“Leo has suffered enough. I didn't want to see him worry about me anymore. I planned to ask you for a divorce after your mother's death anniversary.”
“Since you've found out, I might as well tell you.”
“Let's divorce. You can have whatever you want. I only want Leo.”
Only then did I fully comprehend. How heavy the slap I delivered to my mother when I sided with Kelly.
Before I divorced her, I still made a scene.
I photographed their disheveled forms in bed with my phone, printed countless flyers with captions and distributed them to every employee at her company.
Outside the office building, more and more banners exposing their sordid affair were unfurled.
I went to the school to report Leo for his immoral behavior.
The art academy forum where he studied was flooded with vulgar comments.
At his graduation ceremony, someone hired people to loop videos of our past joyful moments on the big screen.
The memories that I once cherished became the weapons I used to attack them.
And yet … Kelly still protected him. In the end, Leo successfully graduated from the nation's top art academy. He was even about to hold his own exhibition.
To protect him, Kelly was finally willing to look at me with respect.
"Leo's dreams are about to come true. This has nothing to do with our past grievances. Don't mess things up for him."
I was already blinded by rage. "Mess things up! I'm all set. Everyone at the exhibition will be delighted to see those masterpieces.”
Suddenly, a document was slammed onto the table before me.
“If you want to preserve your mother's final resting place in peace, be obedient. Sign this divorce agreement and stay far away from me and Leo.”
When my mother was buried, I was too grief-stricken to handle anything. So, Kelly, as her daughter-in-law, took care of everything, including choosing the burial plot and purchasing the land.
Perhaps due to land scarcity, even plots in the afterlife had become commodities.
As long as she was the one who signed the document, my mother would never rest in peace.
I threw coffee at Kelly's face.
That night, I cried myself to sleep on my mother's gravestone.
Then the next day, I went to the City Hall.
But, things turned out differently than I had imagined—Kelly only allocated me one of her family's old houses.
“You reported the company's tax issues back then. Now most of the funds are frozen in the accounts. This is all I can give you.”