Chapter 47 / 51 · 1 min

Wait! Wait! Wait! Let Me Read Between the Lines

Roiki had dressed up today. She looked like a fairy. Sometimes I forget my wife is impossibly beautiful.

She smiled sweetly and held out the cup of tea.

“Your tea. You’re supposed to make the tea on Wednesdays. But today I’m doing you a favor. Hmph!”

I tried to smile. Then I reached under the mattress and pulled out the lethal injection.

“You really want to do me a favor? Then use this. I want a painless death.”

Roiki stared at me, the teacup in her hand, her eyes wide.

“On my way to the washroom I saw you mixing sleeping pills into the tea,” I said. “Most likely you were going to wait until I fell asleep, then cut me to pieces with the kitchen knife. Isn’t that right?”

Now Roiki caught the scent of fear.

I kept going.

“It’s not that you were the only one trying to kill me. Ever since I found out about Ratul, I’d been planning to kill you. With this lethal injection. The painless way. But I couldn’t find the courage. You found yours first. So you’ve won. Take the injection. I don’t feel like drinking the tea.”

She didn’t take the injection. She stood there with the teacup in her hand, a whole tide of emotion playing across her face. I tried to read them. Anger, despair, regret, fear, love.

…Wait. Wait. Love? Why love?