Frances froze with surprise for a second when she spotted Katherine, and then proceeded to scowl.
Even at a disgraced stage of her life, she decided to still regard Katherine as inferior.
Katherine, on the other hand, was all smiles. “Was it Mr. Grant I spotted talking with you a minute
earlier? Why did he leave so early? Did you two have a fight?”
Frances, not wanting to engage, was about to walk away when Katherine giggled. “Why are you still
riding in the Grant family car when you’re no longer a part of the family? What, they gave you custody
of the car when you divided common property or something?”
Frances stopped in her tracks. Opening her eyes wide, she demanded, “What are you babbling on
about?”
Katherine looked practically joyful as she ignored Frances’ question to say, “A certain someone here
used to mock me all the time for not deserving the title of Marshall’s wife. Well, look how that someone
ended up herself. Banished from the family, in addition to being old and frail – how terribly sad indeed.
I’m young and childless, so I probably still have a shot at this marriage thing, but how is someone much
older – in fact, someone who is already half buried in her grave – supposed to get herself a husband, I
wonder?”
Frances looked icy cold. “Don’t sass me, young lady. And stop with the lies you tell.”
“Lies?” laughed Katherine, “do you honestly think you can keep it a secret?”
Katherine turned around to check out Frances’ car before leaning casually on it. “That’s rather
unoriginal of you, isn’t it, trying to keep your separation from Mr. Grant a secret, just like what Marshall
and I did? Didn’t your ladyship herself reveal my divorce from Marshall? I never want to owe anything
to anyone, and more importantly, I don’t want to be owed. We’ll get even if I reveal your divorce from
your husband, don’t you think?”
Frances looked thunderous. “Don’t you dare.”
“But of course I do dare,” said Katherine with a loud chuckle, “my dear lady, of course I dare, especially
for you!”
Pursing her lips, Frances remained silent, not knowing what to say in this situation. There was, indeed,
nothing that Katherine dared not do, not with her not-a-care-in-the-world personality.
Watching Frances closely, Katherine felt bored. Frances had lost all her fight so it was not fun picking
on her at all now.
Consequently, Katherine said, “Clara misses you a lot and has said that she’ll visit you at the Grant
residence one of these days. So watch out for that.”
“Clara wants to visit me?” said Frances, surprised.
“Yup. She misses you dearly,” answered Katherine with a mock smile as she stood upright, “and she’s
completely unaware of your divorce with Mr. Grant. I wonder how she’ll react when she finds out. I’m
almost looking forward to it, to be honest with you.”
Frances frowned and didn’t bother to respond.
Katherine took another good look of her ex mother-in-law sneeringly before she turned around and left.
Frances remained where she was for a good while before she finally got into the car, but she didn’t
drive away immediately. Instead, she fished out her phone to call Clara.
Clara was in her office when she received the unexpected call, and she picked up quickly. “Hey auntie.”
“Hi Clara,” replied Frances with a smile, “are you busy at the moment?”
Clara said no, she wasn’t, before asking Frances how she had been and telling the older lady she
missed her.
Frances was somehow comforted by the sound of Clara, whose tone was gentle as usual. With nothing
better to do, Frances asked, “I’m out shopping today. Do you think you can meet me here, Clara
honey?”
“Yes, sure!” answered Clara with no hesitation. “I’m heading out right now, since I’m free at the
moment.”
Thus Frances gave her an address that was not far from the Hendersons’ office building, adding that
Frances herself would be right over.
When she hung up, Frances let out a huge sigh of relief. Ever since the divorce was finalized, the
Henderson folks had not treated her with anything resembling kindness, and Mr. Grant didn’t seem like
he was going to rethink the decision anytime soon. Even Katherine, the peasant girl she’d always
looked down upon, had the audacity to laugh at her. Only the lovely Clara remained as respectful to her
as ever.
Frances drove in the direction of the Hendersons’ office, but Clara arrived at the café earlier than her.
