Story Prompt part 3

My friend, Nick Russell, author of the Big Lake mysteries among other books, says his characters often lead his stories off in unexpected directions and he just follows them. I didn’t actually understand that until this woman started talking to me. Here’s the next story she told me.

An Odd Path

“Whew!, I got away with it again. It gets harder each time. But, having made it my life’s mission to rid the world of such horrible men has certainly been worth doing.

I never expected my life to take this turn but I don’t think I’m sorry it did. I would much rather have had my fiancé turn out to be a good man but life so often takes an odd path.

I suppose I should start at the beginning.

When I first met the man who became my fiancé I was impressed by him. He seemed to be a wealthy and generous man. Once we were engaged to be married he gave me nice jewelry that I enjoyed wearing.

Until the day a man accused me of stealing his wife’s necklace. I assured him I had done no such thing but he didn’t believe me and had me arrested.

The authorities said I needed to hand over all my jewelry so I did.

It turned out it was all stolen and I was in big trouble. I told them my fiancé had given me the jewels but, again, they didn’t believe me.

But, they did question him and the rightful owners. It turned out I could prove I was not where the jewels were stolen. But witnesses testified he was there each time.

So, I was freed and he went to jail.Which felt good.

So good I started looking for other bad guys I could help get what they deserved.”