“I am so sorry,” he announced, his voice trembling with fake emotion. “My dear Maya… she has suffered a mental break. The pressure of the wedding was too much. She has run away. Please, everyone, go home. I must go find her.”
He was trying to clear the room so his team could hunt us down.
Then, the sirens wailed.
Six police cruisers screeched to a halt at the entrance. A SWAT team burst through the doors.
The Captain walked onto the dance floor, followed by Sarah and me. I was still in my dress, but I didn’t look like a victim anymore.
David saw me. For a second, he looked relieved, thinking his men had caught me. Then he saw the police.
He tried to play the role one last time. He rushed toward me, arms open. “Maya! Oh, thank God! Darling, are you okay? You had an episode…”
I stepped forward. The room went silent.
I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry.
I walked right up to him. He smelled of sweat and fear.
I raised my hand and slapped him. A hard, cracking sound that echoed through the hall.
“The performance is over, David,” I said, my voice steady and cold. “Your debt is paid. But you’re paying it with twenty years in a federal prison.”
Officers swarmed him. They tackled him to the ground, cuffing his hands behind his back. His mercenaries were rounded up at the exits.
As they dragged him away, he looked at me, his mask gone, revealing the hollow, pathetic man beneath. “I loved you,” he lied, desperate.
