My phone vibrated. An email notification from Great Lakes Trust Bank flashed across the screen: Account Update Confirmation.
I had never activated account change alerts.
That meant someone else had.
I left shortly after, claiming I needed to return to the hospital. Instead, I drove straight to the nearest branch. A representative named Linda Harper reviewed our profile and explained that a new phone number had been added that morning. Email notifications had been redirected to an address linked to the name Taylor Morgan. A request had also been submitted to remove me as secondary co-owner. It hadn’t processed yet.
I felt something cold and hollow settle in my chest.
“I want the account frozen immediately,” I said. “No changes without in-person identification from both of us.”
Linda printed confirmation documents and handed them to me. I walked out understanding, with terrifying clarity, that my marriage had quietly become a financial maneuver I was being erased from.
I called my closest friend, Megan Carter, who worked as a legal assistant in downtown Columbus. I told her everything. She listened in silence.