I made a quick trip into her bathroom while she made us coffee and I pulled that damn tube of lipstick out of her make up drawer. Red. Very fitting. As I was walking out, I grabbed a single earring from the counter and smiled at her as I left. She wanted my husband, she could have him and the guilt of his murder.
That same night, after I had made a compelling motive through Carson’s scheduled texts, I drove to Mila’s house while they were sleeping and went into their kitchen to take a knife from the drawer. I couldn’t help but find the irony in the fact that she never would have worried about me copying her house key the same way I would have never worried about her trying to steal my husband.
I didn’t wait for Carson to come home that night. I drove to his office and waited on the street as I watched Brian leaving. When Carson walked out, I ran to him smiling. Of course, he was surprised to see me but he wasn’t alarmed either. He had no idea.
“Let’s go for a walk in the park,” I said to him as he watched me grabbing his hands. He hesitantly agreed because I’m sure he wasn’t looking forward to spending quality time with his wife any more than I would have wanted to spend an evening walking with him. He was about as exciting as Mila was classy.
“How long have you been sleeping with Mila?” I asked him when I saw no one was around.
His face was priceless as he put together the fact that I knew. He stuttered for some more lies as he started telling me I had it all wrong. That son of a bitch couldn’t even admit it to me when I blatantly asked him. Such a coward to need Mila by his side to have the balls to own up to his affair.
His body fell to the ground as I fell with him and I looked down at his lifeless body in complete horror that I had actually done it. I planned on doing it but actually doing it was so much different than what I had expected. Six times he felt that blade, the same way I had suffered through six miserable years. My own poetic justice.
I pushed myself away from him and looked around to see nothing but blurred street lights in the distant fog. We were just on the other side of the tree line and I knew that I needed to get him hidden away somewhere that would at least allow me to get everything in place. Dragging him that few feet wasn’t hard, but then again, for Mila it would have been more difficult. I have a solid four inches on her and not nearly as frail as her. I slowly pulled a plastic bag from my pocket and pulled his phone from his, leaving his set of keys with him so they wouldn’t think to investigate his vehicle. If he had his keys, they would never think his vehicle had left the office. I didn’t want to drive us here in my own car because of the navigation system. I know it is there but I am not nearly advanced enough to clear the history from it. I still haven’t figured out how to reset the damn clock display. And I touched off the scene with a smear of Mila’s red lipstick on his neck. I took off only the cotton gloves that I had worn to hide the blue latex pair underneath and I pulled the layered clothes off me and stuffed them into the bag and sat there, not next to him of course, long enough for the whore across the street to fall asleep. I watched the lights disappear from the upstairs window and got in Carson’s car. I pulled to a stop in front of their house and walked in the front door as if it were nothing.
I stood there in the dark holding the knife when I noticed that canvased painting. I quietly pulled it from the wall and sat the knife in the indention of the frame and breathed a sigh of relief as I let it rest back against the wall. The door to the garage creaked loudly and I froze to listen for movement from upstairs but silence followed and I walked to Mila’s car. I turned Carson’s phone to silent and slid it under her driver’s seat. My head brushing against the ceiling wasn’t planned but I was pleased to see a smear of blood in the cloth.
Like every plan, there were surprises along the way. There was a while where I was almost certain that Brian had known what I did. I thought that he had found the body, maybe seen us driving to the park and walked over and found Carson. I even thought that he could have been secretly in love with me before which is why he hadn’t reported me and why I was getting the roses. I had no idea that I was being stalked. Professor Marks was completely unexpected. The man was undeniably certifiable. Granted, I hadn’t told the police the entire truth about what happened on that deck, I did really regret taking his life. I never wanted that. I do think he would have eventually killed me, whether literally or not. You see, just before I shoved him he explained how he had been following me that night. How he had watched me kill Carson. “You were beautifully magnificent,” he said. That was when I knew he was certifiable, a real threat. He had hidden away in the shadows and watched a man being killed. And instead of realizing the brutality I was exhibiting, even something I am willing to admit, it just fed his obsession that much more. Then when it was all over, he had to get closer to the body, what he was doing, I still do not know. But he killed an innocent detective because he believed that he was keeping her from finding out the truth about me. But what he didn’t know, because he was always at a distance, was that Detective Burns never suspected me. Professor Marks had studied behavior as well, he taught it. So, his mistake was putting too much faith in our body language without knowing the conversations. He saw me defensive and upset. He assumed it was because she had evidence on me. All the while, she was actually working toward taking out the one man that Professor Marks felt was keeping us apart. Another certifiable belief no doubt.
Apart from Professor Marks, the rest was a breeze. I had studied psychology enough to know that showing anger was better than trying to hide it. The detective was so easily bought with my disgust of my cheating husband that she actually felt sorry for me the whole time Mila was having evidence piled up on her. I put her lipstick back in her bathroom that day they found Carson’s body and I held onto the earring until I knew it could raise suspicion with the detective.
Manipulation can be the most powerful weapon a woman can carry, and I carry it better than anyone.
Like I said, winning was so easy.
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