KATHLEEN'S POV
The next morning when I heard the gate lock squeak, my body snapped to attention. I had stayed outside the mansion gate while it was raining and slept off in the cold by the gate's corner.
The heavy metal gate swung open, and my mother-in-law's car began to roll out.
This was it. My last chance. If she left, there would be no one else to hear me.
I ran in front of the car, planting myself in its path and forcing the car to a stop. I could see the irritation flash across my mother-in-law's face through the windshield. But I didn't care. I couldn't afford to.
I hurried to the side of her door and dropped to my knees. The ground was wet and muddy beneath me, but I hardly felt it. She rolled the window down slowly, her eyes filled with disgust as she looked at me kneeling, drenched, barefoot, and begging.
"Please forgive me, Mother," I pleaded, my voice breaking. "I know I lied about visiting my parents, but I am innocent of these accusations."
The way she stared at me made me feel small, like I was an inconvenience she needed to swipe away.
"Even if I forgive you," she said, "remember it was Jeremy that threw you out of the house. There's nothing I can do."
She motioned for the driver to continue moving, and panic surged through me.
No. Not like this.
Before the car could move, I jumped up and shouted, louder than I thought my exhausted body could manage, "I'm pregnant!!!"
The car stopped again—this time sharply, the engine humming in the sudden stillness.
My last card. My last hope. Begging had failed. The explanation had failed. Telling the truth had failed. Maybe this—maybe this would make someone listen to me.
Mildred stepped out of the car, her eyes narrowing.
"What did you say?"
"I'm pregnant," I repeated, breathless. "Jeremy is aware. If you don't believe me, ask him."
She let out a long, incredulous sigh. "You have to be joking about this."
But I wasn't. And I stared at her with everything left in me—fear, determination, the silent desperation of a woman with nowhere else to go.
Her gaze dropped to my bare feet—red, muddy, trembling. "Get her some shoes," she ordered, throwing a sharp look at Ms. Bang.
Ms. Bang had been standing at the side, stiff and silent, probably praying for the ground to swallow her. She couldn't go inside until my mother-in-law left, but I had blocked that.
A few minutes later, a maid rushed back with one of my pairs. She placed them gently by my feet.
"Get into the car."
****
My mother-in-law scoffed as she stared at me, her lips curling in disbelief.
"Pregnant, my foot."
The words stung more than the cold rain that had soaked me hours ago. I sat still, hands folded tightly in my lap, waiting and hoping that Jeremy would come in and simply tell the truth. That he would stand beside me, even for a moment. That he would, at the very least, acknowledge that the child inside me existed.
My mother-in-law probed further.
"Did you take your monthly routine drugs as everyone did?" Her voice was smooth, taunting, and her eyes flicked toward me with calculated patience. Before I could find my voice, she continued, "Do you know what pills I instructed the doctor to give you in the name of multivitamins? You simply can't be pregnant."
A quiet shiver went through me.
"Why is that?" I asked, my voice barely steady. A small flame of courage lit somewhere inside me, thin but real.
Her response came like a knife.
"Those pills were supposed to make you infertile."
I went completely still. I stared at her, wondering how a human being could admit something so cruel so casually, like she was discussing a business strategy and not my life.
I never took those pills.
The family doctor had insisted they were for "good health" and "fertility maintenance." But something about it never felt right. Now hearing my mother-in-law's confession, I felt cold inside but also strangely validated. I had been right to protect myself. Still, the betrayal was staggering.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the door clicked open.
Jeremy came in.
"You called for me, Mother." He took a seat beside me on the sofa, very close, but emotionally distant. He didn't even spare me a glance.
"She claims to be pregnant. Is this true?" My mother-in-law asked impatiently, hoping for a negative answer.
"Yes. It is true," Jeremy responded.
Relief swept through me so suddenly I had to inhale deeply just to steady myself. For a moment, I believed things could be fixed. That maybe this child was the bridge left between us.
I was wrong.
"Is it even his baby? You're a whore." My mother-in-law spat the words with venom, like she had been waiting for the chance to release them.
I felt everything inside me freeze.
A whore?
She said it with certainty, with confidence. What was she trying to achieve? How far was she willing to go just to destroy me?
I turned to Jeremy, hoping and praying that he would defend me. But instead, he looked at me for the first time and I clearly saw the doubts in his eyes.
"Is the baby even mine?" he asked.
I felt my heart drop, heavy and painful. In all our time together, Jeremy had never once questioned my loyalty. But now, in the moment I needed him the most, he let his mother's poison infect his thoughts.
I scoffed softly, not out of disrespect, but out of disbelief.
How quickly he assumed the worst of me.
Without hesitation and shame, my mother-in-law flung a stack of papers onto the table.
Divorce papers.
My breath caught. How long had she been waiting for this moment?
She had prepared these in advance. She wanted me out before I even had a chance to prove my innocence.
I reached for the papers slowly. My fingers trembled, but my resolve did not. I stared at the words, the signatures, the cold finality of it. Then, without hesitation, I tore them, piece after piece falling to the floor like snow.
"I will not divorce my husband," I said, my voice steady and fierce. "I am innocent, and I will prove it."
I rose to my feet without another word and walked out of her office.