Rebirth: The New Bride Wants A Divorce-Chapter 471: I wonder what’s in here

A deafening silence filled the living hall, thick and suffocating.

Kathrine and Ethan sat on one side of the couch, their eyes fixed on Daniel with open scrutiny. On the other side, Daniel returned the stare just as steadily, his posture calm but guarded, like he was mentally preparing for either a confession or a boxing match.

It felt less like a conversation—

And more like a silent interrogation.

"Haha... why does this feel like some kind of intense staring competition?" Anna laughed nervously, glancing from one face to another. "Are we handing out prizes or—"

Kathrine shot her a sharp look.

Anna immediately shut up.

The room somehow grew colder.

"How long?" Kathrine asked, her voice dangerously quiet as she turned fully toward her sister. "How long have you known that he was Uncle George’s son?"

Her eyes hardened, dark with something between betrayal and disbelief.

Anna swallowed.

Kathrine leaned forward, her hands clenched in her lap. "How long have you been hiding this from me, Anna?"

The laughter was gone now. Worry crept into Anna’s face instead.

"First of all," Anna said slowly, raising her hands in surrender, "stop looking at me like that. You’re scaring me. I was excited for your call, not... whatever this is. It makes me cautious."

Cautious was a polite word for terrified.

What Anna had not expected—at all—was for Kathrine to show up at her house in person, armed with Ethan and a murderous expression.

Ethan, who was equally surprised by how this confrontation had escalated, exchanged a look with Daniel.

Only if he had known the so-called "informer" he hired was actually being fed details by Daniel himself, he would’ve saved weeks of effort and just walked up to the man directly instead of nearly losing his sanity.

"Cautious?" Kathrine scoffed. "Ha. I am going to beat the shit out of you, Anna."

Anna gasped. "Wow. Straight to violence? Not even a warning?"

Only if Kathrine had known Anna was pretending not to know anything, she wouldn’t have felt this stupid. Or this betrayed.

"And what makes you think that’s going to happen?" Daniel finally spoke, his voice calm but edged with something sharp.

Everyone looked at him. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He might have decided to be respectful toward Kathrine—but that didn’t mean she had the right to threaten his wife in his own house.

Ethan arched his brow. "And what makes you think nothing will happen to you after that?"

The air shifted.

Both Anna and Kathrine blinked as they sensed the tension between the men spike instantly. It was subtle, but unmistakable—the kind that came before someone ended up on the floor.

"Then I don’t mind fighting you," Daniel replied flatly.

Ethan stared at him for a second... then burst out laughing.

"Oh, I’m in," he said, rolling up his sleeves like this was the highlight of his week.

For a brief, horrifying moment, both sisters genuinely felt like a WWE match was about to break out in the living room.

"WAIT!" Anna jumped up. "You both cannot fight here. This is my house, not a wrestling ring!"

Kathrine nodded immediately. "Yes. And I didn’t bring you along to mess around."

She turned and shot Ethan a warning look. "Control yourself."

Ethan blinked, slightly offended. "You literally just threatened to assault your sister."

"That’s family business."

Daniel scoffed under his breath.

Anna didn’t even look at him. She simply reached out and slapped the back of his hand.

"And you," she said sweetly, "don’t laugh or be sarcastic, or you’re moving back to your room."

Daniel froze.

Everyone stared at Anna.

"...Your room?" Ethan repeated.

Daniel slowly looked at his wife. "My room?"

"Yes," Anna said firmly. "The one with no pillows and a very uncomfortable chair."

Daniel’s jaw dropped. "I defended you!"

"And I appreciate that," she replied. "But if you start a fight in my living room, I will emotionally abandon you."

Kathrine snorted despite herself.

Ethan laughed even harder. "I like her. She’s terrifying."

"Thank you," Anna said. "I worked hard on that."

Silence fell again—but this time it was lighter, awkward in a ridiculous way rather than suffocating.

Kathrine rubbed her temples. "Can we... for one minute... talk like normal human beings?"

Anna nodded immediately. "Yes. Please. No violence, no staring contests, no death threats."

Kathrine raised a hand. "No promises."

Everyone: "..."

Ethan sighed. "This is the weirdest family meeting I’ve ever attended."

Anna glanced at him. "Congratulations. You’re officially part of it now."

Once the tension between them finally eased, Kathrine let out a long sigh.

