His Destructive, Toxic Love

"You've been through Nova, Casper, but I'm not the one with amnesia here."

Casper looked a bit sheepish. "What I'm saying is, don't you think this whole thing is a bit odd?"

After all, no one's been in this lounge since it got its facelift.

Eliza wasn't in the mood to play detective.

To her, the reason was crystal clear.

It was just Casper being, well, Casper. A leopard doesn't change its spots.

He was never up to any good.

"Let go of me." She mustered all her strength to break free from his grip, her anger flaring. "Casper, let me go. Can't you understand plain English?"

"Elle..."

"Don't call me that. You're making me sick."

Eventually, Casper gave in, and she stormed out of his office, her anger still simmering.

First thing she did when she got home was hunt down the marriage certificate Casper had sneakily obtained without her consent.

With the certificate in hand, she made a beeline for the registry office and confronted Mr. Roberts. Roberts blinked at her, caught off guard. "And you are...?"

"This marriage certificate, you processed it, right?" She practically threw it at him. "How did you manage this without me there? Where's my divorce certificate? Give it back."

Roberts glanced at the names on the certificate, his forehead twitching. "But you weren't there for the divorce certificate with Mr. Casper either. Does that mean it can be annulled too?"

It always came back to that original marriage certificate.

The marriage still stood.

Eliza wasn't having it.

"Roberts, you want to screw up twice? You really want to lose your job? Hand over my original divorce certificate, and I won't report you."

Roberts thought: Great, he's met his match.

He thought rich folks were a handful, but their wives were a whole other level.

"If Mrs. Welton insists on the divorce certificate, please hold on a moment."

Roberts left the office.

He immediately called Casper to brief him on Eliza's visit. "Mr. Casper, what should we do?"

"She's throwing a fit, and you're asking me? Really? If you leave, where's she gonna go?"

Roberts realized he had a point.

Quickly making his exit, he slipped away.

Eliza waited and waited, but no one came back.

Fuming, she headed home.

Seeing her mood, the household staff practically held their breath.

The more she thought about it, the more it gnawed at her, so she grabbed a knife and headed to the kitchen.

Hearing the chopping sounds, the staff exchanged worried looks.

Afraid of what might happen but too scared to intervene, they called Casper.

By the time Casper got back, the chopping had stopped.

Eliza emerged from the kitchen, her

apron

cold andred with blood, her

intense, with a hint of

menace.

SWOO

Casper froze, swallowing nervously. "What... what have you done?"

In an almost detached way, she barely glanced at him.

She took off the bloody apron, tossed it at Casper, and headed upstairs.

Casper stared at the apron in his hands, the sharp smell of blood making him gag. He peeked into the slightly ajar kitchen door, heart pounding.

A chopped-up rabbit, a chicken

butchered to pieces, and the once-symbolic deer's antlers now unrecognizable, not to mention the wild carp that was now lying ifeless in a pool of blood.

He felt a chill down his spine.

This... couldn't be his fate, could it?

"Clean this mess up," Casper told the staff. "And from now on, keep any

and chickens out of her

sight." ner!!

"Understood, sir."

The staff quickly piled into the kitchen to clean up.

Casper, trying to calm himself, quietly tiptoed back to the bedroom after a while.

The bathroom door was slightly open.

He silently pushed it open to find Eliza sharpening a knife...