Lia

Please tell me he's not dead! "Mark! Please wake up!!" I nudge his lifeless body with my foot. Yep. He's dead. Well shit. At this point, I am only wasting more time. I need to call 911. I reach into my purse and pull out my cell phone. I whisper, "I'm so sorry Mark." and dial 911. Ring. "911. What is your emergency?" "There's a body by the bridge on Route 5 237 Rd." Click. I always sound so frigid and deadpan when I call in the bodies. Mr. Mark will be the 5th 'unexplained' death in Ridge County in the last 6 months. I just moved here a year ago. Maybe I should express more emotion when I call the authorities? Or maybe...I should stop murdering the men I date.

So, it begins. My bullshit story of how I became a murderer. I was a normal child. Blah, blah, blah. I graduated high school with my high school sweetheart Ryan.  Blah, blah, blah. We got married. Blah, blah, blah.  I have two perfect All-American children, Xander and Kelsey, with perfect Dean's List grades. Both children are en route to Ivy League schools.  I cannot imagine my life without them and cannot imagine them discovering their mother's underlying secret.  I love my children, but their father drove me to madness. Drove me to murder.

It seemed like the perfect fall day. The weather was cooler and calm. Football was beginning. All the Halloween decorations were out. The leaves were changing...But that wasn't the only thing changing. I was completely unaware that my 20 year relationship was not only depleting itself...It was non-existent. I knew that Ryan and I hadn't been quite as romantic lately as we should be, but with 2 kids in high school and all the extra-curricular activities that didn't include a 9-5 work schedule, we were exhausted. Or I was. I guess he wasn't as tired as I was because he had found time to fuck someone in the mean time that wasn't me. 

We had been at the park taking fall pictures with the kids. The kids always preferred it this way as opposed to school pictures. It saved so much money. Plus, I was quite the photographer. Nothing was out of the norm that day. I simply walked to the car to grab a soda and Ryan's phone went off. No big deal. I picked it up and saw, "Where the fuck are you? We're supposed to be going out to dinner soon!" Dinner? What? I go to open his phone and there's a password? In 20 years, there has never been a password. As the world starts to spin, I know I have to get through this without anyone knowing. At least not until later.