Chapter Text
"How could you! How could you do this to me!? To JJ!?" Katherine Hillard-Oliver yelled out. It was a dark and stormy evening, the rain violently pouring down outside. It perfectly encapsulated how the married couple were feeling.
"Don't you dare pull the victim, Katherine!" Tommy slammed down the box he was holding, shoving his clothes inside of it. His rage was evident in his tone, and body language.
Kat growled under her breath. "You didn't need to go and cheat on me, with Kimberly none of the less! You're supposed to be in love with me!"
"I love Kim!" Tommy quickly interjected, not letting Kat finish that sentence. "I've always loved Kim, from the moment I first laid my eyes on her. All you did was keep us apart!"
"It was a stupid mistake! I was young and jealous!" Kat defended herself, crossing her arms.
Tommy retorted, his rage ever increasing. "Normal people write in their journals or talk to thee friends when they're jealous Katherine! Not forge a breakup letter!"
Kat rubbed her temples. "It was remnants of Rita's spell!"
Tommy put the now full box on the counter, his jaw clenched so hard he almost cracked all his teeth. "Rita's spell this! Rita's spell that! You never take responsibility for your actions! Every time you mess up it's just 'oh I was under Rita's spell!' 'Oh I guess Rita's spell still lingers within me!'. Grow up Katherine!"
"And I suppose that's a good enough reason for you to have cheated after our wedding!?" Kat screamed at him, tears of rage flooded her eyes. "How much times have we kissed, spent time together, or had sex and you were thinking about, wishing that it were her?!"
"I always wished it was her!" Tommy opened up their safe, where they kept their important documents; passports, JJ's birth certificates, etc.
"Wow. Just wow." Kat stood back, pacing. "So what happened to our vows! To stay together, to be faithful!"
"That was before I found out you wrote that stupid letter! You're selfish Katherine, that's your problem!" Tommy pulled out his documents, stuffing them inside his bag.
Kat grabbed at her hair, she felt like pulling her hair out in frustration. "I was young-!"
"You ruined my life!" Tommy interjected, finally facing Kat. "You ruined Kim's life! If you hadn't have written that letter, she wouldn't have thought I'd cheated on her and married that abusive asshole!"
Kat rolled her eyes. "So that's your excuse to have not been faithful our whole marriage!?"
Tommy also rolled his eyes, organising his bags of stuff. "Nowhere near as bad as what you did!"
"You fathered her child, Tommy!" Kat fired back. "What about JJ!?"
"I love JJ!" Tommy interjected. "I just wish I didn't have him with you!"
Kat stood in complete and utter silence, her tears falling down her face as the sound of thunder could be heard in the distance. She didn't know what to say, she couldn't think. No words came out.
Tommy, on the other hand, was filled with rage. "Thirty years, Katherine, thirty years I could've been in love with Kim. I would be happy!"
"So what? I'm just your back up choice?" Kat's voice came out broken, weak even.
Tommy scoffed, throwing down the forged breakup letter. He'd kept it all this time, he didn't know why. But he was glad he did. "You weren't even a choice in the first place. You forced it!"
Kat's breath hitched at his words, they were cruel, but truthful. She didn't respond.
"What was your plan? Keep this from me forever? Confess on your death bed!?" Tommy crosses his arms. "You know what, I'm grateful JJ got his spy-skills from you. Because he got nothing else from you. And I love him."
"Then why won't you stay...?" Kat whispered. "Why won't you stay for me, for him?"
"Because my daughter, and my Kimberly, need me." Tommy spoke coldly. "And there's plenty of time for her to grow up with her father fully present, and a mother who isn't a lying bitch."
Kat didn't respond.
The couple stayed in their stances, the room full of tension, and not the good kind, as the storm intensified outside. Kat knew that despite everything, he was right. Tommy was right, this all happened because of her selfishness, and her inability to let go.
By the time Kat looked up, Tommy had turned to leave.
Her heart sunk. "Where are you going!?"
"To be with the love of my life." Tommy said coldly, loading his belongings into his car.
