Chapter 1

Today marked the one thousandth day of my marriage to Vinny.

I slipped into his favorite blue dress, prepared an elaborate Italian dinner, and bought roses for the dining table. I sat in the living room, eyes fixed on the wall clock, waiting for him to come home.

Seven o'clock passed. Then eight. Nine-thirty rolled around, and still no sign of him.

My stomach dropped.

For months now, Vinny had been coming home late, his clothes reeking of another woman's perfume. Every time I asked, he'd brush me off with the same excuse—"family business." But I knew that jasmine scent all too well. It was Sofia's.

My "caring" cousin Sofia, who played the concerned relative to my face while throwing looks at my husband behind my back. Could Vinny actually be with her right now?

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I grabbed the spare key Sofia had given me and decided to catch them in the act. If I found them together, let's see them try to lie their way out of it.

Sofia's place was pitch black—she wasn't home yet. I climbed the stairs to her bedroom, that damned jasmine perfume thick in the air.

I sat on her bed to wait. Minutes stretched into what felt like hours. Exhaustion crept over me, and before I knew it, I'd dozed off.

The sound of a door opening jolted me awake.

Through the fog of sleep, I heard footsteps downstairs, followed by Sofia's sickeningly sweet laughter.

"Tonight was incredible, baby." A man's voice, low and rough.

My blood turned to ice. That was Vinny's voice.

"I knew you'd come out with me tonight," Sofia purred, satisfaction dripping from every word. "That woman waiting at home—mm, baby—she has no idea what you really need, does she?"

"Forget about her," Vinny said with a chuckle. "I want you NOW."

My heart hammered against my ribs. I rolled off the bed and scrambled underneath it. The footsteps grew closer. I fumbled for my phone, hands shaking as I started recording.

The bedroom door swung open. Through the gap in the bedskirt, I watched two figures stumble in, locked in an embrace. The sound of kissing filled the room.

"God, Sofia, I can't get enough of you." Vinny's voice was breathless.

"Of course you can't," Sofia let out a soft moan, then giggled. "I'm not some boring housewife like her... ah... sitting at home like a pathetic little—"

"Tell me, baby... mm... I'm better than her, aren't I?"

More urgent kissing sounds.

"You will know the answer to that," Vinny murmured.

Then came the sound of fabric tearing. Sofia laughed, uninhibited and shameless.

"Don't hold back... oh... right there... harder."

The mattress began to creak rhythmically.

Vinny said something in response, too quiet for me to make out clearly. All I could hear were more kisses and heavy breathing.

Rage coursed through me, but I forced myself to keep recording.

What happened next was nothing I could have anticipated.

Sofia's moans suddenly transformed into screams.

The bed began to shake violently—not from passion, but from desperate struggling.

"Stop! Vinny, are you insane?" Sofia's shriek tore through the night.

Something warm dripped from the edge of the mattress and landed on my forehead.

I touched it. Sticky and wet—blood.

I almost screamed, barely managing to clap my hand over my mouth in time.

My husband—the gentle man I thought I knew—was murdering my cousin.

A wet, squelching sound came from above, like something sharp repeatedly puncturing flesh. Sofia's cries grew weaker, then stopped altogether.

The metallic stench of blood began to fill the room. I squeezed my eyes shut, desperately trying to convince myself this was just a nightmare.

Several minutes passed in silence. I heard Vinny sit up, followed by the click of a lighter. Tobacco smoke mingled with the smell of blood. Bile rose in my throat.

That's when my phone chimed—a text notification cutting through the deathly quiet like a gunshot.

The movement on the bed stopped instantly.

"What was that?" Vinny's voice turned sharp, alert.

Panic seized me. My heart felt like it would explode. I fumbled frantically to silence my phone, praying he wouldn't find me.

Vinny climbed off the bed and began pacing the room.

I watched his bare feet move across the floor, each step leaving a bloody print. He was searching for the source of the sound, and his footsteps were getting closer.

Suddenly, he broke into a violent coughing fit—that familiar hacking I'd heard so many times lately, the kind that woke him in the middle of the night.

When the coughing subsided, he left the bedroom. I heard him descend the stairs toward the kitchen.

My mind raced through escape options. Jump out the window? Even if the fall didn't kill me, I'd break both legs and be unable to move. He'd catch me easily.

Hide in another room? But there was blood everywhere.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking. Cold sweat soaked through my clothes.

I took a deep breath and made my decision—now or never! I had to get out while he was still downstairs.

I'd barely moved when footsteps sounded on the stairs again.

My heart nearly burst from my chest. I forgot how to breathe. Too late! I scrambled back under the bed, my knee slamming hard against the floor. The pain almost made me cry out. I bit down on my lip and pressed myself as far back as I could go.

He was back. From his shadow, I could see he was carrying something large—a knife.

The next twenty minutes were pure nightmare. I listened as he dismembered Sofia's body, heard the blade striking bone, heard severed limbs hitting the floor with dull thuds.

Just when I thought this horror was finally ending, something rolled toward me.

Sofia's head. Her eyes bulged wide, her face frozen in terror, staring directly at me.

I nearly screamed. I reached out instinctively to push it away.

But then Vinny accidentally kicked something, and the head rolled back in my direction.

Vinny stopped moving.

"Strange..." he muttered, as if sensing something wasn't right.

I watched his feet stop less than three feet from my hiding spot. Then he slowly crouched down. My heart was about to burst. My palms were drenched in sweat.

This was it. He was going to find me. He'd kill me just like he killed Sofia.

At that moment, a gold ring slipped from Sofia's severed finger and clinked against the floor.

Vinny froze, the dripping knife still in his hand.

I squeezed my eyes shut, praying desperately. Please God, save me. Don't let him find me. I don't want to die here...

Just as Vinny bent down to pick up the ring, violent pounding erupted from outside.

"BANG BANG BANG!"

"Open up! I'm back!"