AN INTENT TO KILL
659 Words
It started the way most difficult conversations in that house always started, without warmth, without patience, and certainly without room for disagreement. Peter’s mother did not believe in easing into things. To her, hesitation was weakness, and tonight, she had no intention of entertaining it.
“You’ve kept her waiting long enough,” she said, her voice controlled, but carrying that familiar authority that had shaped Peter for most of his life. “Victoria is not a woman you leave in uncertainty. Not with her background. Not with what she represents.”
Peter didn’t answer immediately. He sat there, shoulders slightly tense, eyes lowered just enough to avoid her full gaze.
“She has done everything right,” his mother continued, her tone sharpening. “She carries herself properly, she understands this family, and most importantly, she has never once embarrassed us.”
That last part landed exactly the way she intended it to.
Peter’s jaw tightened faintly.
“You cannot say the same for that other girl,” she added, her voice now edged with clear disdain. “Ashley brought nothing but disgrace. Scandal. Shame. Even now, people still whisper. Do you think I don’t hear them?”
“That’s enough,” Peter said quietly, but there was steel beneath it.
“No, it isn’t enough,” she replied immediately. “You may choose to ignore reality, but I will not. That girl destroyed herself, and she almost dragged this family down with her. And yet somehow, you are still here, acting like there is something left to hold on to.”
Peter ran a hand through his hair, frustration creeping in. “I said I will marry Victoria.”
The words came out firm, but not final.
“Then why hasn’t it happened?” she pressed. “What exactly are you waiting for?”
“It’s not the right time,” he said after a pause.
A cold smile touched her lips. “The right time does not exist. You create it.”
Silence followed.
And outside the door, Victoria heard everything.
She hadn’t meant to stay, but once her name came up, she couldn’t walk away. Now, every word settled into her with sharp clarity.
I will marry her.
It echoed.
It stayed.
But so did the hesitation.
That tiny pause in his voice.
That space he was still trying to hold on to.
And Victoria hated space.
Slowly, she stepped back from the door, her expression calm, composed, but her mind anything but. She had gotten what she wanted, almost. The promise was there. The intention was there.
But intention was not possession.
And she did not build her life on “almost.”
As she walked down the corridor, her thoughts sharpened, aligning one after the other with unsettling precision.
He will marry me.
That part, she no longer doubted.
But the “when”… the hesitation… that was where the problem lived.
And problems, to Victoria, were meant to be removed.
She paused briefly by the window, her reflection staring back at her, poised, controlled, untouchable. To anyone else, she would look like a woman with everything within reach.
But she knew better.
Ashley was still a shadow in all of this.
A weak one.
A broken one.
But still there.
And as long as that shadow existed, Peter would never fully step forward.
Her gaze hardened slightly.
Then I will deal with it.
The thought came quietly, but it carried weight.
No emotion.
No hesitation.
Just decision.
I will have Peter.
Her fingers curled subtly at her side.
No matter what it takes.
The silence around her deepened as that resolve settled fully into place, steady and unshaken.
Even if I have to remove her from the picture completely…
She didn’t say Ashley’s name again.
She didn’t need to.
Because in her mind, the line had already been crossed.
And once Victoria crossed a line, she never stepped back from it.
- Writer