Clara caught sight of Frances the minute the latter woman walked in. “Hi auntie!” Clara greeted, waving
a hand.
Frances marched over to her. “Wow, look at you in your fancy pantsuit! I’ve never seen you like this
before. You give off strong ‘business elite’ vibes.”
Clara combed her fingers through her hair. “You flatter me, auntie. I only look like a business elite, but
there are in fact a lot I don’t understand about business. I may need to ask Marshall for help from time
to time.”
Frances nodded in agreement. “If there’s ever anything you need his help with, feel free to call him and
ask for it. Feelings will only develop when you get to be around each other longer.”
Clara bit her lips. “I actually wanted to visit you at the Grant residence the other day. Marshall’s pretty
busy these days, I think, since he never seems to return my texts. So I wanted to call on you all.”
“Well,” replied Frances, “Marshall was indeed busy for the past couple of weeks, so please don’t blame
him. He should be more available now.”
Clara nodded her head. “How about you, auntie? How have you been? Marshall told me that you were
living with your parents because there were things you needed to attend to. Is that right?”
Looking down with her lips tightly pursed, Frances only spoke after being silent for quite some time.
“Yea…yes, I was busy with some things.”
In the meanwhile, Katherine was feeling giddy with delight after confirming the Frances and Khalid
divorce, so she bought a whole load of stuff from supermarkets and went back to the store to prepare
for the opening with Margaret. Since it was the first time for her to run a business, Katherine was
naturally nervous.
Margaret had planned out the different types of products the store needed when Katherine was out, so
now Katherine was reading Margaret’s list to check off the products.
While she was reading, she spotted a car parked outside the store. She didn’t give it any thought at
first, but after a while, the car was still there.
Curious, Katherine put down the products she was holding and walked outside.
The car window was rolled down, and the person sitting inside was clear to be seen. Katherine smiled.
“What are you doing here?”
It was Peter, recording a video of the store front with his phone. Peter grinned when he heard her
question. “I wanted to ask about the date of the grand opening so that I could bring you congratulatory
flower baskets. Don’t worry. They will be from me personally.”
Katherine walked over to stand near the car. “Haven’t picked out a date yet. I wanted to learn the ropes
of running a business before actually opening the store.”
Reading the signboard, Peter commented, “That’s not a very auspicious-sounding name for a store.”
Katherine looked up to read the signboard as well. “Sounds rather pessimistic, doesn’t it? Well, that’s
the point, because life for the most part isn’t filled with puppies and rainbows. Mine is a truly realistic
name.”
Peter grabbed his phone a little harder, but didn’t comment any further.
He had of course reported everything he saw at the store back to Marshall, who weirdly was suddenly
very interested in all things that were Katherine-related, which had never been the case.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Peter said, “I actually took a bunch of pictures on our business trip. I sorted
them out last night at home. Shall I send them to you later today?”
Katherine finally recalled the pictures he was referring to after some time. “Oh, okay, why not. I almost
forgot about those had you not mentioned them.”
Looking at Katherine, Peter said, “you know what, you are looking very free and easy these days.”
That made Katherine smile. “That’s probably because I’ve let a lot of things go.”
Because she wouldn’t get the things that weren’t hers even if she didn’t let go. Obsessing over them
would do her no good but only add to her frustration. Fortunately, she had this epiphany early enough,
and was able to stop tormenting herself and find the inner peace.
Peter sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but it seems like he is the undecided one
now.”
Katherine chortled. “He’ll get used to it. His lordship needs constant attention and admiration.
Understandably, he hates it when a devoted fangirl like myself quits fawning over him. It’ll get better
with the passage of time.”
Katherine considered it further, adding, “But, you know, Clara is a nice and timely substitute for me. I’m
sure Marshall will appreciate her adoring existence after a while.”
Peter shook his head slowly. “You’re not getting this.”
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