The ruling came on a Thursday, three days after the hearing. Vanessa called me at work, and I stepped outside into the parking lot to take the call.
"We won," she said. "Judge Vasquez vacated the judgment. You don't owe the collections agency anything. The debt is void."
I sat down on the curb. The sun was hot on my face, and I could hear someone testing a fire alarm in the building behind me.
"Just like that?"
"Just like that. She found that the bank obtained the judgment through fraud, and she vacated it. The ruling says the bank had a duty to verify the signatures and failed to do so. And she ordered the collections agency to pay your legal fees."
I did not know what to say. I had spent so many nights planning for the worst that I had not prepared for the best. I had not prepared f
