Chapter 3: Secret at the Cemetery

About five minutes later, Mr Clark, Ethan’s lawyer came with the divorce papers as agreed up earlier.

“Here, Ms Ferguson, sign here,” Mr Clark handed her a pen to sign the divorce papers.

With shaky hands but a mind made up, Khloe signed the papers, breaking the bond that kept herself and Ethan Foster glued onto each other.

“Here,” Khloe said, handing Mr. Clark the divorce papers back.

Khole was shocked at something.

She had not received her stakes from Mr. Clariton, the Senior account manager of the FOSTER Co-operation.

Two months ago when her Father-in-law passed away, he stopped sending her stakes to her.

“Mr. Clark, please wait,” she called out.

“What happened to my stakes, I have not received them for two months now?” her face tinted pale.

The lawyer pinched his hawkish nose slightly before saying, “I'm afraid Ms Ferguson but Mr. Clariton is acting based on the instructions from Mrs Foster,” he narrowed his gaze away from Khloe. It was clear that he was acting under Mrs Foster's will too.

“I am hearing this for the first time. I’ll just call Ethan and confirm this information,” Khloe took her phone to dial Ethan's contact but she got interrupted by Mr. Clark.

“No need Ms Ferguson. Mr. Ethan is right at the altar getting married to Miss Katrina,” he blows Khloe’s heart with the alarming news and like rainfall, tears immediately begin to tickle her face down.

“Are you okay, Ms Ferguson?” He asked her but she momentarily stood up and stomped back to her room to grab her bags and leave for somewhere unplanned.

Immediately a cab stopped by her, she put her luggage in the booth.

“Take me to Mount Calvary Cemetery," her voice shivered.

“$200,” the cab driver replied in a husky slipping the money into his hands.

Mount Calvary Cemetery was all serene when the cab halted but momentarily Khloe came out of the cab. A furious gale unleashed its fury, trying forcefully to pull her off her feet but was resilient like a warrior, walking purposefully with a mind made up to her father-in-law’s grave.

That day, it almost felt like Khloe’s father-in-law was present in spirit with a bated breath awaiting her arrival.

Today, she made a decision. Yes, a decision that has kept her guilty all this while but today she’s going to be free.

It was a secret no one knew about and for these four years, Khloe had kept the enigma between herself and her father-in-law before he passed away some months ago.

Four years ago, something transpired between Khloe and her father-in-law. It was something she couldn't spew out.

Never!

But, today, she craved something, something she had long wished for. Something that would guarantee her fate after now.

That was freedom.

Standing before the grave, Khloe abruptly fell onto her knees.

A little dirt lingered on the shiny marble of the grave and Khloe wiped it off before glancing at the headstone, with a gleaming monument bearing the name of the one who just passed on and the ones left to mourn him.

Tears trickled down Khloe’s face.

There were just three lives left to mourn Williams Fosters' absence; herself, Ethan, and Mrs. Foster.

“Father, ” she called out, shutting her eyes in a pool of tears to bring her jeremiad.

“I know you love me and I love you too. Yes, we loved each other and were the very best of friends while you lived. I'm sorry I had never visited since you passed on two months ago. I could not just accept you were gone after fighting to survive on the sick bed.

However, I have come here for something. Something we both shared before you left me to be with your creator.

The Key to your secret safe that no one knows about is still secured with me.

You asked me to keep it saved for your grandchildren because it contained all your time-saving. And up till now, Dad, I have never mentioned to Ethan that Mrs. Hannah is not his real mother and that Mr. Clark is not his family lawyer but rather his stepbrother, Mrs. Hannah Fosters' first son.

And this is why you handed the key to your entire savings to me. The key that would secure Ethan and his children a better future when tomorrow’s tempest surfaces to me.

"But Dad, I lied to you all along,“ Khloe sobbed, burying her head in the sparkled marble of the grave.

“Yes, I lied to you when you asked me how your son was treating me and why I was not getting pregnant,” she bellowed, waking all the sleeping spirits from their sweet rest to come listen to her sad story.

“Dad, Ethan was cheating on me with the daughter of Mr Eliot, your friend, the one you warned him about.

He…he refused to make me pregnant because he doesn't want a poor woman to bear his unborn children and just as we speak now, he is right before the altar getting married to her,“ Khloe wailed again, pouring out all her pains of four years on the grave of her father-in-law.

But this time around, the earth darkens with thick-dark clouds hanging from the firmament down the horizon.

It almost felt like all the spirits became angry at once, fighting for justice for the innocent woman who had been battered with hate, injustice, and anguish.

“I tried, I tried to be a good wife to Ethan like you asked me to. I tried to love him like you loved him but all my efforts proved nothingness. “But today,” she stood up to her feet and wiped away her tears before dipping her hands in the purse to bring out the key to the lifetime safe.

“Today I have not just come for freedom but for vendetta. I am so sorry for betraying you, Dad."

From today I break every covenant I have with you whether it be to love and protect your son. Like he ripped me of my joy, so will I make him drink his tears.

This key belongs to me now as I cease being your daughter-in-law too but will visit you back in two years,” Khloe uttered painfully.

With this, Khloe kissed the headstone and immediately, it began to pour heavily from the sky.

Khloe could feel the strong presence of an immortal standing in front of her like he was bleeding with tears of betrayal.

“I'm sorry Dad but I have to do this,” Khloe screamed as a fierce blast of wind encircled her, unleashing its fury on her until she was completely soaked in the rain.

Now, Khloe has all that the Fosters do not know about. The Key.

Khloe tucked it back into her purse and walked out of the Cemetery to begin her new journey.