A Patient Revenge

It was our sixth wedding anniversary; Jeff and I were supposed to leave for our much-awaited vacation at the end of an exhausting year. Everything was perfectly planned, but I had to cancel at the last minute because I was needed for an upcoming cosmetics project. Jeff accused me of putting work before our marriage and stormed out of the house.

I didn’t know where he was for the rest of the day. I called him several times, but he eventually switched his phone off. It was the same the following day as well; his phone was off all throughout. I dropped by his office on my way home the next day to see if he had gone there, but his colleagues said they had not seen him. I noticed that his secretary, Tiffany, was not in her seat. I asked Jeff’s colleague George whether Tiffany was out and he said she called in sick that morning.

Suspicion soon snuck into my mind. There were a couple of occasions in the past where the two of them had coinciding plans that kept them away for a couple of weeks. Now that it was happening for a third time, I was beginning to wonder if those events weren’t coincidences to begin with.

I called Tiffany’s phone; she didn’t answer. Then I called Jeff. He finally answered and said he was out fishing, and that he’d be back when he’s calm. That made me even more suspicious of them. He didn’t answer any of my calls until after I had called Tiffany.

I left for Tiffany’s house right after, but parked my car a block behind and walked the rest of the way. She was in the outskirts of the town where there were barely any neighbours around, so I snuck behind some shrubs across the street from her house and kept watch. Jeff’s car wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but he may have parked it in her garage. The curtains were down and the door was closed, so I had no way of confirming that he was there, but that’s when an idea popped into my head.

I called a nearby restaurant and ordered some pizza for them. An hour passed while I stayed hidden. When the delivery man knocked on the door, it was Jeff who opened it. My heart shrivelled and sank the second I saw him, and suddenly, I found a seething rage coursing through my veins. I could never forgive him for what he had done—I wanted him dead. I drove back home and locked myself in the bedroom. I had to hold back every fibre of my being from thrashing the house. I spent the next hour alone with my thoughts, and soon, I knew how I could exact my revenge. I just needed to be patient.

Jeff’s birthday was in the following week, but my twin sister Jenny said she fell ill just a day before, so I dropped by Jeff’s office to tell him I was going to stay with her for a few days since she lived alone. On my way out, I asked Tiffany if I could borrow her lipstick because I had forgotten my own and used the restroom to freshen up. I gave her the lipstick before leaving and headed to Jenny’s place. That same day, I got a call at midnight from the police saying Jeff died in our house. As expected, Tiffany had been with him at the time—my plan had come to fruition.

Jenny made herself ill to help me with my plan; as she was a doctor, her alibi was solid. I switched Tiffany’s lipstick with another one I had tampered with earlier that day. She had no idea she was going to send Jeff into anaphylactic shock the moment she kissed him for his birthday.