KATHLEEN'S POV
"I thought you said you were never going to divorce me?"
Jeremy's voice thundered across the small private restaurant. His anger echoed against the walls, loud and unforgiving. I sat opposite him, but it felt as though a thousand miles stretched between us.
He slammed the divorce papers onto the table so hard that the plates rattled. The sound made my entire body flinch. I kept my eyes fixed on the tablecloth, unable to lift my gaze to meet the fury in his eyes.
"What changed, huh?" he snapped. "What changed!"
I swallowed painfully. My throat felt tight, as if fear itself was strangling me.
"Weren't you begging to prove your innocence?" He leaned forward, his voice rising. "Answer me, Kathleen!"
The desperation in his tone cut deeper than the anger. He wanted to believe me. Some part of him was waiting and hoping for me to fight for us.
But I couldn't. My hands had been tied.
"There is no innocence to prove, Jeremy," I whispered, forcing the lie out even as my heart broke open inside my chest. My fingers trembled beneath the table. "I… I had an affair with Sean."
The words scraped painfully out of my throat. My eyes stung but I held back the tears
"It's time I stop deceiving you," I added softly. "Everything Sean said… it's true."
The moment the lie left my mouth, his entire body stiffened. The anger in his eyes ignited into something frightening. The fury rolling off him was so intense I could feel it like heat against my skin.
For a split second, I thought he would strike me again. Instead, he grabbed the pen and signed the divorce papers with quick, furious strokes, not even pausing to breathe. It was like he wanted to carve his pain into the page.
When he was done, he shoved the papers back toward me and said the words that shattered what was left of me.
"From today henceforth, you cease to be Eden's mother."
He threw the pen onto the table and stood, refusing to look at me again. Then he walked out, leaving me there with the sound of my racing heart.
The tears I had been fighting spilled over instantly. They rolled down my cheeks uncontrollably, hot and helpless. I covered my mouth to muffle the sobs, but nothing could contain the pain surging through my chest. It felt like something inside me had cracked open so wide it would never close again.
A soft click came from my phone. It had been on the table this whole time, connected to my mother-in-law.
My mother-in-law's voice came through, smooth and poisonous.
"That went well," she said calmly. "As promised, I will have your mother's surgery scheduled right away."
Her tone carried no sympathy. No remorse.
I didn't respond. I couldn't. The tears kept falling, blurring everything around me.
She continued, her voice cutting deeper with each word.
"As you heard Jeremy, you have no rights to Eden. You will stay away from her. Send over the divorce papers to me."
She ended the call without waiting for an answer, leaving me alone with the silence and the ruins of my life.
I stared at the divorce papers through my tears.
I had no option left. I forfeited my marriage to save my mother's life. I let myself be branded a cheater. I allowed Jeremy to walk away believing the worst of me.
I was helpless and powerless. Cornered by a woman who held my mother's life in her hands.
****
My mother's surgery was successful. Those words alone should have felt like sunlight breaking through a storm. And yet, as I sat beside her hospital bed watching her chest rise and fall in steady rhythms, all I could feel was the weight of the sacrifice I had made.
My mother would have chosen death over watching me dismantle my marriage with my own hands. And my father, gentle and tired from life's burdens, would have blamed himself for not working harder to protect me.
But I couldn't afford to lose her. Not the one person who had always believed in me.
If only that same belief had existed in my marriage. Jeremy didn't defend me, didn't stand up for me, didn't even question the ugliness being thrown at me. I was never welcomed by the family in the first place; I was merely tolerated, a careful guest living in a house where every wall whispered that I did not belong.
Meanwhile, our small family home, the house where I grew up, the house that held memories and laughter and warmth was seconds away from being snatched away by the bank. And my mother-in-law was waiting for this moment like a wolf watching for the last flicker of a candle. She wanted my family broken, reduced to nothing, crawling at her feet.
But good deeds do not go unpaid.
My father-in-law, who had quietly watched everything unfold from a distance, stepped forward when I least expected it. My mother-in-law mistook his silence for weakness, but beneath it lived a firmness that reminded me why he was the true owner of the Shaw empire.
"Kathleen, are you certain about going through with the divorce?" His voice was frail but it held concern for me.
"Yes, father. It is the only way." I said softly, trying not to give my emotions away while hurting deep inside.
He nodded calmly looking at me. His eyes held no judgement or disdain. I felt like he could see through me but he did not probe further.
"Well," he cleared his throat, "I took care of your family debts with the bank. I know it's a trying time for you."
I looked down at my fingers slightly embarrassed, "you didn't have to take trouble…"
"Consider it a good pay for all your care towards me over the years, Kathleen."