Chapter 1 - The Razor in the Dark|
The electric buzz of a hair clipper woke me from a deep, dreamless sleep.
At first, I thought I was still dreaming. I had come home exhausted, floating on the highest high of my career. That evening, at a gala dinner downtown, my company had announced my promotion to Regional Sales Director. I had gone to bed feeling proud, still wearing the pearl earrings my late father gave me before my wedding.
Then I felt a cold metal blade pressing hard against my scalp.
A heavy hand pinned my cheek into the white pillowcase. I tried to jerk away, but the grip tightened. Long strands of my black hair began sliding down my cheek, my neck, and across my lips. They fell silently onto the sheets like pieces of a life being cut to ribbons.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!” I shrieked, my voice cracking in panic.
The bedroom light snapped on, blinding me for a split second.
Standing over my bed was my mother-in-law, Beatrice. She held my husband’s electric hair clippers in her hand. Her hair was perfectly set, her face illuminated by a terrifying look of pure satisfaction. She wore the silk satin robe I had bought her for Christmas.
“Hold still, you arrogant brat,” Beatrice sneered.
I thrashed against her, but she slammed the clippers down again, cutting another path from my temple straight back to my crown.
“Stop! Adrian, help me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Beatrice laughed, a bitter, dry sound.
“Call him all you want, Mara. He knows. He agrees.” She turned off the clippers for a second, looking down at the dark clumps scattered across my rug. “Decent wives do not come home after midnight smelling of expensive wine and men’s applause. That promotion filled your head with vanity. I am simply removing what made you proud.”
My hands shook violently as I scrambled backward against the headboard, feeling the sudden, cold emptiness on the left side of my head. Blood dripped from a tiny nick above my ear.
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“I was at my company dinner!” I sobbed, clutching my knees. “You have no right!”
“I have every right,” Beatrice said smoothly. “This is my son’s house, and you will learn your place.”
