Chapter 5: The Divorce Package

I had a hard time sleeping through the night. For hours I could not help but wonder who could have sent such a weird yet anonymous text to me.

Keeping malice with people or fighting with them has never been my thing so who could possibly have so much hate towards me at this point of my life?

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my alarm as it went off.

“What? 5 am already? How was I up all through the night?”

I wouldn't deny that I was so scared to close my eyes as long as I could see that it was still dark.

“But I need to get some sleep, at least for an hour,” I said to myself as I tried to shift my thoughts away from the divorce and try to think of something else.

Sleep came through for only an hour and 30 minutes and it felt as though I slept for about 5 hours which made me feel like I had some level of energy for the day.

I sat up in bed as I stared at the divorce papers. Wondering again if I made the right decision. 

At this point, it didn't matter if the decision was right or wrong anymore but I was going to return these papers to my darling ex-husband.

“Good morning my dear” Aunt Claudia greeted me with a soft voice after she gave a gentle knock and walked right in.

“Jeez, she definitely knows nothing about privacy, huh” I muttered quietly to myself with my head bowed low immediately I saw her barge in.

“Good morning Aunty,” I said out loud in a high-pitched voice to show a little bit of excitement and gratitude.

Aunt Claudia sure knows nothing about privacy because, well, this is actually her house and she is letting me stay here so I should be grateful for this.

“I came in pretty late last night and I didn't bother to come check on you but Richard confirmed that you were home. I hope you had a good time yesterday?” She asked as she sat right next to me.

“Yes yes, I did. The breakfast buffet was glorious” 

I kept it short and simple because the huge part of me that overshares was about to open up about the fact that I saw a really attractive man over there.

“The city always has so much going on at every point in time. Something interesting must have happened Emily” 

The way she asked this was almost like she knew everything that already happened.

“Well, I met this mannnn…” I let it out with a squeak. I couldn't help it. 

I thought I had succeeded in holding the news back but my intrusive thoughts won again.

“A man? Emily! You haven't even signed your divorce papers yet and you are already thinking about another man?” 

Aunt Claudia had a slight disgust in her tone. This was definitely not the response I thought I was going to receive. I thought she would be happy for me.

Sadly, I knew this was going to be a mistake and I still went ahead to open my weird mouth instead of keeping it myself. 

“I did sign the divorce papers Aunty,” I said softly with my head slightly tilted down as I stared at my fingers.

“And even if you had signed them, so what? Do you think that you are already free from him?”

“You know nothing about men and you got yourself into such a mess.”

“Despite that, it wasn’t your fault, you should be wise enough to know that you need a break before catching any so-called feelings for anybody.”

“Your heart needs to heal from all of this. Don't you get it Emily?” 

Never in my life have I seen Aunt Claudia exert so much intensity in her anger.

Well, not like I have known her for long but I have only always felt a sort of happy aura around her.

“I'm sorry Aunty, I understand this.”

I was just about to explain myself further but our conversation was interrupted by a similar anonymous text message again and I quietly read it to myself at once.

“No one would truly love you, Emily. You deserve this hurt!”

I took a sharp breath immediately and showed Aunt Claudia the text.

It deviated from our conversation but a part of me was grateful for this distraction.

“Who sent this to you?” she said to me in shock like she had recognised such a pattern before.

“I don't know.” My palms grew sweaty. I started to panic. My lungs felt compressed and I started finding it a bit hard to breathe. 

“I received something similar to this last night and it kept me up all night.” my voice sounded so shaky, you could hear the fear as I spoke.

“This must be Eric.” Aunt Claudia said as she stared dead deep into my soul. Fear was written all over her face. 

“You must get those papers back to him at once.”

“I will call my lawyer to let him know about this divorce process just in case we might need him for anything.'' She adjusted her robe as she walked out to get her phone.

Quickly, I picked up the envelope containing the divorce papers, shoved it into my purse and went straight to prepare to leave.

