Ex-stepmother Told Me My Estranged Dad Died 8 Months Ago This Week Because She Wants Me To Sign Over My Rights To His Estate

Just this past week, my ex-stepmother (let's just say she passed the Bar many years ago, divorced from my dad for a couple of decades but kept her claws in him) appeared at my doorstep with a notary in tow to tell me that my dad had passed approximately 8 months ago.

She said needed a statement from me verifying that my paternal Grandparents adopted me as a teenager, apparently so that her son could claim sole beneficiary to whatever on Earth has been happening with my dad's estate. I was in shock, so I wrote out a little note to that effect because they did, although it was more to save my dad child support money (likely pushed by her) and get me on their insurance - I'd been living with them since the age of 5 when I was removed from his care but he was always my dad...that was never a question. He and my mother are still listed as my parents on my birth certificate, by he and his parent's choice.

She basically said if I didn't make the statement, the government would reach back to those 2 or 3 years of my being a "minor adoptee" in the late 90s/early 2000s and charge the Grandparents' estate for the SS benefits they received as a result of the adoption until I turned 18. I was listed as a grandchild on their will back in 2019 because regardless of the legalese, I was still their son's child. Always have been. It seems as though that particular detail is really throwing a wrench in her plans to bypass me and my father's family altogether or she likely never would have said anything at all. I have always been too scared to rock the proverbial dad-boat due to a lifetime of experience with him, but now I guess that's not a factor and I'm mad about the entire way this was handled, to be quite honest. In every sense of the word. He has a FAMILY, regardless of her attempts to erase it over the years.

She came back the following day (again with the notary) and tried to have me sign a couple of documents giving up any claim to his estate in favor of her son. I pumped the brakes immediately - I don't even know what they did with my dad's body, what he died of, absolutely nothing, and I refuse to sign anything until I find out. She caught me off kilter that first day - it won't happen again.

Thoughts?