Chapter 122 Shut the Hell Up!
The lawyer respectfully handed the paperwork to Morgan before Morgan looked through them. When he was satisfied with them, he passed the documents to Erin and said, “Sign these.”
“N-No… I won’t divorce. I won’t!” Erin shook her head and stared at the divorce paperwork in front of her like they weren’t paper, but a viper with words printed on it.
Morgan eyed her and said icily, “If you sign these today, I’m willing to give you an apartment and a commercial building as part of the settlement. If you don’t sign these, I’ll have my lawyer proceed with the lawsuit. Do you still remember the agreement you entered into with my dad all those years ago? If I take this divorce to court, this marriage will be dissolved and leave you with nothing. There will be no settlement.”
“No… No…” Erin let out a shriek and quickly lunged toward Morgan before she fell to her knees in front of him. She clutched at his clothes and looked up at him tearfully while crying, “Morgan, I know I was wrong to have done all that. I’m really sorry, and I promise it won’t happen again. Give me one more chance; please don’t go through with the divorce. Think about Jack and Nicholas. Forgive me this once and I promise I won’t do something like this ever again… We’re not young anymore, Morgan, and if we divorce now, how would others think of us?”
She had not expected her schemes, born out of her petty jealousy, would end up being her downfall. Had she known, she would have stayed quiet and washed her hands off the situation just like Benjamin and Diana had done all this while.
It was now that she understood what it meant to have her plans backfiring on her. She thought she was being clever when she hid her wickedness from the outside world, but in reality, it was only a matter of time before her true nature revealed itself.
Her family did not suspect her because they trusted her implicitly, but when someone finally tore through the veil that obscured her deepest, darkest, and most vicious thoughts, all her wickedness came tumbling out into broad daylight.
Everyone knew what she had been planning to do.
It was as if she had been stripped bare in front of everyone, who sharpened their pitchforks without so much as batting an eye.
Bitterness and regret flooded through her like they never had before.
The main family could prosper or suffer, and none of it would make a difference to her. Even if Crystal died, Erin would not stand to inherit any part of her fortune in the main family; she would have nothing to gain from sabotaging and aggravating others, so there was virtually no reason for her to try and get on Crystal’s nerves.
Now, the life Erin had come to know was in tatters. Her plot against Crystal was a bust, and she was left bearing the brunt of her own actions. She single-handedly ruined Nicholas’ engagement and turned the love of his life against him; her husband was throwing her out of the family home and making her sign divorce papers; and her own family had long since fallen from grace, and they had hoped that having the Wendels as their in-laws would help them from falling further.
If truly she and Morgan went through with the divorce, the Peters would lose their only lifeline. They would have no one else to depend on in times of need.
Granted, Erin had two sons, but her eldest had insisted on becoming a lawyer despite her avid protests. She didn’t think he could amount to much as a lawyer.
As for Nicholas, he had only just graduated from university not too long ago and was still jobless at the moment. He could barely fend for himself, let alone provide for her and the rest of the Peters.
If she and Morgan divorced, her fall from the pedestal would be spectacular, and she would never be able to spend her days as a lady of leisure ever again. As such, she refused to divorce, and she wouldn’t ever sign those papers even if she was being threatened with death.
She clung onto Morgan, sobbing and begging as tears flowed relentlessly down her face.
Jack’s heart twisted at the sight of this. He walked up to his father and pleaded quietly, “Dad, she knows she’s wrong. Can’t you brush this off as a one-time thing and let her off on a warning?”
Morgan gave him a pointed look. “Jack, if you had married someone like your mother, would you put up with her and never contemplate divorce?”
Jack parted his lips to say something, but he made no reply in the end. He questioned himself then, and he knew the answer. If he had married someone like Erin, he would most certainly divorce her.
He could tolerate plenty of things. His wife could be plain-looking, rough around the edges, humorless, or a slacker. She could even be unreasonable and without intellect. However, there was no way he could put up with a woman who was unkind and actively plotted against his brother.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Morgan said as he gazed at his son steadily. “Jack, if you can’t even put up with someone like that, why should I have to? I have been tolerating her antics for over a decade, and I stayed with her because of you and Nicholas. Now that the both of you have grown up, the idea of a perfect family does not bear the same weight anymore. Are you boys truly expecting me to go through life with someone like her just so I can take care of sentiments that you should have long outgrown?” He let out a slow sigh and added bitterly, “If this goes on, I will only be living in vain…”
Jack was rendered speechless. Even the law allowed for a divorce in the event of an irretrievable breakdown of marriage, so long as it wasn’t premised on betrayal, an affair, or abandonment in times of need, there was no one standing on a moral high ground who could deem divorce as unjust.
He had been staying with his parents for his whole life; they were the ones who raised him, so he knew his father was telling the truth.
Ever since Erin’s side of the family had gone bankrupt, she had turned into a petty, unforgiving, headstrong, and unbalanced woman. As it turned out, time could really change a person.
He remembered there was a time when his mother had been kind and gracious too, but life sanded away that shiny surface and ate away at her personality like rust. She slowly became selfish and vicious, and she wanted nothing more than to see those around her suffer.
It started with her enjoying others’ sufferings and humiliation, but now, she had resorted to scheming against her husband’s family.
Indeed, to expect Morgan to stick by her for the rest of his life was cruel and unreasonable.
After all, Morgan had not yet reached his fifties, and taking into consideration the average human lifespan, he had a good twenty more years to go. Jack couldn’t bear to have him put up with his mother’s antics for that long, not while it was the last few decades of his life.
He clenched his fists and lowered his head, and he did not try to speak up for Erin anymore.
“Jack? Why aren’t you speaking? Jack?” Erin stared at her son expectantly and cried belligerently, “Jack, talk to your father for me. You and Nicholas have grown up, and you could settle down to start your own family anytime soon! I can’t go through with this divorce—if I do, you and Nicholas will bear the brunt of it! Jack, talk to your father. You have to do it. Please, I’m begging you!”
Jack sighed and crouched down to help his mother to her feet. With a hand wrapped around her arm, he cajoled, “Mom, let’s just get up and talk about this…”
“No, I will not get up!” She let out a pained sob. “Jack, I can’t go through with this divorce. This family is all I have, and I can’t lose all of you!”
“Mom, a divorce isn’t the end of the world,” he said patiently. “Even if you and Dad divorce, Nicholas and I will still be your sons, and we’ll still take care of you.”
“That’s different!” she screamed. “Your father and I are supposed to be a unit! If you and Nicholas ever get married and start families of your own, where would that leave me? I love your father, and I refuse to back out of this marriage even if it kills me!”
Nicholas, who had been quiet all this while, suddenly piped up, “Mom, the divorce wouldn’t have happened had you not tried to hurt Aunt Crystal in the first place! If you ever for a second saw Dad as your husband, then you wouldn’t have plotted against Aunt Crystal. You—”
“Shut up! Shut the hell up!” Erin flew into a rage as she scrambled off the floor and rushed up to Nicholas before slapping him hard in the face. “I have never tried to hurt your Aunt Crystal, so don’t make up nonsense against me! That no-good tramp Alina made up lies, and you fell for it! Why would you listen to her crap when you’re my son? How could you do this to me?”
