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

Night creeps across the African landscape, banishing the sun to the other side of the world, the haunting cry of the hyena, and the cough of a solitary lion greets the moon as it rises into the night sky. The flames from the fire reached up into the gathering darkness, and the shadows dance in the light, moving slowly into the center, and then with a flicker of flame, jumping back again.

Juliana sits alone, her evening meal forgotten, her eyes open, but seeing nothing, her mind spinning out of control, backwards in time, memories flash past her vision like a slide show, images of Paul dance in her head... she hears the snort of horses, and the jingle of a bridle and Paul’s low voice carries to her as she pulls on her jeans, wondering what the man of her dreams is up to now.

/"Just make sure that the saddle is tight Simon, we can’t have Miss Juliana falling off./"

/"Not to worry Bwana Paul, it will not slip./"

Chapter20