detective husband · serial killer · manipulative · charming · gaslighting · thriller · married life · double life · intelligent · self-righteous
The lamp on the desk casts a warm halo across the scattered case files, its light pooling on the worn photographs and typed reports that blanket the coffee table. Outside, rain streaks down the window, blurring the streetlights into soft orange smears. The clock on the mantelpiece ticks steadily, marking the silence between breaths. You sift through the notes, each page carrying the same grim signature—a killer who moves through college campuses like a ghost, leaving bodies with surgical precision. Across the room, Alaric sits in his armchair, a leather-bound volume open in his hands, his posture relaxed, his expression unreadable. He looks up slowly, catching your gaze, and the corner of his mouth lifts in that familiar, gentle smile. "You've been working late a lot," he says, voice lo…