CHAPTER ONE
Melvin and I had a complicated marriage right from the start. I wanted children, Mel did not, so we had no children. End of story.
It didn’t matter what I wanted beyond a providing husband. Mel called the shots while I typed all of my feelings. Until one Thursday morning, I’d stumbled across a charge on our Mastercard. Something I’d never seen before and didn’t recognize the name. Once I googled it, I’d found out why I’d never found the charge on the credit card…
Apparently six months ago, on July 13th, Mel purchased “DatingWorx”, an online dating app, charging $17.99 every month on his Mastercard!
Since my childish husband possessed the same password for all of his accounts, it was easy for me to hack into his DatingWorx account. Especially since his username “MWbanker” popped up when I clicked the app on his laptop.
Scrolling through the list of his messages on the app, I kept asking myself the same question over and over…
Who are all the other women?
After an hour of reading through the messages on his app, I stared back at all six female names that had a conversation with my husband.
Rachel
Britt
Tara
Lauren
Madysyn
Each message began with Mel complimenting all of them in their inboxes:
“Your eyes are amazingly beautiful!”
“Those lips look delicious on you ;)”
“You look stunning in that photo!”
“Wow, great dress!”
“Never seen someone look so cute in a NY Yankees hat before! HAHA”
“Fucking SEXY!”
Every message ended the same. A meeting time and place with a flirty, return message. Peering down at the most recent message in the inbox, the girl’s name was Madysyn.
Irked by the spelling of her name of wrinkle-less skin, I assumed she was in her early twenties by her name and photos. The last message between them was for a date set the next night, 7pm at Donnalo’s in the city, followed by a cute wink face emoji from Madysyn.
Disgusted with Mel, my husband, for fucking all of these other women. My eyes peered over at the time on the laptop screen.
5:39pm.
Mel said he’d be home after 5pm.
Hurrying downstairs to think of what I was going to say to Mel when he came home.
CHAPTER TWO
Mel walked in through the side door in the kitchen shortly after 6pm, as I was adding the spaghetti noodles to the boiling water.
“Hello, dear. Did you have a wonderful day?” my husband asked, lightly pecking my cheek over the kitchen counter.
“Hmm hmm,” I said to him with a tight smile. I stirred the noodles inside the boiling water, holding in my screams of anger.
Not yet, I thought.
“Spaghetti?” Mel asked, eyeing the jar of Ragu on the counter.
“Yep,” I replied, still unable to look directly at him without thinking I’d start to cry.
“With the tiny pepperoni that I like?!” he asked again, this time showing more excitement.
“Yep,” I answered. Again, staring down at the noodles swirling in the pot, not my cheating husband.
“Did you get any writing done today?” Mel asked, pulling out a beer from the fridge. “For your new book?”
“You know…” I began to answer. “Funny story, I tried to, but my laptop was acting up, so I tried using your computer, but didn’t know the password,” I lied.
“There’s always tomorrow,” Mel said with a smile. He popped open his beer, took a swig. Mel set the bottle on the counter.
“Did you get your laptop fixed?” he asked, leaning in to kiss my cheek again.
“Yep,” I lied. I’d been too preoccupied finding out my husband was cheating on me, I’d never bothered to try fixing my laptop.
“Good. I’m gonna head upstairs, take a quick shower. Be down in time for dinner. Love you!” Mel shouted walking up the stairs to our bathroom.
We ate our spaghetti with Ragu and mini pepperoni in the quiet dining room. Finally, I decided to break the silence and start up an intriguing conversation.
“I think I’ll try and work on my book tomorrow night when you’re at that client meeting,” I said to him from across our
dining room table. Mel nodded his head, twirling a forkful of noodles on his fork to take a bite of his spaghetti. “That’s right! I almost forgot about my client meeting for drinks tomorrow,” Mel replied in between chewing his favorite meal.
Scooting my chair back from the table to stand up, I walked into the kitchen and stood at the sink. Setting my dishes down a little louder than usual, I turned and stormed up the stairs. I’d only gotten halfway up them when Mel stopped me.
“Scarlett, hon? You okay? It seems like you’re upset with me about something, no?” Mel asked curiously, trying to study the expression on my face when I turned to look at him.
“No, of course not,” I replied, walking up the remaining four steps to my office.
CHAPTER THREE
I felt sick waiting around all day to follow my suspicious husband and his date that looked half his age. I repeated the women’s names in my head from the DatingWorx app.
Rachel
Britt
Tara
Lauren
Madysyn
Donnalo’s seemed crowded for a Thursday evening. I’d arrived ten minutes after 7pm just to be sure they were seated by the time I got there. I’d had to park on the street after spotting Mel’s black BMW in the parking lot.
And there he was.
Leaning back at his bar stool inside, laughing at something Madysyn was saying to him. She looked just like she did in her photos—long, blonde hair falling down the back of her white
dress. Pretty smile, and suddenly, I felt stupid for showing up there to spy on them.
Wiping the tears from my eyes, I hurried up from the table I’d been seated at, and into the bathroom before making a scene. Touching up the mascara smudges in the mirror a few minutes later, I pushed the door open to see Mel and Madysyn exiting through the front door.
Quickly ducking back into the bathroom before Mel could turn around and spot me, I counted to thirty then slowly walked out of Donnalo’s to follow them.
The cold night air felt good on my tear-stained cheeks. I walked alone back to my car parked on the side of the street when I heard a scream up ahead of me.
My breath caught in my chest and I peered through the darkness in search of the scream. It was definitely a female’s voice. I felt my fingers trembling at my sides as I walked faster back to my parking spot.
“HELP! SOMEONE HE—” the woman yelled out. Her distressed yell was coming from the alley just past where my car was parked.
Bolting on instinct to help, I ran down the alley to see a man holding a fist full of blonde hair in one hand, while the other plunged a knife five times into her chest.
My feet were frozen, and my eyes were unable to physically remove themselves from the horror scene playing out in front of them.
The man quickly turned, and with the street light shining on his face, I saw my husband. Mel Windsor was killing Madysyn. What a fool I’d been.
The other women weren’t his lovers.
They were his victims.
Mel released his grip from her hair, lifting it up to wave back and forth at me standing there, watching him. I saw the smile cross over his blood-smeared face as he stared back at me, immediately recognizing his wife.
“Hi, hon!” Mel casually said to me from the alley. He dropped Madysyn’s dead body to fall on the pavement, taking a breath.
“You caught me in the middle of doing some research for you. I’ve got a new idea for your next book,” Mel told me with a smile, walking closer to me.
“It’s a murder mystery,” he added, wiping off the blood dripping down from the knife.
THE END
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About
I’m Jill, mom, wife, pet lover, and recently published murder mystery author. I am a very low-key person. I stay at home with my toddler and write when she’s asleep. I love reading other thriller/mystery books and doing yoga at home 2-3 times a day when I’m not playing with my daughter. Every morning we begin our day getting an energy tea, do our daily errands, and sometimes go to the library for story-time. Been happily married to my husband for going on 5 years now. We are truly meant for each other. We like to have date nights with each other, sometimes that’s just us staying up and playing Rummy together after the toddler is asleep or staying overnight with my brother.
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