Everyone thinks Brad’s a sweetheart. Too bad his wife’s starting to price out poison detectors.
🕵️ Starting Paragraph:
Samantha had stopped drinking the smoothies. Brad always insisted on making them—said they helped with her “mood swings.” Maybe it was just protein powder. Maybe it was arsenic lite. All she knew was that every time she sipped one, she felt woozy and suspicious… like she was in someone else’s dream. Brad never raised his voice. He brought her roses. He doted on her in front of friends. And yet, something wasn’t right. The way he stood a little too close behind her in the kitchen. The way he stared just a second too long when she took her meds. She told her best friend Lisa. Lisa laughed. “Brad? Kill you? He makes his own sourdough starter!” Samantha smiled back, nodding. And quietly, she started hiding knives under the mattress.
🤔 3 Questions to Dive Deeper:
- Can intuition be trusted when it’s the only warning signal you have?
- What would it take for a friend to believe the unbelievable?
- How do you write tension when nothing technically has happened… yet?