Carl claimed before me,

“What I’m about to tell you now is something that will ruin your life forever.”

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Your mother in law Rita murdered your father.”

I stood up from that chair and moved backwards.

I was more than just astonished.

I said to him,

“Carl, please. I am not here for any jokes or pranks.”

“I’m not either,” he replied spontaneously and seriously.

“What did you just say?”

“Look, I know you won’t believe it but I have evidences for you.”

I was speechless. There were no words for me to utter at the moment, so I stood motionless. He continued,

“Your mother in law is a very ruthless person. I know that because I have seen her do such stuff.”

“I don’t want to know all that.

I want to know why she did it,

if she really did it.”

On the computer, he showed me some video opening up and said,

“See for yourself.”

In the video clip, my father was actually falling down from a few stairs. Rita who was standing right in front of him in her uniform shot him twice.

I could recognise my father in the video but not my mother in law.

“This is what happened to your father. It is the CCTV footage,” Carl added.

Seeing my father in that video I was moved and I was heartbroken. After quite a long time I had seen him moving, and that too in a very

painful state.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Carl said looking at me.

Tears came in my eyes. The video was repeating by itself.

I asked him,

“Are you sure this is Rita?”

“Yes, for that I have another CCTV video.”

“Can I see that?”

“Yes. But I would recommend you not to watch it.”

I couldn’t insist but I said anyway,

“Look, I appreciate you going through all this trouble for me. But the thing is, no matter how much I trust you, I still cannot believe what you are telling me and what you are showing me.”

“Alright, I will show you this video to you then. I can prove it to you that it was Rita who murdered your father. But I simply do not want to be the reason behind this mischief that will occur in your family.”

I gave his words a thought and realised that he was right about the fact that my family life with Martha was just about to get ruined.

I said to him,

“Please, play the video.”

One minute later, after I had seen the video and I was one hundred percent convinced that it was Rita who had murdered my father, I felt that I could hardly breathe.

“Are you alright?” Carl asked me.

“I-I can’t, I can’t…I sim-simply can’t…”

“You can’t what?”

“I simply cannot. I just simply cannot let this woman live. She has to die. She has to die now.”

“Hang on,” he said touching my arms and shoulders, “calm yourself down.”

“I don’t care about anything now. She has to die.

I will kill her myself.”

“You’re getting emotional and irrational. Just listen to me for a second.”

“My father, my father was the best person in this world. She killed him. She killed an innocent person.”

“Brad…Brad, listen to me. You are forgetting something.”

“Arrange a gun. Arrange something right now.”

“Bradley, she is your wife’s mother. She is the grandmother of your children.”

As he mentioned my children, I remembered them as if I had forgotten them for quite a

long time.

“Oh, my God!” I uttered regretfully.

“You have to think wisely.”

“Carl. I need water.”

“Okay.”

After a while, while I was drinking water, I realised something and I said to Carl,

“You know what, now I know that this happened before I even met Martha.”

“Yes, you’re right. Your father was murdered several years before your marriage.”

“I just don’t believe it. Fate made me fall in love with a woman whose mother had killed my father.”

“Yes, I agree. It is a strange game of fate.”

I took a large sip and then said,

“This is hurting me way too much. I can’t believe that I even love Martha.”

“Oh, come on please! Don’t say like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you should not hate Martha for what happened to your father. You know very well that Rita was cruel to her daughter as well.”

“Rita…Rita…This name is simply just burning me. I will kill her with my own hands.”

“Brad…I understand that you are filled with rage. But I would request you to consider about your two children.”

I silently started weeping thinking about my kids.

“Oh, God!” I uttered. “This is just killing me now.”

“I understand.”

“My own hands are tied.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way out.”

“No, we can’t.”

“Brad, just calm down.”

“I will kill this woman. I’m sorry but I just can’t spare her alive.”

“This will break Martha apart.”

I said quite reluctantly,

“I…I don’t care. I won’t let her know about all this.”

“What are you saying? Look my friend, you are probably not listening to yourself. I’m just suggesting you to take some rest. You are getting very emotional. The wound in your heart is fresh right now. You need some time alone. Give it all a deep thought and then make any decision.”

“I don’t care. No matter how much I think. By the end of the day, I just want Rita to be punished. So be it.”

“Why don’t you choose some other way? Like involving the cops and do all the proceedings according to

the law.”

“She herself is in power. She owns the law,” I replied.

“That’s not exactly true.”

“Look, even if I do it all legally, it will definitely break my family apart.”

“How?”

“If I win this case, she would be hanged to death. That’s the most that can happen to her. So, naturally, Martha won’t be happy about that either.”

