Secrets and Lies | ✔️

Chapter 2 - Talia

Ch2 - Talia Wilson

Death . . .

It's what Talia saw every time she took in the beautiful, rustic dwelling nestled in the marshy habitat of the Florida Everglades.

At first glance, the country cottage was extremely welcoming, beckoning visitors with its soft southern charm. Positioned way back from the quiet rural road, beneath the towering Cypress trees, the house sat unassuming. With its well-maintained lawn and attractive, manicured landscape it appeared a delightful residence, the perfect place to call home.

But the inside told a much different story.

Memories of a sadistic dead man filtered through Talia's troubled thoughts, just as they often did when she was left alone with reflection her only company. She was scarred by the vision of her former husband lying lifeless on the floor, a bullet hole smoldering from the center of his forehead and a bloody tuft of hair matted against pale skin. Talia closed her eyes, trying to shut out the memory of that night and so many others, but those were images she found unable to erase, no matter how hard she tried.

Gathering her nerve, Talia stepped inside the silent house and gently closed the door behind her. It was the first time she'd set foot inside the entrance in nearly three years, since the painful event that had forever changed her. Her eyes traveled over the comfortable decor and large arched windows that at one time radiated the sun's soothing rays. Since Steven's death, the glass had been barred with thin layers of plywood which now only emitted darkness and shadows. Haunting shadows . . . the kind that kept you awake at night, waiting for something unfathomable to slink out from behind them.

And the smell . . .

The burning stench still stung the inside walls her nostrils, throwing her back into a past she was trying desperately to forget. Talia wasn't sure if the scent of Steven's cologne actually lingered in the dank lonely rooms, or if it was simply a figment of her overactive imagination, but she couldn't escape the confines of the expensive fragrance her former husband had bathed himself in. It brought back every abusive memory she had endured during their tumultuous three year marriage.

A crimson remnant of that fateful evening permanently stained the floorboards and Talia had to step aside to avoid walking on top of the mess Steven had left behind. The physical element would eventually  be covered up, but the emotional aspects would hover forever, hidden deep within her, a constant reminder of the horror she'd lived through.

The nightmare is over now . . .

It was a fact Talia had to remind herself as she slowly made her way through the front room and into the next. Colorful and comfortable, with painted cabinets and salvaged hardwood flooring, the vintage-style kitchen invited her in as it had done several times before, many moons ago. Talia had loved spending time there getting to know Charlie and slowly . . .  inevitably . . . falling in love. If anyone had told her back then that she'd met her soul-mate and would be happily married fourteen months later, she would have thought they were crazy! And even though she'd fought it, that's exactly what had happened. Fate has a sly way of disrupting even the most carefully calculated plans, at least that's what her mother-in-law was fond of saying.

Talia shook her head as she recounted the media circus that followed Steven's brutal death. Oh the trouble she had caused! The small Florida town she'd come to call home had been flooded with reporters from every corner of the world all trying to catch a glimpse of the "dead" woman who, as it turned out, was very much alive. When the facts slowly started to unravel, Talia's new life spun out of control. And not only hers, but the lives of the people she'd grown to care about, too.

The desperate crimes she'd committed in order to escape her oppression did not go unpunished. While the legal system ultimately agreed her actions were done in self defense, she had executed certain violations that needed to result in certain consequences. The fire . . . the stolen identity . . . But all of the court-ordered community service in the world far outweighed the life she'd been forced to live in Seattle, where her days had been spent walking on egg shells, careful not to set off the explosive time-bomb that ticked within her erratic spouse.