Samantha Cordial married Gabriel Green. They moved to a converted warehouse and started to do it up. It was hard on their low salaries.
He hated it when the neighbours dropped by, but tried to hide his anger.
And he did enjoy some of the visitors very much, to his wife's chagrin.
But he proved to be an intensely jealous husband. Samantha had only to look at another man for him to become angry. because she had always lived in Ayodrya, and had many friends, both male and female - so fights became regular occurrences. Samantha always seemed to be apologising to him for some imagined slight.
"I didn't mean to flirt with Carlos, he was just telling me he liked this dress."
Her oldest friend, Connor Weir, invited them to his new home for dinner one night. Gabriel was already on edge. "Who does he think he is? 'His butler will cook?' Is he trying to get one over on us - we live in a warehouse!"
"I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you, darling. His butler is a fine Cordon Bleu-trained chef. Eating there is better than the best restaurant. And free. We haven't got much money... It will be fine, really." Sam did her best to calm him down, and hoped against hope that the evening would turn out all right.
Unfortunately, literally as soon as Connor greeted Samantha, there was trouble.
"What do you mean, hugging him like that?"
"He hugged me. I..."
"I'll show you, you vixen."
Connor, shocked at this display, told Gabriel to leave before he called the police. "Nobody hits women on my property."
"Yeah, yeah, Mister Bigwig. Just wait till I get you on MY turf."
"Should I call the police now, Sir?" asked the butler from the doorway. Gabriel stalked off.
Samantha shuddered and started to follow her husband. Connor took her hand. "Come and at least eat with me. We haven't had any time together for ages, and the food is too good to miss. You look half-starved, too."
Connor, well-brought up Sim that he was, was careful to avoid any mention of Gabriel or Samantha's marriage during dinner.
Afterwards, comfortably full, they sent the butler home, and sat on the couch.
"Now, talk to me," he said.
So it all came pouring out of poor Samantha. How she got hit, shouted at, insulted, how her cooking was never good enough, her hair never looked nice, the house was always a mess - according to Gabriel.
"The worst thing is that if I talk to anyone - well, you saw." She started to cry again.
Connor hugged his friend. "I'm sorry. But why, if you don't mind my asking, why did you marry him?"
"It was that silly party, do you remember? when he was new in town. I don't know what I had to drink that night but there must have been a lot of it... I woke up with the most awful headache, and next to him in bed."
"I thought the drinks were spiked that night. And then?"
"Well... I didn't know what had happened but I guessed... He asked me to marry him that day, told me he never wanted to let me out of his sight."
"That fits."
Suddenly Samantha jumped up and sat on Connor's lap. "I need a cuddle!"
He sat with her for a long time, just talking. His old friend was a naturally affectionate person, and whatever he felt for her, now was not the time to show it. He was the perfect gentleman, after all, she was a married woman... it made his heart ache but he would not do anything that might hurt her more.
When Samantha did finally set off home, Gabriel was up and waiting for her, in an evil mood.
"You've been with him, haven't you?"
"No, I have not. We talked, that's all."
"Talked? Is that the new name for it?"
"You need your eyes tested, if you think anything was going on with me and Connor. He's my oldest friend, and a perfect gentleman."
"It's five o'clock in the morning. You think you can stay with another man till 5am and then tell me you TALKED?"
She ran outside, trying to escape the beating that she knew was inevitable.
She limped inside and washed her face. Maybe she could have a rest now. But he followed her into the kitchen and started again.
"You're just a tramp."
"You won't let it drop, will you?" From somewhere she found a little courage and started to stand up to him. That was her fatal mistake.
She tried to run away when she realised that he wasn't going to stop hitting her, but he caught her.
"Oh, no you don't get to run back to your boyfriend."
She did try to fight back but was far less strong than him.
"Oh, my God, she's dead... what have I done?"
Almost completely crazy now, it seemed to make sense to tidy away her remains. So he cut her body up, thinking it might fit in the chest of drawers - but it wouldn't go there. So he put some of her parts in the bin, and some rubbish on top of it. He buried her head in the garden, under a bush.
Then he was sick.
That night her sister phoned and asked to speak to Samantha. He pulled himself together. "She's gone for a short holiday, and I didn't go because I'm not feeling very well," he said.
"Why didn't she call me then?"
"She said she needed to think some things through, and wanted to be by herself."
Of course Kimberley knew things were not going
well between him and Samantha so she accepted this, though she had a bad
feeling. Gabe opened some more beer and
tried not to think about what had happened to him.
Another sleepless night.
However, someone came by in the night and kicked over the bin. Before it had been emptied. And there was a leg and a foot visible in the rubbish... when the papergirl came by in the morning, it was obvious what had happened here.
"You have to do something about this," said the reaper.
Gabriel, upstairs getting ready for work, never heard her sneak into the house.
"Please come straight away, I'm scared of him."
"What the fleep do you think you are doing?"
Amy screamed. "I saw it -in the bin - you killed her! I've called the police! Stay away from me!"
Gabriel put a brave smile on, "Good morning, officer! I just found this brat playing pranks with my phone! Have you come to take her away?"
"I have some questions to ask you. Amy, would you wait outside please?"
Gabriel was going to prison. For a very long time.
"Thanks, Amy. I'll be in touch to get your statement," said the policeman.
Samantha's sister Kimberley was totally shocked by her sister's murder. She couldn't understand how anyone could be so evil as to take another Sim's life. She decided she would stop playing with magic, "put away childish things", and concentrate on her career.
It took several baths in the special ingredient the Gypsy sold her but eventually she got all the green off her skin.
She had the house refinished in stone, a balcony made, and reroofed, and built a small observatory in the garden.
