And then, the Poruwa ceremony itself. I smiled, I did all the rituals, I was perfect. I am perfect.

“Glad you decided to keep up your end of the bargain,” Spencer whispered in my ear as he wrapped the necklace on me. It felt like a noose. “I was worried you’d have a change of heart and run away in the night.”

I smiled sweetly so the crowd wouldn’t notice anything amiss. I was just a happy bride, enjoying my big day.

“Kaavi, look, I’m sorry, okay?” He was whispering, also with a smile on his face. “I didn’t ever mean to make you feel trapped. I care about you. I want this. Just give me a chance. You’ll see what a perfect husband I’ll be.”

If my bouquet trembled in my hands, no one seemed to notice.

I excused myself from the crowd as soon as I could. It wasn’t easy. All the guests had to be greeted, elders had to be worshipped, and even though the main festivities were tomorrow, that didn’t stop the Sri Lankan uncles from taking maximum advantage of the open bar and busting out moves on the dance floor.

I was passed around from table to table, making small talk, listening to aunties gush over how I looked in the traditional Kandyan Osariya. I hung on to Spencer’s arm—my husband. Married in the eyes of tradition though not yet in the eyes of the law. He was disgusting, and I didn’t want to be anywhere close to him, much less touch him, but I just needed to get through this evening.

That’s what I kept telling myself.

I just needed to get through this evening.

“Kaavindi Baba, I’m so happy for you.” That was Seetha, grabbing both my hands with a huge smile on her face. “I only hope Amaya Baba will be as happy as you are one day.”

I had forgotten all about Amaya after Mike’s phone call, but who could blame me anyway?

“Thank you, Seetha. I must get going now.”

“Baba, do you have anyone to help you change? Would you like me to stay back?”

“That’s okay, Seetha. I’ll manage.”

That was sweet, albeit a little strange, but Seetha was always a strange woman. Neither Amaya nor I could ever really figure out what was going on in her head. To be honest, it had always freaked the fuck out of me, especially after Gayan’s drunk driving accident. It was cruel of me to accuse Amaya of killing him yesterday. That was just a rumor, of course, and wasn’t Colombo ripe with those? We’d just been surprised that Gayan was as drunk as they made him out to be. We’d all been pretty inexperienced drinkers back then, and Gayan, as always, was more interested in trying to get into my pants whenever Amaya was distracted.

The exhaustion from the past few days had settled into my bones. I had just made it past the guests and was almost inside the main hotel, when I saw someone lunge for me out of the corner of my eye.