"In this weather!?" Kat looked around. "It's pouring down! The roads aren't going to be safe!"
"Beats being forced to stay in a house filled with lies with someone who made me miserable!" Tommy snapped.
"So why did you stay all these years?" Kat's voice cracked, "if you were truly miserable with me, why did you stay?"
"I only stayed because I felt responsible for JJ. He's the only reason I stayed." Tommy slammed the trunk of his truck. "And now that he's 18, he doesn't need me anymore."
"He'll always need you-" Kat tried to say. She desperately clung to his arm, trying to get him to stay.
"No." Tommy took his arm back. "My daughter needs me, and so does the love of my life."
Kat watched as Tommy got into his truck and slammed the drivers side door closed. She watched the car pull out of the drive way. She tried to chase after him, to tell him to stay, beg him - but he was long gone.
Kat couldn't hold it back when she went back inside. She slumped against the front door, crying her heart out. Her whole adult life had been a lie - her marriage, was entirely built off of lies.
JJ stood silently on top of the staircase. He didn't say anything, but his face said it all - he was disgusted with her.
It made sense. It was JJ who figured out that Kat had forged that breakup letter, by comparing the writing in Kat's old teenage diaries to the forged letter, and then comparing other letters Tommy had saved from Kimberly.
Kat cried and cried, her tears refusing to stop. If only, if only she never wrote that stupid breakup letter, then at least Tommy and Kimberly would be happy together whilst she along would be miserable, rather than all 3 of them being miserable.
Three weeks ago on the dot was when Kat had gotten the call from the hospital. Car accident, fatal injuries, must identify the corpse.
Since that night, the night Tommy left, Kat's life had been an entire blur. And now, Tommy was gone, forever.
From what the police told her, it was a two-way crash, Tommy was t-boned by a reckless semi-truck and died on impact, when she went to identify him, he didn't look like Tommy, no. So cold, so lifeless...
Today was the day of the funeral, and Kat stood at the very back as she'd been deemed a social outcast by everyone around her.
JJ... JJ was angry, at his mother. When he heard the news that his father died, not only did he move out to live with Billy, but he also told everybody the truth behind the letter.
Kat stood in the far back, watching as everyone went to console JJ and Kimberly, and Kimberly's daughter. The only attention Kat caught was the disgusted glares of everyone in attendance.
That's when Kat had found herself all alone, no support. Pretty soon the bills piled up, and Kat sold the house to Hayley - Tommy's closest friend, and the only one who would physically use the cave basement.
She moved into a small apartment in downtown Angel Grove. It was cheap, something she could afford.
Kat was a dance teacher, a low-paid one. When she went to London for that dance academy, to achieve her dreams of being a ballerina, she tore her ACL during one of her most important performances. She failed that year, not just that. She couldn't dance.
Kat tried to do her best with life, she did like teaching after all. But around Angel Grove, it just... didn't pay much. This small apartment was all she could afford and still have grocery money.
Her parents were long gone. Her father from a sudden heart attack, her mother from a stroke in old age.
They would have been disgusted with her, she knew it. Kat was disgusted with herself. She lived with that lie for 30 years, that she broke up Kim and Tommy because she wanted Tommy for herself.
Kat cried herself to sleep most life. 'How did my life end up like this?' She thought.
Kat sat on her bed, looking out the window of her bedroom. "If only I could go back..." she whispered to herself.
She wasn't religious, but Kat prayed, she started praying after Tommy died. "I wish I never wrote that stupid letter. If i could only go back and stop myself..."
The bedroom was silent for a while, nobody there but Kat, all alone with nobody in her corner.
Kat sighed. She just got up and got into bed, emotionally and physically exhausted from everything that happened recently. She had nobody, and nobody wanted to talk to her. She understood perfectly why, and she deserved it, entirely.
'If only I could go back...' she thought to herself. 'I wish I could go back and change everything.' She thought as she fell into a very, very deep sleep.
But unbeknownst to Kat - something was listening. And little did she know, her wish was about to be granted...