He was speechless for a while. I continued,

“I am not going to harm Martha for what her mother did. But I have to punish this cruel woman. Or else I won’t be able to live with myself.”

“What if you get hanged after this? Your kids, they will be shelter less. Think about them.”

He kept me thinking yet again. After a while, he asked,

“Do you want to know why she shot your father?”

************

In my life, I have felt two emotions really severely. And the two of them have been for separate people. Love and hate are the two emotions that I have felt quite deeply in my life. These two emotions have been extreme and have shaped my personality.

My father Richard and my wife Martha, these two have really made me love. I have loved both of them with all my heart. And my love for them has always been an extreme one.

Regarding hatred, my mother in law is the person I have hated with my soul. I hate her so much that I do not have enough words to describe my hatred for her.

The second person that I have hated the most is none other than myself. Yes, I hate myself for the way things have turned out to be.

If only I had taken my father’s disappearance a little more seriously, I would have discovered this truth a lot sooner. I blindly believed my uncle and got involved with Martha. Obviously, if I had known this earlier, I would have never gotten so much involved with Martha.

Later that night, while I was walking at the streets headed towards my house, I was wondering that at what point my life had turned. I have no words to describe how much disturbed I was. Although, I was planning to bring the twist in time by taking some necessary actions.

Martha would get hurt, maybe. But I would be satisfied eventually, that’s for sure. Rita’s murder would satisfy no one more than it would satisfy me. After this crime,

if I would get sentenced to death, I wouldn’t feel upset about it, as long as my two children are being taken care of.

Thirty minutes later, Martha reacted to what I just told her,

“Oh, my God! I just can’t believe it.”

“It’s the truth.”

She stood up and walked towards another side holding her head. She asked me,

“Are you one hundred percent sure about this?”

“I have seen those videos with my own eyes.”

“Oh, God!”

“If you want, I’ll show you the videos as well.”

“Brad…I am really sorry about this. In fact, I know that even saying sorry is not enough.”

I stood up and said to her,

“That’s right, and the only thing that can satisfy my or my father’s soul is your mother’s demise.”

“Oh! Come on, you can’t do that.”

“What would you have done if you were in my situation?”

She got silent as she had no proper answer to my question.

I looked around in the room and said,

“I’m sorry, but this family can no longer remain a family anymore. Rita is going to die. And she will die out of my hands. You can either die while trying to save her or you can move out of the way.”

“Oh, God! Brad, are you out of your… do you even know what you are saying? You are even willing to kill me for this.”

“Not you, but any person who will try and save her.”

I walked towards the exit of the room and Martha stepped right in front of me, blocking my way.

“You will kill the mother of your two children?” she asked me.

“I don’t want to. But if you will defend that ruthless woman, you will die with her.”

Martha who started crying there and then, tried to control herself and then said trying to calm me down,

“Alright Brad, let’s talk this out. Let’s sort out a solution for this.”

“I’m listening.”

“You and I are living a happy and a very peaceful life, for quite long now. This murder will not benefit anyone.”

“It will benefit my soul.”

“Come on, think about it please.”

“What is there to think of? Your cruel mother shot my father dead. No one is questioning her.”

“If you will kill her, you will get arrested.”

“I know. And I have no problem with that,” I responded spontaneously.

“What about your kids?”

I had no answer for that and so I moved past her and said,

“I am arranging a gun. Within a few days I am going to do what I have to do. You just step aside and worry about our kids.”

I left the spot. She started crying as I left her.

**************

Next evening, while I was having a coffee at the gallery of our house, I saw my son crawling towards me. I looked at him and realised how much I loved him. But this kid reminded me of Rita as he was from her bloodline.

That moment, Martha came from behind and picked him up. I looked up at her and then turned away my face and eyes.

After a moment, she asked,

“So, what have you decided finally?”

I did not respond to her. She then asked,

“Are you in a mood to talk?”

I looked up at her and said,

“If this marriage has to end then, so be it. The court will decide who will get the kids. But nothing can prevent me from killing Rita now.”

“Brad…You are my husband and I know that you love me. Please, I just want you to think of an alternative idea. My mother, leave her and punish me. I’ll accept any punishment on her behalf.”

“Please, don’t do this.”

She wept and said,

“Brad, please spare my mother.”

I angrily stood up and threw the cup of glass on the wall causing it to shatter. My son started crying as he saw this.

“Damn you!” I yelled at Martha.

She started crying even more holding our son tightly.

Next afternoon, I returned home with a hand gun in my hand. I wanted to show it to Martha.

Martha saw me and almost screamed. I showed her the gun and said,

“I am going to Rita’s house. You will get to know what happened further through the police.”

“Oh, God! No!” she exclaimed.

to be continued...