Victor looked at his watch and sighed impatiently. Last night, he had spoken to his wife about the importance of being on time tonight. This fancy shindig might be a party, but a lot of important people were here and he needed to make a good impression. The Directors would never trust him to lead an entire international division if he couldn’t even control his own wife. He had explained this to her in that special way he had that she always listened to, and yet she was late.
Someone clapped him jovially on the back, and he turned to see one of the Directors.
“The wife stood you up?” joked the Director. “She’s probably outside trying to decide which admirer to go home with.”
Victor laughed too loudly at the joke that wasn’t funny. He was seething inside. He prided himself on having the most beautiful wife of everyone in the firm, but now she was making him the butt of jokes. He promised himself that he would make her pay for this. He would make her pay so much that she wouldn’t be able leave the house for a month.
Finally, she arrived… dressed to kill.
And that’s exactly what she intended to do.
As she stood in the massive doorway to the grand hall, she felt his eyes cutting across the crowd at her. Anyone else would have looked at him and seen a handsome man lighting up at the sight of his wife. She saw the rage bristling beneath the smiles as he approached her with arms outstretched to embrace her as a normal husband would.
None of these people could possibly know that he was anything but a normal husband. They didn’t know that she was late because she had spent so much time applying her makeup, carefully covering up the effects of Victor’s “discussion” with her the previous evening. She was grateful for the dim lighting here tonight: there was only so much you could hide with makeup.
She didn’t think she could survive another one of Victor’s “discussions”. She wasn’t intending to find out.
At the bar, no-one noticed a tiny white pill slip from the palm of her hand into his wine. She excused herself to go to the restroom, and from the other side of the room she watched him drink from the glass. As he fell to the ground, she slipped out and disappeared into the night, to start a new life.
This week’s Indie Ink Challenge came from Britania, who gave me this prompt: She showed up–dressed to kill.
I challenged Mary Terrani with the prompt: It all started with a single scrap of paper.
Running for Autism 
I really like where you went with the challenge. It was interesting, and beautifully written. At one point, I felt like I was actually there! Thank you and well done!
Thank you for the prompt! I am really loving these challenges – they are helping me stretch myself as a writer.
You capture these awful parties so well: the too-loud laughter; the tension; the trying to please; the pretense. And then the wife comes in and shatters it all. Nicely done.
Can’t say I am sorry the bastard got his. I loathe men who abuse women.