My mother-in-law showed up with a forged deed two weeks after my mother died, claiming she owns our house

I’m still raw from losing my mom two weeks ago. Like, crying-in-the-grocery-store raw. I’ve been living in Tom and my house - our house, that my mom helped us buy - trying to just breathe through the grief. Brenda, my MIL, has never liked me. She thinks I’m not “good enough” for her son, and she’s been circling ever since Mom got sick.

Yesterday, she showed up unannounced while Tom was at work. I was in the kitchen, staring at a cup of cold coffee, when I heard her car door slam. She marched up the driveway with a manila envelope, and before I could even say hello, she pulled out a typed document and announced she now owned the house. She said she had a signed, notarized deed from my mother, transferring full ownership to her, effective immediately. She gave me 30 days to vacate.

I couldn’t even speak. I just stood there, shaking, while she laid it all out. Then Jenna, Tom’s sister who lives a few blocks away, pulled up. She must have been called. Jenna stood beside Brenda and said she’d seen my mom sign something similar “weeks ago,” like she was backing up the story. My head was spinning.

But here’s the thing: I pulled out my phone and showed them a text my mom sent me on the exact date the deed was supposedly signed. She was in the hospital that day, on a morphine drip for pain, and the message was barely coherent. It said something like, “Carla baby, don’t let them take my jewelry.” She couldn’t have signed a legal document. She couldn’t even hold a pen.

Brenda just sneered. She said I was lying, that I was “desperate” and “unstable from grief.” Then she pulled out a second piece of paper - a typed “witness statement” from a neighbor named Mrs. Gunderson, claiming she saw my mom sign the deed at home that same day. Brenda said she was taking this to court and that she’d have me arrested for trespassing if I didn’t leave.

That’s when Tom got home. He walked up, saw the scene, and I’ve never seen him that angry. He stepped between me and Brenda, and he told her flat out that he was calling a lawyer, that the documents would be verified, and that no one was moving until then. He put his arm around me and walked me inside, leaving Brenda and Jenna standing in the driveway.

I don’t know if she forged it herself or if she pressured someone at the church to help her. She’s always been big on “godly submission” and has tried to get me to join her congregation since the wedding. Now she’s using my mom’s death as a weapon. I’m exhausted, and I’m terrified. What do I do? Can a forged deed hold up if the notary is fake? Should I call the police or wait for the lawyer?