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Chapter 8: The Divorce
She asked around. She found out. She filed for the divorce. Since he was behind bars, they had to arrange an tele-conference so he could pronounce the divorce. She was expecting him to just do it without much arguments. Why would he still want her anyway?
She was asked if there was anything she wanted to claim from the marriage, and she quickly said no. It wasn't because she didn't want to but she knew he had nothing and he would just use it against her. She knew he might just twist his words and promises to just somehow have her back in his hands. She didn't want to ever liase with him ever again and wanted out immediately so she said no. She didn't and won't be fighting or claiming anything from him.
Her next appointment was on her 20th birthday. Looking at him via the tele-conference, she felt empty. She had many flashbacks on how he progressed from verbal abuse to physical abuse and to the sabotage and today, he in that suit. She thought he suited that uniform. The judge asked if he would like to have word before he pronounce the divorce. She was surprised when he said yes.
"Baby, you are out? How? Baby, I still love you, you know. I find you when I get out okay?"
The audacity. How could he even think she would believe these words? How was she blind before this?
"Baby? Who? I am not your baby anymore. And yes I am out and free, unlike you!" she replied with her heart pounding hard with anger. How did he even have the face to utter those words, love.. how dare he used love for this.
A divorce for her birthday present. She felt like this was the best present she could ever get for herself. She went home happy with the outcome. He was sentenced to 5 years and 5 strokes of cane. She counted, he would be out sometime late 2007 or early 2008 with good conduct. She would be truly free until then.
She went back to school. Her internship was deferred and she had to redo it with a final year project. She missed out that internship with LTA but all of these was definitely better than being behind bars. Her cohort friends welcomed her back. One of them had to also defer and so she had company to complete this last stretch of school. She started running to release her worries and started being more active.
Appointments with the probation officer was still held fortnightly. Often, the officer reassured and reminded her all the same, that this record would be an invisible one in which it would not be raised, however on some sensitive applications, it might just have a mark on her records but still rather unknown unless probed.
"I don't think I need to tell you because I know it is not like you did this knowingly, but please just be mindful who you are with because if you are caught with the wrong people at the wrong time again, this case would come up and this past would barge in and you would be charged for it, okay?" Mar, her probation officer said as she gently held Ifa's arm.
Jacob was also emailing her of a possible project that he would be leading here in Singapore. She was delighted to know she would meet him again, she felt like she might be falling for this person. He was everything that her ex husband wasn't. He might just be the one.
Her parents however were skeptical. It was afterall too soon after the chaos and the divorce. They wanted her to just focus on finishing her studies, to work and to just not get into another love trap. She simply brushed it off. Surely, Jacob is not like her ex husband, and surely she would now be able to tell what's good for her.
//--- Please leave a comment if you want to read the next chapter. :)
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