My Dear Deadly Husband

Chapter 1

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She stared at the soft shell crabs snug deep into a pale of ice. Right next to it was the steamy quiche placed perfectly on a silver platter.

Gazing at all the options, she hummed to herself and started grabbing them all.

"Like the assortment?"

She immediately recognised the loving voice behind her and turned around, a piece of the quiche already in her cheeks.

Therestood her father, a gentle man wearing a modest black suit and a matching modest black bow tie.

"Darpf, yurf goft ta turw dis!" she muffled.

Her dad raised an eyebrow at her, shaking his head and sighing with a low chuckle.

"Rose, remember, there is such a thing as chewing and swallowing."

She gave a shy grin. She quickly chewed her cheeks filled with quiche and swallowed the remaining contents.

"You should try some," she gestured to her plate stacked with food threatening to fall off , "Oh, wait--- aren't you lactose intolerant?"

"Maybe later, sweetheart," he said while looking around nervously, "I need to have some talks with the others about the company."

She gazed at her plate and struggled to find a piece she could pick without everything toppling over.

"About?"

"Just some business stuff, nothing major. You know the same old, same old."

She had decided to pick out a little tempura piece the size of her pinky and placed it in her mouth while her dad searched the room.

It wasn't all that big to begin with. Maybe the size of two classrooms. Just enough to fit a group of company men and women looking for connections and start-up relationships in this competitive industry.

Her dad asked her if she wanted to come last week, and having nothing do once having finished her schooling, she just agreed on the whim that there would be good food.

And she was right.

"Oh, there's some of the people I was talking to before," her dad said while glancing at a group of middle-aged men in the corner. "I'll be right back, just tap my shoulder if you need me," he whispered while shuffling over to the group of tight-lipped looking men.

'Funny, they all look so serious,' she thought while watching the men her dad left off to. 'They look like they are playing some sort of game where you can only talk without using your mouth.

Oddly to her, the group was like an inconspicuous group of witches planning a secret cult.

They whispered and hushed lowly, even sometimes gazing outside the circle to someone in particular where they all glanced over to.

Maybe to mock someone or to judge their outfit. Just like your neighbourhood wives.

She didn't think her dad belonged with them. 'He was too nice for his own good,' she thought.

She shook her head while seeing him try to play along with their antics of looking at a person who walked past them and whispering something inside their cult-circle.

'Maybe it's a ritual?' She chuckled to herself.

She got tired at looking at her dad trying to fit in and started wandering eyes around the room. While looking around at the other people, she noticed one group of people.
Particularly consisting of only females.