Valeria woke up early the next morning fresh and ready to face the day until she remembered that she had to reap her sister-in-law later in the day. If that's not bad enough, her husband, Mark, has started calling her again and leaving strange messages.
Mark was sending her apologies and if she didn't know better, he sounded as if he was begging her to forgive him and go back to him. She stared at those messages in shock and wondered if she is reading wrong or something had happened to Mark.
"Why is he apologising to me? Has he lost his mind?" she wondered out loud. Ari groaned in his corner, leaned back on his beanbag and covered his face with his book.
She categorically ignored the dramatic demon reaper. Annoying dramatic demon reaper, to be exact. She raised her middle finger in his direction and continued to stare at the messages Mark had sent her. It was so weird, she still couldn't believe her eyes.
The phone suddenly rang and she almost dropped it. It was Mark again. He is relentless. She might as well answer, if only to stop him from calling her incessantly.
"Yes, Mark, will you stop spamming me?" she said the moment she slide it to answer.
"Val! Please, wait, don't hang up," his warm voice came over the phone. A tone he had not used with her for years and years. Except when she was Ripley Rose yesterday.
"What do you want Mark? Can you get your lawyer to prepare the papers fast? I will sign it, no contest," she said.
"Papers?" he raised his voice. Then he cleared his throat. "Look, Val, I am not divorcing you, please come home,"
"Uhm, no thanks. You've been cheating on me with countless women so no thank you," she replied. She put the call on speaker phone and then placed the phone on the side table. She went over to her laptop, tucked inside her tote bag, picked it up and placed it on the tatami-covered floor. She switched it on.
"Valeria…those are vicious rumours created to destroy me!" Mark denied, feigning innocence. Valeria rolled her eyes. As if she believed him.
"Right, those pictures are fake too?" she asked.
She searched for 'Mark Brinstrone' and a list of news with the tag 'sex scandal' attached to it came up. She stifled a giggle. She clicked on one of it and pictures of Mark and Lex Lindi came up. They pixelated Lex Lindi's face though. They even published her suicide note.
"I don't even know her! It was obviously photoshopped! I wouldn't put it pass my business rival in doing this to drag my company shares down," he said.
"Val, I love you, please come home," he said with feelings.
She stopped scrolling through the news. She has not heard him say those words in exactly 10 years. Or maybe more. He only said it in the first three years of marriage.
"Right, you love me so much, you went around sleeping with countless women," she shot back.
"Val! Believe me, I will never cheat on you, if I did, I swear I will be struck down by lightning right now," Mark said.
Valeria rolled her eyes. She wished she has the power to control lightning and use it to strike her lying husband right now. He dared to swear on his life when he was blatantly lying.
"Well, then, be careful when you go outside later, you might get strike by a lightning," she said.
"Aw…come on Val. You know me, we've been married for so long, I would never do this to you," he said.
"Or at least come home, we can talk it over," he added, hopefully.
"Why? Don't you have a meeting to attend? Don't you need to go to work? It's not even a Sunday today," she said.
It is only Wednesday and yet it felt as if a lifetime had passed since she stabbed the demon reaper.
Mark sighed dramatically over the phone.
"The board of directors asked me to stay home, they want me to clear my name before I'm allowed to go back to chair any meetings," he said.
Valeria gave a little celebratory jig. Serve the asshole right, she thought. She silently thanked Lex Lindi for giving her the chance to exact this sweet, sweet revenge.
"Well, then, spend some quality time with your mother and sisters, surely they will be happy to spend time with you," she said.
"No, Val, please come home, it's a media circus outside and they've been asking where you've been so I really need you to come home to show them that we are still happily married," he said.
She laughed at this. Her soon-to-be ex-husband must be mad.
"We have not been happily married in years, maybe in 10 years, what are you talking about?" she pointed out.
"I gave you everything, branded clothes, a luxury car, jewellery, what more do you want? We are happily married! You don't even have to work," Mark said.
Valeria gritted her teeth in anger. What did that suppose to mean? He was the one who made her resign because it would not be 'nice' for the young new Mrs Brinstrone to be working in his company. He had also told her to concentrating on giving him heirs. Of course the babies never came.
"Well, I didn't resign from my job out of choice, you gave me no choice!" she retorted. If she can have it her way, she would continue to work and today, she might even be the director of innovation.
"Look, Valeria, come home. We can discuss this when we are face to face, we can't do this over the phone," he said.
"I read that she's pregnant…why didn't you ask her to keep the baby? I thought you've always wanted an heir," Valeria continued.
"What? No! What are you talking about? That woman is lying! She probably faked her suicide. I am sure she's laughing at use somewhere far away," he said.
Right, Valeria thought, she is indeed far away but she doubt that Lex Lindi will be laughing wherever she is. Based on her reaper library from Ari, souls transferred to the after life often don't remember anything from when they were alive.
"Look, Val, please come home now," Mark pleaded again. "Look, what do you want? More jewellery? A new car? I will give you anything as long as you come back," he said.
"Anything?" She asked. A plan formed in her head. She now has a plan. She will have to go back anyway to reap her disgusting sister-in-law's soul.
"Yes, anything, just say the word and I will do it but first, you must come back to me and we present a united happy front to those vultures," he said, referring to newsmen as 'vultures'.
"You mean, you want me to lie to all those people? We have not been happy for a long time," she insisted.
"Tell me what do you want? I will give it to you if that's what it takes for you to come home and be with me at this moment," he said.
"Okay, fine, get your lawyer to go there now, I will come over after 10am," she said.