Chapter 5: The accident.

“Ms Kara, we'd like you to follow us to the station now.”

My heart started beating uncontrollably in my chest as I recalled my stepmom telling me to make identical paintings. I didn't think much of it at the time.

I looked at the crowd, everyone's eyes were fixed on me. My eyes swept through the crowd as I searched for my husband.

He'd disappeared from the crowd and so has Serena.

I quickly run upstairs to avoid arrest and saw both of them standing together so I just stayed rooted to the spot where I stood.

“I did my best for this gallery, how could my sister do this?” Serena said amid sobs.

“There must be a misunderstanding somewhere. Kara would never do such a thing.”i heard Aiden softly defending me.

“How well do you really know a person, how can you tell if she did it? There's even proof, what do I do?”

“Okay can you please stop crying first? What can I do to make you stop?”

“Why do you care if I cry or not? What's it to you?” She sobbed even harder.

“I do care, Serena. Whenever I see you cry, I feel like crying too” he gently took her hand in his as his eyes turned serious and tender.

“You once told me ‘if a person likes another, you can tell’, couldn't you tell? Serena I–”

“Stop.” She snatched her hand from his with alarm.

“ I don't know what's going on here but I'd like you to stop.” She turned to walk away.

“I married your sister because I wanted to be close to you. At first, I thought that'd be enough for me but when I saw you with another guy, I knew it then.

It's not enough, I can't bear to see you in another's arms, I can't live without you Serena”

The sound of my own heart shattering in my chest drowned out the noise from the commotion going on downstairs because of the heartfelt confession I just heard my husband giving my step sister but I guess it wasn't loud enough for them to notice my presence.

“Stop Aiden. So what? What do you want me to do now? You're already married to my sister for f**k’s sake!”

“I'll leave Kara,hm? I want to be with you. I know it'll be hard for your parents to accept but I promise I'll try my best and if I try harder–”

“I see you're completely out of your mind now huh? Serena cut him off with venomous disdain on her face.

She continued.

“That's right, I've always known you've liked me for a long time now. I'm not as blind as my sister, Kara is the only one too clueless and blind to see it.

I thought you might eventually stop eventually and was going to ignore it and let it slide as long as you didn't make a move but how dare you?”

She took a step closer to him.

“You and my sister are exactly the same. How could you not know your place and get greedy for something you can't have and mess things up?”

She agitatedly shook her head and stopped as she noticed me standing there.

Aiden turned too, both too stunned to say more.

“Kara.” He guiltily called out to me. Serena walked past me in anger and Aiden was just about to follow her before I spoke up.

“You were lying right? Aiden, you wouldn't do that to me. Right?

He let out a heavy sigh as he briefly looked at his shoes.

“I was going to tell you today.”

“No. You were talking about your job resignation. I know you were going to tell me you resigned.”

I hastily dipped my hand into my pocket to bring out the envelope, refusing to believe him.

“See? I'm right.”

He collected the papers from me and flipped to the next page before handing it back. The words were written in bold.

CONSENSUAL DIVORCE.

My eyes widen as I feel the air leaving my lungs. I didn't flip to the next page because I was running late so I had no idea.

“I'm sorry Kara.”

“Wait, if you were going to do this then why did you marry me? To be close to Serena? Really? That's it?”

I was still in disbelief and just when I thought it couldn't get worse he cut off my train of thoughts.

“I felt sorry for you.”

“What. ” I whispered to the wind.

“You were always trying so hard to impress your own parents and somehow, you were smiling through it.

It reminded me of myself so I felt sorry for you like I felt for myself. It was pitiful.”

A sigh escaped my lips as I asked him incredulously.

“ Who are you to pity me? I've only ever tried my best in life so who are you to pity me?”

The tears I tried so hard to hold started falling uncontrollably like a dam had been let loose as I weakly hit him.

“You're right Kara, I'm wrong and I'm sorry.”

He rushed the words out like hot coal.

“You're sorry?? You said you wouldn't say those words again.”

“Kara–”

“Stop.” I heard footsteps so I looked over his shoulder with laboured breaths.

Right.

The police were still looking for me.

“Damn it.”

I hurriedly used the back door to get to my car and sped off.

With tears blurring my vision and catarrh running down my nose, I tried to keep my eyes peeled and focused on the road.

My phone. It started ringing.

I looked at the caller ID. It was mom.

Even with my life and emotions being a mess, I still couldn't ignore the call so I picked.

“Kara, where are you?” She carefully asked on the other end.

“Mother, why are you doing this to me?” I asked bitterly.

“What did I ever do to you?”

“Stop being emotional. If this spreads, who knows what'll happen?” She tried to convince me before her tone became exasperated.

“Is this really how you pay us back? We adopted you when you had no one and then we took care of you and raised you!”

She stopped abruptly while I was struggling to breathe.

“I'm sorry, I misspoke. Who else could I ask, hm? You're all I have, Kara.”

She finally got to me.

I bit my lower lip and hit my head on the headrest.

“The lawyer would handle everything.” She continued.

“If you return the money and say you're sorry, you won't get probation. I'll be the one to pay the fine of course.”

I sobbed even louder on the other end.

“Kara, please. We're family.

I finally made up my mind to take the fall.

There's a U-turn about a minute from where I was so I stepped on the gas to get there faster.

I swerved to my left immediately I got there and didn't see the black vehicle coming. Our cars collided, a man crawled out of the black vehicle but I couldn't see his face clearly as I was losing consciousness. A few minutes later, a truck hit both vehicles before everything finally went dark.