The Facts are not Always the Truth.

If people only realized that having everything they ever wanted sometimes comes with a price that no one is willing or prepared to pay. Something is always lacking. You can’t be everywhere all the time. You can't be everything to everyone. Its okay to say NO and still maintain your sanity. Chaz and Khylee Patterson were about to learn this the hard way.

Chaz and Khylee (Wilcox) grew up across the street from each other and were raised in an upper middle class home with both their parents in the late 1990s early 2000s. They went to all the best schools and even in college, they were inseparable. 

Even when their careers started to take off, which seemed like overnight, they still made time for each other but not much else. It was work, hanging out with each other, hanging out with each other and work. Chaz, after making partner, would send all his clients and business dining to Khylee's restaurant, LaRue’s, which she named after her grandmother, and with Khylee’s high end clientele, she in turn referred any legal matters to Chaz. Match made in heaven, right? Until after one cocktail too many at that faithful New Year’s Eve party, they made a drunken but memorable pact that if they weren’t married by 35, they would marry each other no questions asked with no strings attached with prenup in both of their fists. Sounds simple, right? It worked out fine for a while. They were very successful, childhood friends, independently wealthy; they were living the cooperate dream. What could possible go wrong?

It's something about signing a piece of paper that attaches a man and a woman in matrimony that changes the very essence of a person. No one seems to know why but its like a grey haze or a foggy film just attaches itself like a leech when two people say, “I do!” in front of God and a few witness. Sure at first, they had a generous amount of love and respect for each other like best friends do. They even tried to consummate the marriage by having this elaborate honeymoon. Truth be told: this was the beginning of the end.  

It wasn’t a secret that Khylee and Chaz weren’t what they appeared how and ever comma they were 100 percent of the couple they pretended to be. The marriage (well, lets call it what it really is: a business deal) was doomed from the beginning.  Even though they sincerely gave it quite the effort, what with planning date nights and romantic weekend getaways, they both knew that an invisible line was drawn and they crossed it. They felt that they could learn to love each other but something went horribly wrong. Eventually, they both wanted out but neither wanted to pull the plug or was even brave enough to bring it up and with no children, you would think this would be easy, right? WRONG!

Soon, they began to sleep in separate wings of the estate which was merely a place where they slept and kept their clothes with the occasional small dinner parties and family gatherings. It’s all about appearance, right? Ironically enough, their family was none the wiser. 'Chaz and Khylee' …… 'Khylee and Chaz' is what their parents bragged about to all their friends. Little did they know…….

Eventually, Chaz started taking on extra cases and business trips just to be away from home. Khylee started taking on more as well just to keep from running into Chaz. These two self made millionaires had everything that everyone envied….. except real joy and real happiness and someone to love and share it with. They never talked about the elephant in the room, only threw money and space at it. They adorned each other with lavish gifts on holidays, birthdays and yes, anniversaries but they never grew in love. They secretly grew to hate each other. They were never unfaithful to each other. They were polite and professionally nice to one another. Living in a situation like this can turn a good person’s heart sour quicker than fresh milk can spoil in the hot Mississippi July sunshine.

After a long day at the restaurant and fighting through the thunderstorm, the last thing Khylee wanted to see was the house completely dark. ‘Power outage,’ she thought. “You would think the generator would kick in.” she scoffed. As the garage door opened, she saw Chaz’s black BMW. ‘Huh! That’s strange ‘ she thought. “The car was backed in. He NEVER does that.” She drove in the garage. Khylee opened the door of her red Lexus and noticed that the BMW was completely dry. She put her hand on the hood of his car and noticed that it was cold. He had been home or, at least the car had been, for quite some time. Just as she started to close the garage door, she thought she heard something like sounded like echoing foot steps but dismissed it as the weather. She allowed her eyes to scan the room just before retrieving the bags from the trunk.

Upon entering the darkness of the house, she called out for Hannah, the housekeeper. No answer. She then called out for Chaz. No answer. She gasped as the clap of thunder startled her. The only lights were from the oil lamps in the distance.   

Walking into the kitchen to place some bags on the counter, she nearly lost her balance as her left foot brushed up against something on the floor.

She was beginning to get nervous coupled with anxiety as the lightening illuminated the room, she saw Chaz’s lifeless body lying face up in a pool of blood with her signature kitchen knife buried in his chest.

Her blood curdling screams filled the darkness. “OH MY GOD, CHAZ!!!!” Khylee sobbed uncontrollably as her hands begin to shake. “C-Chaz? Chaz, honey, get up, baby” she begged. She knew CPR and First Aid but face to face-ness rendered it null and void. The crackle of the lightening and the deep roar of the thunderstorm shook her to the core. Removing the knife was her first thought so without hesitation, she pulled with both hands and with such force that it made her hands rise above her head in a very suspicious posture. At that every moment, the generator clicked on and Hannah walked in almost peculiar and awkward like with a gasp of horror on her pinched face......witnessing what looked like Mrs. Patterson murdering her husband.....