The marriage had gone as well as anyone could have hoped considering the strange path we took to find each other but recently things had started to go awry. As a twenty six year old woman, I always found it surreal that I had even gotten married, never mind so young and to someone so different from myself. I’d met Lucas when I was at my lowest and like a bright shining knight, he swooped in and rescued me. I initially said no to the marriage proposal since he was a rich man and I didn’t want people to look at the marriage as if I were a gold digger but eventually I warmed to the idea.

The strangest thing is I had no issue with people knowing that when we met I was sitting at the side of the road ready to leave everything I was behind. I had no issue with people knowing I was a runner, things got tough so I ran.

But I ran toward Lucas rather than away, and it’s all I’d ever done since I met him. I loved him. But recently I had noticed he had become distant, or maybe that was me. Maybe that was me though.

It happened so suddenly. The fight. The screaming. The tears. The rest of my life, planned out so perfectly with this man all came tumbling down when I opened my mouth and told him about my doubts. He told me I was crazy, he told me I had no right to say he was anything other than loving and faithful. And that’s when it occurred to me.

“Otravā”

It was a word I didn’t, know. And yet I did. The voice was a woman’s. The language was Romanian. And the word was poison.

The poison was already in my hand, in his drink, in his mouth. I couldn’t watch as it happened. It sounded painful, his choking and gasping for air. He murmured my name and I couldn’t respond. I didn’t want to.

Could I have become the black widow? I froze, the term caught me off guard. It was familiar. It brought a smile to my face, not a kind and welcoming smile, no, a sinister and tight smile. A hidden intentions smile.

“My name is Vera.”

The voice was not my own, but it came from my mouth. Realisation sunk in, tethered me to the spot. I’d never believed in past lives, ghosts, the lot but Vera...the name made me think of the famous black widow.

Vera Renczi was her name. Could it be that I had lived as this cruel and cold woman in the past? Could it be that I was to become the modern day black widow.

I smiled again.

Had I always known? Perhaps there was a plan my madness set into motion.