Arrogant Man VS Unyielding Woman

"If you had been chasing after Henry for almost three months and he didn't develop any feelings for you, then how come he started believing that my mother was involved in an extramarital affair?" Jean contradicted her claim in anger.

"You underestimated the power of 'first love', Jean! Charlie was Yvette's first love and first love binds strong. It took Henry quite a lot of work to snatch Yvette from Charlie, and it wasn't easy work either. Charlie hated your parents after that. That's how I got the chance to set your mother up so easily." Joy put on a smile and added, "I have to say that everything happened so smoothly. It was almost as if the entire thing was destined from the very beginning.

If the relationship between the three of them hadn't been so complicated, Henry wouldn't have lost his temper so easily when he saw Charlie and Yvette hugging each other that day. He stormed out angrily and ignored any explanation that Yvette had to offer. He got drunk that night and ended up sleeping with me. Of course, he had no idea what was going on between us that night as he was completely drunk and was out cold. He was devastated and dazed to find us in bed, naked. As for me, I called Yvette in advance deliberately so that when she arrived at my house, she bumped into Henry and me lying on the bed, both naked."

The story seemed to bring her great pleasure and Joy sighed in melancholy. "I have to admit it was quite clever of me to do that. You know Jean, your parents broke up just because of that night. It's sure not that easy to get a divorce. But your mother was so angry and had a stubborn nature so she moved out immediately the moment the two of them got home that day.

I sure wasn't about to give up such an amazing opportunity. So I kept appearing before Henry again and again and I always kept showing my concern about him every time I did, all the while letting Yvette know about the interactions we would have. Henry was really concerned about his career and he still couldn't forgive what he had witnessed between Yvette and Charlie so he never bothered to search for Yvette and explain his actions.

She was badly hurt and even though she waited, she finally asked for a divorce. And in the end, she got it and it was Henry who took the blame as he had to admit that he was cheating on her. This was part of their agreement. Yvette's mother was sick and Yvette didn't want her to know that it was both of their faults. They agreed to let her know only part of the truth and Henry announced that yes, he was cheating on his wife.

That way, when your grandmother found out that her daughter had been deserted by her husband, she wouldn't scold her but sympathise. Unfortunately for Yvette, she got ill soon after that and was admitted into the hospital. Henry still cared about her especially since she had gotten really weak. I knew it because he would often discuss things with me as I would often stay at his home. I knew all about where your mother was, how she was, what medications she was having, et cetera et cetera...

So one day, I paid your mother a visit before your father did and you know what Jean? I told Yvette everything about how I set Henry and her up deliberately. I had already planned to kill her that day, and wasn't about to let her live. So I fed her with a potion that was mixed with advanced rohypnol. It's an interesting compound, and its composition is not so different from common sleeping pills, but it's so much more effective. I asked my friend to bring it from abroad so no one would suspect me, and anyone who drank it would fall asleep first.

Your mother heard how I set her and Henry up and got really angry. She tried to fight me and hit me. Fortunately, her anger accelerated the activity of the potion and she was only able to tear a piece off of my clothes. I saw her close her eyes and left the hospital. Everyone thought your mother was upset because of her divorce and they believed that she had taken the sleeping pills to commit suicide. Nobody ever even suspected that the whole thing was a cover-up and that she was murdered."

Joy's face had assumed a complicated look at the moment, almost as if there was a hint of misery involved in her pride.

It had been Joy's masterpiece during the past twenty years since nobody had found out that she had killed Yvette so cleverly.

People only knew that she was the bitch who had gotten Henry and Yvette divorced.

But Joy could still remember Yvette's angry eyes in her nightmares. Yvette's pale face haunted her all the time.

And even with that nightmare, she had never regretted that moment ever in her entire life, despite the fact that she had taken an innocent life for her own happiness.

She had started to panic when Henry had started to become cold towards her, especially after Winner died and Shirley got arrested.

Was it because that she was destined to be alone and live a solitary life when she got old?

In her panic, she had come to ask Jean for mercy. As long as Jean got Shirley out, Joy was determined to do anything including sacrificing herself for her daughter. However, she hadn't expected or planned on the scenario that her intention to kill Jean in the hospital would expose her completely in front of Jean.

Since everything was going to be exposed now, there was nothing left to do and Joy calmed down eventually.

As long as Shirley could be saved, Joy didn't care about her own life. Saving Shirley was important.

Jean on the other hand, had investigated a lot but she had never expected that her mother had been killed by Joy's potion.

Jean thought her mother committed suicide because of the divorce.

It turned out that Joy schemed all of this.

'Henry, do you know that?

My mother died because you didn't trust her.'

Thinking about that, Jean's tears fell down as her heart was completely broken at the moment.

'As for that murderer Joy, that selfish and vicious woman, ' Jean thought, 'Joy, you killed my mother for your own happiness. I am going to make sure you pay dearly for that. Even if you were killed a thousand times, it wouldn't erase my hate for you!'

The thought of her mother dying needlessly because of Joy was infuriating and Jean felt like killing Joy right there in vengeance, but she had to calm down as she still had a lot of questions to ask Joy. Zed and Moore were both astonished when hearing the truth.

They had never expected that a woman who was in love with a man would be so vicious that she would set others up and go so far as to kill someone for her own happiness.

If someone as close to her as Jean didn't notice that something was wrong, there was nobody else who would find out the truth about the death of Jean's mother.

It was a really chilling thought.

Both Zed and Moore were totally thunderstruck on hearing Joy's story.

They were also worried that Jean might break down after finding out the truth.

But to their surprise, Jean still remained calm. They would have thought that she felt no emotions towards the truth if they hadn't witnessed the anger and hatred in her eyes at that moment.

"Since it took you so much work to set my parents apart, why was Henry so indifferent towards me?" Jean held back her sorrow and asked with her angry eyes fixated on Joy.

"Henry was really sad about your mother's death and felt really guilty. So I arranged for Charlie to show up before your mother's grave and pretended that she had died just because Charlie hadn't agreed to marry her. When Henry learned about that, he got angry at once and started to hate your mother from then on. And he hated her more than anything possible.

That is why he never felt anything for you since it was your mother who had hurt him so bad and he saw a glimpse of her in you. Sometimes, he would feel guilty or concerned about you, but I made sure that those feelings disappeared the day they were born. So the relationship between you two kept on going from bad to worse. And later Winner and Shirley were born, which of course attracted his attention.