"Ex-husband!" I stated in a loud voice again.
"What?"
She was testing my nerves, and instead of asking her again, I got up and threw the file on her face. She flinched, shutting her eyes in fear as the file slapped her face hard, before falling on the ground.
She was dumbfounded for a minute, but she picked it up with her trembling hands and opened it.
"Where... Where did you find this? We signed these divorce papers, but Jason never filed them in the court." She murmured in slow whispers, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"How could he file? You didn't let him. You killed him before he could"
"Stop it, Jacob. A half-truth is more dangerous than a complete lie. I did not kill Jason."
"Enough of your deceit. Don't you get tired of hiding? Of keeping shameless secrets? Of scheming, planning and plotting? What do you have to say about this?"
I slammed another set of papers in her hand.
She looked at the contents and then at me, shock drawing up her face.
"Yes. That is dad's will I am sure you knew about this too. Let me read out his letter of wishes to you, or have you read it already?
I could hear her feeble sobs as she sat their silently.
"I know you have read his will, and you hid it from me. I know it because his funeral was in the exact same manner as he has specifically described in his letter."
She still stood there appalled as if every accusation was strangling her, and not a single word could come out of her mouth.
Suddenly, I felt amused. I couldn't believe my mother could be a money-hungry witch—a greedy and desperate wife who could go to any extent to achieve material gain.
"He wasn't going to give you a penny, and you knew it. If the divorce got through, you would have had zero claim on his wealth, that's what he wrote in his will and explicitly explained in his letter of wishes too."
I read it out for her. Loud and clear.
****
"Once the divorce is finalized, all the assets in my name including my residences, offices, estates, trusts and sole ownership of Richmond Corporation should be transferred to the name of my designated trustee and rightful owner, my son Jacob Richmond. My ex-wife will have no legal claim on any asset under any circumstances whatsoever."
****
"You killed him for money, didn't you? You could have left him alone and gone with that boyfriend of yours. You could have just ended the marriage and set him free, but greed got the better of you, and you decided otherwise, he didn't deserve to die. He didn't."
I was crying like a baby now. My heart couldn't hold the pain any longer. My dad was already gone, and soon my mother would be out of my life too, nothing could take us back to being mother and son again.
"For the last time, Jake, I did not kill him. Please believe me."
"Believe you? After all you did? You cheated on my father and doomed his life to death; you want me to believe you?"
"Yes, believe me, I didn't do any such thing."
"Really? Then who did? Who killed him?"
"Ben did." She screamed and started crying hysterically.
She sobbed, yelped and winced in pain, as she continued to speak," Ben killed him. I didn't know until he told me days after your father's death. He had been blackmailing me ever since. He said he would expose our relationship to the world, and if I say anything to anyone, he will kill you too."
I was speechless; for a second, I could not think straight. She was right about the blackmail, as I heard some audio recordings of her and Ben on the phone. He was coaxing her to marry him.
"I was ready to divorce Jason and accept any punishment he deemed fit for me. I never cared about money or status. I have seen a lot of that in my life."
She approached me with eyes full of tears, begging me to hear her completely.
"Jason found out about my affair only a few months before his tragic death. I did not intend to cheat on him and ruin our marriage, our family. It just happened. I feel guilty about it every single day of my life. I cared for him enough to never cause him any harm. He was the father of my son. I could never kill him.
Jason was always busy and travelling. We became distant. It turned into a loveless marriage; there use to be times when we went days without talking to each other, didn't even know about each other's whereabouts.
I felt incredibly lonely and slipped into depression. I had suicidal thoughts and was in grave need of help.
So, Macy insisted, and I started seeing a therapist, that's where I met Ben again. He used to get his daughter there for treatment. That's how I got to know about Erica's troubled childhood. I warned you about her because I knew she was not in her right state of mind. One thing led to the other, and Ben and I became close."
She took a step closer. She looked devastated. She was inconsolable.
"Bullshit. This is untrue. How come I never got to know about all this? Your marriage issues? Your depression?" I countered unbelievably.
"Because as parents, we tried to protect you and keep you away from our mess. You had just gotten out of college and had started on a beautiful journey of exploring and finding your passion. We didn't want to bring you down with us."
"I heard your audio recordings; Ben was insisting on getting married. Don't try to fool me."
"Yes, since the divorce never got filed and I still own half of Jason's empire, he is blackmailing me for marriage so
