A Serial Killer's Guide to Finding a Dead Husband

Chapter Three: Respectfully, What the Fuck?

Charlotte remembered how she couldn't help but breakdown seeing Claire in her study, seeing all the horrors that she had committed before meeting her. Claire was horrified of Charlotte but calmed down once she saw her lose it. Of course, someone who commits murder for a job, and manipulating men into sleeping with her is a literal tactic to kill someone successfully and rid herself of any blame to be put on her; would know how to manipulate a simple person into believing and trusting her. Charlotte did have the possibility of killing her, but Claire was such a big help to her when she was suffering so she didn't want to forget her kindness and decided to spare her. Even getting her entangled into her murder business so she can't talk about it to anyone. A true serial killer tactic. Claire and Charlotte agreed that there won't be a third person between them whether they were family, friends or romantic partners. Anyone who came in their social circle had the chances of finding out about Charlotte's profession and would endager both of their's freedom. Except of course Matthew, who Charlotte hired when she first got threatened by one of her clients.

From that point of view, Claire hadn't done anything wrong since technically, there wasn't a new person between them. It was just the old ones getting together and Charlotte honestly didn't care about them dating but she was mad that Claire was the one who eventually got Matthew and not herself so of course, the psychopathic tendencies shall rise and plot to break them up. The whole literal reason why Matthew and Claire kept their relationship a secret.

Matthew and Claire were mostly aware that Charlotte wouldn't just sit back and watch them grow into a big happy family. She'll obviously try to break them up or cause misunderstandings between them, one way or another so, they had polished their defenses in order to not fall in an ugly trap created by Charlotte, but they might've used expired polish since they ended up falling straight into the trap.

Charlotte re-enters the apartment after confirming that both of them had put their clothes on. Matthew sits on the sofa while Claire stands away from him and upon seeing Charlotte runs towards her and grabs her hand, leading her to sit on the sofa opposite to where Matthew was sitting.

"I know this is a lot to take in, so I want you to know that I understand if you want to be mad."

"Mad? Hell yeah I am. You left in the middle of our date just because you couldn't wait to get your crotch destroyed by an arrogant attorney?"

Claire was rather surprised at what Charlotte had said, but she was dumb enough to believe her every word. Who in their right mind would believe a hitwoman and Matthew knew that. He didn't buy a word that Charlotte was saying which were not directed towards their relationship. Charlotte's yapping mostly consisted of words like, you know how worried I was when I heard a man's voice or how you suddenly left saying you got sick. Lies. You'd think that Charlotte hadn't picked up on what was going on but she did, and seeing Claire jump in Matthew's car only proved her suspicions correct. Charlotte wasn't as dumb as he pretended to be whereas the person who handed Claire her college degree should be in jail, considering her intellectual level matched that of a toddler.

Matthew knew the second Charlotte called, that she was trying to find a reason to come over to Claire's. Charlotte set a rule after the whole, my best friend is a serial killer dilemma, that she couldn't afford to let someone else come unannounced in her house, so she set up this rule and to make it fair, Claire had done the same thing. The rule proved useful to both of them since Claire could use this as a trump card to live and spend time with Matthew. Charlotte knew that if she showed up unannounced, it would give Claire a reason to be mad at her and she couldn't afford that since it would make a dent in her whole, fierce on-job and quirky off-job, personality. Charlotte was really good at playing dumb. One of the reasons why she was so good at her job.