Not long after Kathleen left in the taxi, Shawn's Lamborghini pulled up in the driveway.
"What's going on here?" Shawn inquired on seeing Mr Wallace standing by his mother's car.
"It's Madam and the young lady of the Beazell family."
"I know it's my mother, I can recognize her car," Shawn snapped, "but what are they here for by this time of the day?"
"I guess they came here to make trouble for the young miss. Just now she stumbled out of the house with her luggage and boarded a taxi at the gate. She doesn't appear to be in a good condition."
"I see…"
Mr Wallace, "?…..?"
Shawn did not ask any further questions and just strode into the house.
"Didn't you hear that you are not to appear before me again, you filthy slut? Why are you back?" Joanne barked, thinking Kathleen was the one that just came in.
"Mom, why are you here?" Shawn asked tersely.
"Oh it's you. I thought it was that adulteress."
She seemed to suddenly remember Shawn's question and flared up.
"What else do you think I came here for? Of course I came to throw that mistake of a woman that you call your wife out. She's no longer a part of this family as from today. Wait, what am I even saying? She was never a part of this family in the first place. I warned you but you wouldn't listen. Thank goodness she has been exposed for who she truly is. Now just get ready to hold a wedding with Linda as soon as possible.
On hearing Joanne say this, Linda who had a PHD in pretense, smiled shyly, her voice soft and coquettish, "Auntie, what are you saying. Although I love Shawn, he's still a married man, and I wouldn't want to be the one to break a home."
Joanne was greatly moved and directly said, "you see, Linda here is the best choice for you. She has patiently waited for you all these years."
"Mom, this is my personal matter, it has nothing to do with you. Moreover I'm still married to Kathleen and not in the mood for your so called wedding."
"It definitely has everything to do with me. I'm your mother Shawn and cannot sit back and allow your life be ridiculed by a nobody. Hurry up and divorce that bitch immediately." Joanne ordered with righteous indignation.
Shawn knew he wouldn't win the argument against Joanne so he just ignored her and went to his room.
...…
The weather in LA turned out to be much better compared to Baltimore's. On arrival, they quickly checked into the hotel arranged by the company to catch some rest before the meeting slated for 6pm that evening.
Although Kathleen had anticipated that the conference would be hectic, it later turned out to be an understatement because from the moment it began until it ended, there was hardly any downtime.
They spent the entire week attending seminar after seminar with little recess in between, and she couldn't wait for the conference to be over. That afternoon, it eventually came to an end.
A dinner party was to take place in the evening, but she couldn't wait as she needed to rush back to Baltimore to settle the pending divorce saga with Shawn.
Fortunately her boss granted her permission to leave ahead of time after explaining things to him, although not in detail.
She quickly booked a flight ticket to Baltimore. Luckily, there were still two seats left, so she got one.
At exactly 12:45pm, their flight took off from the airport.
Deciding to sleep throughout the entire flight, she adjusted her seat, and dozed off immediately the plane was airborne.
Three hours into the flight, the plane gave a violent shudder as a strong gust of wind shoved at it. It slightly rocked back and forth.
"What's going on?" wondered Kathleen who was abruptly woken from her sleep.
Just as everyone was trying to figure out what was wrong, the intercom buzzed.
"Ladies and Gentleman, we are experiencing some turbulence so please fasten your seat belts right away. Thank you," the captain announced over the intercom.
Everyone: "....?"
Kathleen quickly fastened her seat belt as soon as the announcement was made,
Meanwhile, the co-pilot who had been napping in the cabin sprang up, "What the heck?!" he shouted and rose to move to the cockpit.
Due to the force with which he sprang up, he was immediately hit with a bout of dizziness, lost his footing and unconsciously bumped into an exposed lever usually kept under a dome glass cover.
Almost immediately, the nose of the plane pitched straight down and suddenly lost altitude.
" … shit!!!" cursed the captain who understood the imminent danger everyone was in.
Shrill voices and wailings sounded everywhere as all the passengers that were yet to buckle up were flung fiercely against the sides of the plane, some hitting the ceiling while others were scattered in different directions.
Passengers at the far aft, in the rearmost rows, closest to the tail were the most affected as the knocking and swaying was more pronounced at that part of the plane.
Kathleen gripped on to her armrest as thick beads of sweat immediately formed on her forehead.
'As if my life wasn't chaotic enough, I also have to face this situation.'
She was confused and at the same time scared. She couldn't just wrap her fingers around how a mere turbulence which wasn't meant to be quite a big deal suddenly graduate to such a terrible situation.
While still immersed in her thoughts, she saw a figure coming towards her from the other row.
A cold shudder ran down her spine immediately as she realized it was the middle aged lady she briefly interacted with before boarding the plane.
The lady had misplaced her boarding pass, fortunately, Kathleen found it and gave it to her just before the announcement to board the flight. Since then she had taken a liking to Kathleen and wanted to sit with her but the passenger beside Kathleen refused to give up her seat, so the lady reluctantly returned to her original seat on the opposite row.