Ways To Kill Your Lover

Originally titled, Ten Ways To Kill Your Wife, my artist-bestfriend and I decided to make an illustrated book. I would be the one writing the text and he would be doing the oil paintings (there was a planned exhibit, too).

Why such a project? (I hope he wouldn't kill me for this.) That was the time when his wife-to-be got pregnant. Unknown even to me, he started seeing an officemate and they became an item. I have always reminded him with the saying, "Walang lihim na hindi nabubunyag." True enough, I found out. He later confessed.

With the guilt riding heavily on his back, he wanted to express himself artistically. Preparations were made. Research was started. I scouted for art galleries for the eventual exhibition. Everything was going smooth.

Or was it?

When I thought everything was ironed out, the officemate-girlfriend proclaimed to the world that she was pregnant. A real-life tele-novela unfolded. But the pregnancy turned out to be a dud.

The ending?

He went back to his wife-to-be and they got married and they live happily ever after. Sad to say, it never happened. This is not a fairytale.

He ditched the wife-to-be, hooked up again with the officemate and defied all practical advice. More than ten years with the wife-to-be probably got him bored. Or he probably grew out of love. Who knows?

What about the project?

I threw away the text I started, canceled the exhibit and remained quiet. Though I tried to contact him, he avoided me for a year. Everything suddenly changed.

The Lesson: A simple lie is enough to kill. It could start a series of killings.

Lying to your partner. Lying to other people. Lying to yourself. Serial killing by lying. It then mutates into various forms until you could no longer control it. That's just one of the ways.

As you would soon realize, there are more than ten ways to kill your wife or lover.