"So... what changed your mind?" she asked, her gaze fixed on Daniel, sharp and knowing.

Kathrine knew the truth better than anyone. Daniel had once been determined to destroy her entire family. And when everything was finally within his reach, when the power had been placed in his hands—it hadn’t even been him who pulled the final strings.

It had been his aunt.

She had carried out his plan while he stood aside and watched.

It should have been Daniel.

But he hadn’t done anything.

Daniel met her gaze calmly. "I made a promise to Anna. That I wouldn’t do anything until we found the whole truth."

Kathrine’s eyes shifted to her sister.

Anna nodded. "I knew you were trying your best, Kathrine. I wanted to give you a fair chance to come clean. And... I guess even Daniel thinks the same—especially after he found out your memories were erased."

Kathrine froze.

"Erased?" she echoed, slowly turning back to Daniel.

Daniel nodded once. "Doctor Jason is a friend of mine."

Kathrine fell back against the couch like the air had been knocked out of her.

"D-Did he tell you—?" she started.

"No," Daniel cut in calmly. "He didn’t tell me anything specific. Only that you were seeking help. That you were trying to remember something you couldn’t."

Silence stretched.

"It was me," Anna added softly from the side. "I told him about the memory-erasing thing. Not the details. Just... enough for him to pay attention."

Kathrine stared at both of them, her emotions tangled between shock, guilt, and something dangerously close to relief.

Daniel noticed it—the slight tremble in her hands, the way her shoulders stiffened like she was bracing herself for a verdict.

"That day," he said quietly, "you believed me. When I told you I loved Anna and that I never planned to use her for my revenge."

Kathrine looked up, startled.

"You could have exposed me. You could have twisted things, used that against me. But you didn’t."

He held her gaze steadily.

"So now, when you say you aren’t entirely at fault... I believe you."

Kathrine’s eyes slowly filled with tears.

Not the dramatic kind—but the kind that came from something finally being released.

For so long, she had expected judgment. Punishment. Someone to look at her and decide she was beyond saving.

But instead, Daniel was offering her the one thing she had never truly been given before—

Trust. And that was someone thing needed right now knowing she was still under the raid of suspicon.

"What about your parents?" Ethan asked carefully.

With everything they had uncovered, everything they had pieced together, the truth now pointed in only one direction—

Kathrine’s parents.

Kathrine opened her mouth to say something, but Anna spoke before she could.

"I cut ties with them."

The words fell into the room like a bomb.

Everyone turned to her.

"YOU WHAT?" Kathrine and Ethan said at the same time.

"You heard me right," Anna replied calmly, though her eyes burned with a quiet, steady resolve. "And I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them."

There was no hesitation in her voice. No uncertainty.

She had already made peace with the decision.

The room fell silent again, but this time it wasn’t tense—it was heavy with understanding.

No one asked her why.

Because no one needed to.

They all knew what her parents had done. How many lives they had manipulated, how many truths they had buried, how many people they had broken in the process.

They weren’t just part of the problem.

They were the beginning of it.

And sometimes, the bravest choice wasn’t confrontation— It was walking away for good.

Ethan and Kathrine stayed for a while longer with Anna and Daniel before they finally decided to leave.

The drive back was quiet. Too quiet as everything that happened slowly sink in.

Later that night, Kathrine lay back against the headboard in their bedroom, staring at the ceiling while the sound of running water echoed from the bathroom. Ethan was in the shower, completely unaware of the storm brewing inside her mind.

"How I wish I could be as brave as Anna," she sighed softly to herself.

It wasn’t something she would ever say out loud.

Once upon a time, Anna had been the fragile one. The obedient one. The girl who followed rules, who avoided conflict, who never spoke back even when she was being hurt.

And now?

Now Anna had cut ties with their parents without flinching. She had chosen herself. Her happiness. Her peace.

Kathrine let out a small, bitter laugh. "When did my baby sister became this strong?"

She reached for her phone absentmindedly, the screen lighting up the dark room. Her fingers hovered for a moment before opening the file Anna had sent her earlier.

’I wonder what’s in here...’ she muttered under her breath.

Her thumb hesitated over the screen before pressing it play and the second she heard the voice her entire world turned upside down.

"What in the world" Kathrine was still trying to process when a text came in.

[ Welcome to this new life sister]