The perfect love. The perfect life. A bright future ahead of them, that is until fate and a case of mistaken identity steps in.
Juliana’s world is turned upside down when her husband, Paul is brutally murdered in the darkness of an alleyway in Venice; she is raped and left for dead while the sounds of the Masked Carnival and the killers laughter fills the air.
The only thing that keeps Juliana going is the memories of a perfect love, and her deep desire for vengeance.
With the help of her father, the killers are tracked down, one by one and on the anniversary of Paul’s death, with the sounds of the Carnival in the background, the killers come face to face with the Mask of Deceit, and pay the ultimate price at the hands of a woman who is dead inside.
With the words of her dead husband ringing in her ears.
“Use the knife my love, put the animal out of its misery. Cut its throat.” 
Juliana moves between two different worlds. One that was filled with love, joy and hope for the future. The other filled with pain and death as she uses the blade on her path of revenge and thirst for vengeance.
“There Paul my love, I showed the animal mercy... I cut its throat.” 
From the backdrop of the Carnival in Venice to the African bush, the world that Paul loved she moves like an avenging angel dispensing her brand of justice and spilling the blood of the men that ruined her life. Her appetite for torture knows no bounds as each one is taken to the very edge before being sent to hell. 
As each one dies at her hand she moves closer to closure but has she stepped over the edge from sanity to insanity... will the killing continue once the last is shown mercy and she uses the blade to show the animal mercy or will she heed Pauls call and join him once again.

Mask of Deceit

Juliana takes one more look in the mirror, her hair needs a brush before she joins her parents for drinks, and she knows that now that the last of the scum has been sent to hell, her mother, The Contessa is going to be on her in a flash to put the past behind her, and start thinking of a new suitor and marriage.

She sits in front of the bedroom mirror; her green eyes look back at her, as she slowly starts to brush her long dark brown hair. The wind chimes play their melody in the night, the curtains move slightly, and she knows that Paul waits for her in the shadows, to lead her into the light.

Her mind, now set free of its bonds leaves her, and the hands of time turn back rapidly to Venice, 21st February 2009 when she came face to face with Ivan, the Russian, and she was the last person he ever looks at.

Chapter12