When my mom passed away, she left me her entire fortune—over $400,000. My husband Peter suddenly became the most supportive man alive. But when I refused to let him spend the money, his attitude changed almost overnight. Just three weeks later, he flatly suggested we separate, as if love had vanished with my resistance. I didn’t cry—I realized then that he had never truly loved me, just the idea of my inheritance.

My mother had never approved of Peter, though she never said it outright. She always asked questions that felt more like statements, as if she already knew the answers. I thought she was just being overprotective, but she had seen something I refused to acknowledge. After her death, I finally understood what she had been trying to protect me from. She had seen right through him long before I did.