PART 2: THE TRAP BEHIND THE GUARDIANSHIP
The final recording showed Daniel and Vanessa searching through Robert’s office while I demanded to know what they were doing.
Daniel claimed he was searching for insurance documents, but the red folder in his hands contained Robert’s estate plans, trust amendments, account information, and a private letter.
When I tried to take the folder back, Vanessa stepped between us.
I moved around her, and Daniel pushed me backward with his forearm, causing my heel to catch on the rug and my forehead to strike the corner of the bookcase.
I fell to the floor.
“Take a picture before she cleans it up.”
Vanessa photographed me while I was still bleeding.
Daniel crouched beside me, not to help, but to whisper that I needed help before instructing Vanessa to document another supposed fall.
“Make a note that she fell again.”
Judge Mercer stopped the video himself.
During the recess, Daniel leaned toward me and insisted the situation had gotten out of control.
He said I could still stop everything and accused me of seeking revenge because I had never trusted him.
“No. I stopped trusting you when you gave me a reason.”
When court resumed, Curtis admitted he had never known that the injuries described as accidental falls were connected to confrontations involving Daniel and Vanessa.
That was when I opened another folder.
“This is where the guardianship petition stops being the worst part.”
Six weeks after Robert’s funeral, someone had attempted to add Daniel as a joint owner of my savings account.
The authorization contained a convincing imitation of my signature, except the person who created it had written “Eleanor M. Vance.”
I hadn’t used my middle initial on banking documents since 1998.
The bank rejected the request, but Daniel apparently never knew that.
Two weeks later, someone created a durable financial power of attorney naming him as my agent, supposedly notarized by Melissa Crane.
There was one problem.
Melissa had lost her notary commission eighteen months before the document was allegedly signed, and she had already provided a sworn statement confirming she never notarized it.
