The ripped open envelope lay on the kitchen table

It was still there when Laura came down for breakfast, wrapped in her winter dressing gown, sheepskin slippers warming her feet on the cold tiles. The optimist in her had expected it to disappear overnight, taking away its hastily ripped edges and its problems. The realist part of her sighed. She would have to deal with it. She cast an aggrieved look back the way she had come. Frankly, it was his issue to worry over and manage, but he could never see it the way she could.

letter with carnations

Laura simply had to pretend it was a thorough delight to host her husband’s ex mother-in-law, she who had to write letters versus messaging or even calling.

And who would spend her whole visit gently chiding Laura for her inability to measure up to the godly, sadly departed, Eve. Well, one mustn’t speak ill of the dead. But the old bag wasn’t dead yet, and Laura would mutter under her breath as much as she wanted.

She scooped the perfumed note out of the envelope and stuck it to the door with a heart-shaped magnet, laughing at the irony.

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3 thoughts on “The ripped open envelope lay on the kitchen table”

  1. The ripped open envelope lay on the kitchen table with Rick staring uncomprehendingly at it.
    No matter how long he looked at its contents, the words refused to register.
    Sally was dead – how was that possible?
    She had only left last week, a cheery wave out the car window as she drove off the last he saw of her.
    Now this letter – a brief note from local authorities in Townsville that she had tragically been killed when her car ran off the road and hit a tree.
    Speeding had been the explanation. Too fast around a bend and bang…. lights out in an instant.
    Rick continued to stare, still finding it hard to understand. Sally was a careful driver. She would never speed, let alone go so fast that she would run off the road.
    He was sure the car must have been tampered with, though for the life of him he could not understand why.
    His wife didn’t have an enemy in the world. He, on the other hand, a totally different story.
    Prosecuting lawyers were not always the most popular people around and Rick knew some of the criminals he had put in jail were determined to get even at the first opportunity.
    One thing was for sure, as he continued to stare sadly at that ripped envelope and its accompanying letter, he was determined to find out.

    1. The beginnings of a thriller – let me guess, her car was in the shop and she’d taken his???

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