“I will have Richard take you wherever you need to go. But you need to move now”  Aunt Claudia said in a loud tone from the hallway outside my room.

“Do I need to be scared?” I ran to my door as I spoke so she could see and hear me.

She paused and looked at me in silence nearly for a minute without saying a word. 

“Let’s pray that these weird texts are not from Eric; even if they are from him, let's hope that he is a sane man.”

She walked away to her room after she said that.

I barely understood what she meant. Eric has always been a sane person. 

At least that was what I thought. He seemed good enough to me all the while we were married.

Getting ready for this was the quickest I have ever been ready for anything. 

“Wouldn’t you like to have something to eat first before we leave ma’am?” Richard asked as he saw me walking down to the car.

“No please, let's head out already. I will be going to…”

“Madam Claudia had already given me all the details. We’re good to go.” He interrupted.

“Okay, give me a minute to say bye to her before we leave”

I walked right back to locate her room but she came out just before I got there and handed me a box.

“Here you go. You might not be hungry now but I bet you will be hungry by the time you are 10 minutes into that ride” She let out a gentle laugh.

“Thank you so much Aunty. I will be right back once I get this over with.”

She gave me a warm hug like I was going to fight a world war battle with the possibility of no return.

Richard was ready and so was I. We got into the car and the journey began.

The first few minutes of the ride were filled with deafening silence.

“Could you turn on some music for us please?”

I politely asked and hoped he wasn't one of those who loved a completely silent ride.

He turned on this familiar Lofi playlist as usual. That seems to be the only kind of music he listened to but I couldn't care much at the moment.

I opened up the box Aunt Claudia handed to me. It had almost all the good stuff, croissants, green seedless grades, juice boxes and other pastries.

The journey lasted for a while till we eventually entered the neighbourhood again. 

Eric was always home. He had his own company with people that worked for him which was enough to give him the financial and personal freedom he wanted.

I came out of the car and stood at the front door for a while. My heart, beating faster than an average healthy human. 

For a minute I thought I was going to collapse right there but I had to summon the courage. This is my freedom we are talking about here.

The knock was so faint that one could barely hear it if you paid no attention.

Right before I threw in the second knock, the door opened immediately and there he was, right in front of me again.

At that moment, the memories from the day he threw me out came flashing through my eyes. 

He gave me a slight smirk and I couldn't help but break the awkward silence immediately.

“I came to give you back the…”

“Hi Emilyyy.” he blurted out before I could finish my sentence.

“You could have at least said hi.”

He held my wrist gently and pulled me into the house like I was a long-awaited guest.

My forehead wrinkled a bit and my eyes gave off a slight frown from the awkward tension in the room.

Why was he behaving this way? Like he didn't throw me out of the house with so much hate in his heart a few days ago.

I stood right in the middle of the living room as I soaked in all the harsh memories and that was the moment my tear duct decided to be an active nerve in my body.

Tears accumulated in my eyes but I tried so hard not to show it to him.

“I came to return the papers. I have signed them and I am done.” 

I pushed the words out of my mouth so aggressively as I brought out the envelope from my purse and held it.

He gave off a soft laugh as he poured me a glass of water.

Handing me the glass cup, he said to my face, almost in a whisper;

“You are joking with yourself. Because I will not collect this!”

“What?”

“What do you mean you wouldn’t collect this?”

I stood in front of him. This time, I wasn’t shocked, I wasn’t sad, I was scared. Very scared.

“I am sure you heard me. I said I do not want it, because I don't want the divorce anymore!” 

He was nearly yelling but tried to control himself as he responded.

He dragged the envelope from my hands forcefully, brought out the papers and tore them to pieces right in front of me.

“If you didn’t understand my words, I’m sure you would understand this!” Eric said as he threw all the torn pieces to the ground.

And there I was. Frozen and confused as I watched him walk away from my presence with a weird grin on his face.