A woman who admitted lying to the courts during a bitter separation used the outcome to secure custody, money and a new country home. She even tried to poison the man. Then she discovered the mountain framed by her prized window carried her former partner’s name in its view: Lindesay. The curtains slammed shut and, according to the story, have remained closed.
[Read SEETHINGS to see how karma found her address.]
Do you like hearing stories about Karma? You’re going to absolutely love the details in the following story.
Karma is the perfect ending to all injustice stories, right? Some believe everyone, at some point, falls before karma’s feet. If we do something wrong to another, karma will find us and pay us back.
If someone wrongs us, they can expect karma to come knocking at their door.
Some of us wish our adversaries would fall to Karma, but that doesn’t happen. They end up living long, fruitful, happy lives instead.
Or do they?
Perhaps we missed the moment when Karma did its work. It’s not like we get karma notifications. It acts in its own time, doing what it does when it suits itself. It may suit itself years later!
When writing SEETHINGS, I included a first-hand, real-life karma moment like that—one that’ll bring you a big smile. It was an unusual but real story.
You’ll probably disbelieve it, but I’ll tell you anyway. You make up your mind.
It’s about an attractive woman I met who’d become separated from her common-law husband.
It was a recent separation, so the pain of it was raw. She despised him for running off with their nanny, leaving her holding their only child.
This simple scenario is a tragic but far too common story these days.
If you’re a woman and have experienced similar, you’ll probably feel tightness in your chest right about now.
It makes sense that this woman would invoke the power of karma to fix the error and deliver him some proper justice.
Right away, she called him that bastard. Based on what she told me, that’s what I’d call him too!
She took charge of the narrative like she was on a mission. It was a story of sadness where she started as a victim but became a hero.
But that was HER drama story.
And it was HER version of it.
It contained the magical fairytale ending she needed others to hear so she could be victorious.
But like every good story, it’s a story. It doesn’t have to be entirely correct. The most important details are covered. The rest is embellishment.
Adding fiction makes it sound better. It allows the story to bend when needed.
She omitted important details.
White lies crept in.
How do I know?
The story kept changing.
The core items remained firm: The husband had an affair. There was an argument where neighbors called the police. There was a Court case.
It was the connecting parts that changed on each pass.
The attempted poisoning didn’t arrive until the story’s fifth instalment.
It was hard for her to keep her lies organised, and for me to keep up with them too.
She forgot what was omitted and added extra detail.
She first claimed he tried to drive over her. Later, she revealed he got in the car to escape the violence, started to reverse, and she threw punches at him through the open window.
Remember, these are her words. I don’t know the other person at all.
To understand what really happened, one had to spend time with her. Chats over coffee wouldn’t have been enough. They wouldn’t last long enough to cut through the layers of bullshit hiding the truth.
Pillow talk fixed that.
As I said, it was a real Karma story – and it went into the book.
It had to.
How could it not?
The nasty things that this woman said and did to this man before, during and after their separation were abhorrent.
I felt sorry for this guy, and I didn’t even know him!
I didn’t know the baby daughter either except she was caught in the middle of a feud fueled by her mother.
But I felt for both of these strangers based on the mother’s words alone.
She got most of his money and, by her admission, lied to The Courts about what transpired the night everything imploded.
Those lies got her full custody of their daughter, more than half his money, plus a large chunk of his future earnings.
Even though he tried to do his best and defend himself from her lies, that bastard never got to see his daughter again.
The woman was determined to keep him from seeing her at all costs. According to her, he didn’t deserve the right to see his daughter (but his money was okay).
She was able to purchase a plot of land in the country and build a new home for herself and her girl. It was her reward for being strong and virtuous in the face of disappointment and adversity.
Although late to the party, karma was about to play its part through me.
She was showing me through her new home and pulled back two large curtains. The light poured in and as my eyes adjusted, I could see the most wondrous view beyond the glass.
“Do you know the name of that mountain?” She asked, pointing to the scene beyond the window.
“Sure, it’s Mount Lindesay.”
I heard a loud gasp beside me, and then the curtains were snapped shut.
She shut them so hard that they clacked loudly when they met.
That room went profoundly dark in two ways.
Although I was unaware of it, I executed my karma part perfectly.
All I did was answer a question. I did it honestly. Spite never came into it.
I had no idea that the mountain’s name was still a mystery to her.
I didn’t know her husband’s name. Why would I? She called him an obscenity, that’s all.
Lindesay! It was Lindesey.
Oops!
She tried to kill Lindesay with poison. She tried to send him to jail. She did everything to discredit him, and now his namesake is a framed feature at the breakfast table!
You’re going to tell me that I’m a liar, and it didn’t happen because there’s no way anyone would build a home and not know the name of a mountain that’s right outside it.
Well, yes, there is a way.
Stay with me.
She was so furious at Lindsey for what he did to her in the past that she lost sight of the future.
Feeding her fury was all that mattered.
She was fixated on getting his money, their daughter, exposing the affair, and having The Court side with her on everything she put forward. She was laser-focused on hurting him as much as she could.
She had to lie correctly and convincingly each time she went to Court. She had to remember which details to leave out and which to keep in. She had to train her daughter to say the right things when asked questions. She trained her to turn on the tears whenever her father’s name was mentioned.
She had to find babysitters while juggling work, writing affidavits, and attending Court hearings.
There was no time to look deep into the new home’s details.
She glanced at the online photos of the land plot, loved what she saw, did the purchase over the phone, and then told the architect to point the house south to feature That Mountain.
The builders sent her progress reports until it was complete.
She moved in, smelled the new paint job and carpet and then went shopping for clothes and furniture. She figured someone would eventually fill her in about the mountain outside her window.
And I did.
I wish I knew Lindesay’s phone number so I could tell him that karma found its way to her door.
If only she had invested more time in that instead of finding ways to deceive the system to beat him.
Lindesay didn’t go away.
He has become a permanent feature in her new life — a constant reminder of the guy she desperately tried to destroy!
I didn’t mind playing the role of karma’s advocate.
It kicked a deserved ass that day.
As far as I know, it’s still kicking it because she can’t move out of that home. Her finances are tied to it, and moving complicates things with the daughter’s new school and routines.
Those curtains have remained closed, and I’m told that she refuses to go to that side of the home when she’s outside.
[No, I didn’t continue seeing her. If she can do that to one guy, she’ll do it to another.]
As I said, this went into the novel—but some readers have said it’s too far-fetched to be real. The chances of that happening are so small that it’s absolutely impossible.
That may be how it appears, but it happened anyway. Those who believe in Karma have a satisfying explanation.
–Michael Forman (Author of Dark Fiction – See Below)
SEETHINGS promises a gripping psychological thriller that blends murder, passion, and secrets of a sexless marriage. Forman’s vivid prose draws readers into a world where lightning illuminates the skies and hidden truths. As the storm clouds gather, Mitchell’s journey promises to unravel more than just the mystery of the murders.
Download eBook Here Now (Free, Limited Time)
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.