Chương 5
My throat tightened.
“Profiles?”
“Personal weaknesses.
Financial pressure points.
Family problems.
Anything he could use.”
David stepped closer.
“Give me the phone.”
I moved away.
It was instinct.
Not fear.
Not yet.
Instinct.
He stopped.
And that hurt more than if he had tried to take it.
Because his expression told me he noticed.
“Maya.”
His voice softened.
“I need you to think.”
I almost cried.
Because that was the phrase he used when he wanted me to doubt myself.
Think.
Slow down.
Be reasonable.
Those words had always sounded like care.
Now they sounded like a locked door.
Elaine spoke again.
“Maya.”
“Yes.”
“Ask him about the night you met.”
My eyebrows tightened.
“What?”
“Ask him why he chose you.”
David's face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“Elaine, don't.”
The warning in his voice was unmistakable.
I felt something inside me shift.
Not break.
Shift.
“Why did you choose me, David?”
Nobody moved.
He stared at me.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
His mouth opened.
Closed.
“I don't understand the question.”
“That is the problem.”
My voice shook.
“You always have an answer for everything except the things that matter.”
For the first time since I had known him, David looked unsure.
Not guilty.
Not defeated.
Unsure.
“I met you at the conference,” he said.
“Yes.”
“You were smart.”
“That is not an answer.”
He looked around.
At my father.
At Sarah.
At the people watching.
He hated that the audience had changed.
Before, everyone had been on his side.
Now they were waiting.
“You were different,” he said.
I swallowed.
“That is what you always said.”
Because he had.
Every month.
Every anniversary.
Every time I questioned why someone like him would choose someone like me.
You are different.
You are not like other people.
You make me want to be better.
I had believed those words because I wanted them to be true.
Elaine's voice came quietly through the phone.
“Ask him about the interview.”
My skin prickled.
“What interview?”
David looked at the phone.
“Maya.”
“What interview?”
His silence answered before he did.
“There wasn't an interview.”
Elaine interrupted.
“There was.”
The world became very still.
“Three months before you met him, David had a private consultation with a company that specialized in wealthy clients.”
My eyebrows pulled together.
“I wasn't wealthy.”
“No,” Elaine said.
“You were listed as a potential spouse candidate.”
The sentence made no sense.
“What?”
Sarah looked at me.
“Maya.”
I barely heard her.
“A candidate for what?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Elaine said:
“For someone who needed a public image change.”
I stared at David.
The man I had planned my entire future around.
The man standing in front of me with my wedding ring still on my finger.
And suddenly I couldn't remember the first time he said he loved me.
Not because it didn't happen.
Because I couldn't tell anymore if he meant it.
Because it didn't happen all at once, I kept trying to convince myself I was misunderstanding.
That was the cruel part.
A stranger's accusation would have been easier.
A stranger could be dismissed.
A stranger could be angry, jealous, mistaken.
But David had built an entire life around knowing exactly which parts of me were fragile.
The problem was not that he knew my weaknesses.
The problem was that I had given them to him willingly.
I had trusted him enough to hand him the map.
I just never imagined he would use it to find the places where I could break.
The phone went silent.
Elaine was gone.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The first person to move was my father.
He stepped toward me slowly, like approaching someone standing too close to the edge of something dangerous.
“Maya.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
His face softened.
Not much.
My father had never been a man who showed emotion easily.
But I saw the regret there.
“I should have listened more.”
The words surprised me.
“What?”
He looked down.
“I spent the entire night trying to figure out what you did wrong.”
That hurt because it was true.
“I saw you run from your own wedding,” he continued.
“I saw your sister dragging you away.”
He swallowed.
“And I thought the worst thing that happened was that you embarrassed yourself.”
I looked away.
The worst part was that I understood him.
From the outside, it did look insane.
A bride destroying her own wedding cake and disappearing with her sister.
People didn't see fear.
They saw chaos.
“I don't know what is true,” he said.
“But I know I don't like the way he answered.”
David looked at him.
“Richard.”
My father turned.
“No.”
The word was quiet.
But it stopped him.
“I defended you for years because my daughter loved you.”
He shook his head.
“I am not sure I ever actually knew you.”
David's face hardened.
That was when I saw something I had never seen before.
Not anger.
Fear.
Not fear of losing me.
Fear of losing control of the room.
“You are all making a mistake,” David said.
His voice was calm again.
Almost too calm.
“My relationship with Maya has been built on honesty.”
Sarah gave a bitter laugh.
“That's your defense?”
David ignored her.
“Maya, you know me.”
I wanted to answer.
I wanted to say yes.
But my mind kept pulling up small moments I had ignored.
The time he asked why I kept my old apartment after we became engaged.
The time he casually mentioned the name of my former manager even though I had never introduced them.
The time he guessed exactly how much my student loans were before I told him.
I had called those things attention.
Care.
Interest.
Now they looked different.
“Do I?” I asked.
The question was barely louder than a whisper.
David stared at me.
“Maya.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I want you to answer.”
His expression changed.
“What?”
May you like
“You said you know me.”
I touched the ring on my finger.
