Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 285: You are not surprised

A few seconds slipped by, but Kathrine could not form a single word. She simply stared at the man before her, his scarred face and hollow expression making him look almost ghostlike. Her throat tightened. For a moment she forgot how to breathe, let alone ask if he knew her mother or if he was the very man they had been searching for all this time.

But the words would not come. Something deep inside her froze, locking every question in place.

Then a loud vibration shattered the silence. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Buzz...

Kathrine jolted out of her trance. Her fingers fumbled as she hurriedly dug through her purse, aware of the man’s eyes still fixed on her. Without daring another glance at him, she mumbled a quick apology and stepped away, her heartbeat thundering as she put distance between herself and the house.

Once she reached a quiet, secluded corner of the street, she finally managed to look at her phone. It was the officer.

"Yes, officer," she answered quickly.

His voice came through the line, calm but heavy. "Miss Kathrine, the forensic report is out. It confirms that Kira was tortured before she was hanged."

The words hit her like a physical blow. Her entire body went rigid, her breath catching in her chest. Even though she had mentally prepared herself for the possibility, hearing it aloud made everything feel far more brutal, far more real. Someone had ended Kira’s life with cruelty, and all because she had become an inconvenience.

A tremor of anger and grief swept through her.

"I want you to keep searching for whoever did this," Kathrine said, her voice low but firm. "No matter what it takes. Do not stop until you find the person responsible."

"We are working on it, and I assure you we will soon find the real culprit," the officer said before ending the call.

Kathrine lowered the phone slowly. Her fingers tightened around it as her mind raced to absorb the officer’s words. Tortured...

Someone had done that to Kira. Someone merciless. Someone close enough to hide in plain sight.

She forced herself to breathe until her heartbeat steadied again. Once she had gathered herself, she turned back toward the house. She needed to confront the man, or at the very least understand who he was and what connection he had to her mother.

But when she reached the door again, it was shut. Locked. Silent.

"Huh? Where did he go?" she muttered, a deep frown carving into her forehead. She scanned the lane, expecting to spot him nearby, but the entire stretch looked deserted. As if he had vanished into thin air the moment she stepped away.

His sudden disappearance only deepened her suspicion.

Kathrine had come here to confirm something, but now she would have to wait until the mysterious man reappeared. Whoever Roseline had been protecting, whoever she tried to hide at all costs... Kathrine was certain she was standing in the middle of it. And she would uncover it. Whatever it took, she would protect their family before they were targeted again.

Exhaling heavily, she turned to leave the lane and head toward her car. But she had barely taken three steps when a familiar voice called out behind her.

"Miss Kathrine?"

She stopped and turned. Mariam approached slowly, her expression strained, her posture heavier than usual. Kira’s aunt. The woman who had served Daniel’s family with unwavering loyalty for decades. And the woman who had loved Kira as if she were her own.

Only now did it strike Kathrine how close Mariam’s house was to the address Roseline had visited.

But she kept that realization to herself, offering Mariam a faint, gentle smile.

The woman looked exhausted. Hollowed. As if grief had carved its mark deep into her bones.

***

Inside the quiet house, Mariam and Kathrine settled onto opposite ends of the couch. The silence between them stretched, thick and unbroken. Neither woman rushed to speak. Mariam’s eyes were lowered, her hands folded tightly in her lap, while Kathrine struggled with the weight of what she had to reveal.

Since Mariam had invited her inside, Kathrine knew she could not walk out of this house without saying it.

"Kira’s forensic reports are out," Kathrine finally said, her voice steady despite the heaviness in her chest.

Mariam’s head snapped up, her weary eyes sharpening with attention.

Kathrine hesitated. She was not someone who excelled at comforting others. Words of consolation always felt foreign on her tongue. But Mariam deserved the truth. She had the right to know what had happened to her niece, no matter how painful it was.

So Kathrine took a quiet breath and braced herself, ready to face the grief she was about to unleash.

"The officer confirmed that Kira was tortured before she was hanged." she said, but what happened next made her stop.

Silence followed. Heavy. Loaded.

Kathrine watched Mariam closely, expecting the woman to flinch, break down, or react in any way that reflected the brutality of the news.

But Mariam did not move.

Her expression did not twist with grief or shock. Her eyes did not widen. She simply sat there, her hands still folded neatly, her face unreadable.

Not even a tremor.

Kathrine’s brows pinched together in confusion. "Mariam... did you hear what I said?"

"I heard," Mariam replied quietly.

No tears. No gasp. No shaking. Nothing.

The lack of reaction unsettled Kathrine more than any outburst would have. She shifted slightly, studying the older woman with growing suspicion.

"You are not surprised," Kathrine said finally. Not as a question, but a realization that slipped out before she could stop herself.

Mariam’s gaze drifted toward a distant corner of the room, as if she were seeing something far beyond the walls around them. "Madam had already warned me about certain things," she murmured. "She told me to be prepared. And since I never believed Kira would take her own life, I had already accepted that something like this might happen."

The calmness in her tone. The quiet acceptance in her voice. It sent a chill crawling up Kathrine’s spine. It was not the reaction of a woman who had just learned her niece was tortured. It was the reaction of someone who had known far too much long before the news arrived.

And Kathrine could not shake the feeling that Mariam was hiding far more than she was saying.

"I warned her countless times," Mariam continued. "But she chose the wrong path. And in the end, that path devoured her. The marks on her wrists and legs... I saw them when I went to see her."

Kathrine lowered her gaze. Only now did she fully sense the depth of the woman’s grief—silent, controlled, and resigned. Mariam was not detached. She was exhausted. Hollowed out by truths she had carried alone.

"I am sorry she had to go through—"

"She asked for it." Mariam cut her off sharply. Her voice did not rise, but the firmness in it struck like a blow. "And now that I think about it, this is the punishment she received for refusing to choose the right path."

Her words trembled with guilt, with anger, with sorrow that had no place to be released. No matter how many times she apologized to Roseline’s memory, nothing could erase the fact that Kira had stabbed her. Nothing could cleanse the sin her niece had died carrying.

And Mariam wore that truth like a weight she had accepted would never leave her shoulders.