Chapter 9 - The financial accounts
The accounts Derek believed I had discovered were not a secret fortune.
They were debts.
Three credit lines.
Total balances around $34,600.
One card in my name.
Two business-related lines tied to a side flooring company Derek had started and abandoned.
The largest problem was the account in my name.
I had not knowingly applied.
Derek said I had verbally authorized him to “handle household credit.”
I denied authorizing a new card.
The application included information only a spouse would know.
No forged handwritten signature because application was electronic.
No stranger identity thief.
A marital financial dispute with possible criminal aspects.
Complicated.
The card paid:
Household expenses.
A truck repair.
Business materials.
Two hotel stays.
One cash advance.
Some spending benefited the family.
That did not answer whether I consented to debt in my name.
I hired a consumer-law attorney.
Derek hated that.
He said:
“You’re turning marriage into evidence.”
The sentence sounded profound.
May you like
It wasn’t.
Marriage is not permission to create debt secretly.
