was doing, and leverage that Brett couldn’t get around no matter how much he yelled or threatened.

He’d spent two years thinking he held all the cards but he’d been wrong. I’d been building my case the whole time and now it was strong enough to protect both me and Haley from whatever he tried next.