Kalsey Plum stared out the window, her reflection ghostly against the fading light of dusk. It had been two weeks since the divorce papers were signed, and every day since felt like a strange, surreal dream she couldn’t quite wake up from. Her ex-husband, Ethan, had been so many things to her—charming, affectionate, intelligent—but the monster he truly was had been hidden beneath layers of carefully crafted lies.
When she had first met Ethan, he had seemed too perfect to be real. He had that easy smile, the kind that made you believe he could fix your problems with a single glance. His touch had always been soft, gentle, and reassuring. He had a way of making Kalsey feel like she was the only one in the room. How could someone so effortlessly perfect turn out to be so vile?
The truth came crashing down like an avalanche. She had discovered Ethan’s secret through a combination of gut instinct and the little things that didn’t add up. Late nights he would come home from business trips with the smell of cigarette smoke and blood on his clothes. There was the way his eyes would dart when she mentioned certain places. But it wasn’t until a call from an old friend at the police department revealed everything. Ethan wasn’t who he claimed to be. He was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of two people—strangers, but still victims in his twisted game.
The first victim had been a young woman named Jennifer. The police had found her body in an abandoned warehouse, but they had never been able to link her death to anyone, until now. The second victim, a man named Michael, had been killed in a brutal attack, his body left in a dark alley. Both murders had remained unsolved until Kalsey’s discovery unraveled the truth.
Ethan had tried to explain himself, of course. He claimed it was all a mistake, that he had been framed, that it wasn’t who he was anymore. But Kalsey wasn’t a fool. No amount of smooth words or apologies could erase the truth. She had seen the coldness in his eyes the moment he realized she knew. It wasn’t remorse she saw—it was fear, the kind of fear that only someone with blood on their hands could understand.
The divorce was swift, final. The papers arrived with a hollow thud, each one marking the death of something she had once believed in. The future they had planned, the love she thought they shared, was nothing more than a facade. The man she had trusted had murdered two people without hesitation, and now he was gone from her life forever.
But the questions lingered. What did she really know about Ethan? Was it possible that she had been blind to the darkness inside him all along? She hadn’t asked the right questions. She hadn’t seen the signs. She hadn’t wanted to. The person she thought she loved hadn’t existed.
Kalsey closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as the weight of the past weeks settled in. She wasn’t sure what came next. The life she’d been living felt like a shattered mirror, and all she could do was slowly pick up the pieces, one by one. But no matter how much she tried to forget Ethan, she knew she would never be able to shake the image of the man he truly was.
