The hardest part of that whole thing was getting him to come down to my room. To act as if everything was okay. To kiss him. To feel his disgusting hands on me. I thought he got suspicious a few times, especially when I “accidentally” scratched his face while he was feeling me up. But men think with their dicks, so he wasn’t distracted for too long.

But after Amaya helped me destroy my room, gave me a massive shiner, and left, I changed my mind. This wouldn’t work. It made me out to be a victim—a weak damsel in distress. Not a great narrative at all. And besides, Spencer was oily enough that he’d probably find a way to slither out of any accusations. And what if he leaked the images of my dad out of spite?

Could you imagine what that would do to my reputation?

No, I needed a better plan. One where I came out on top, like I always did. And that’s when my mother showed up. She all but laughed at my ideas and gave me a better one. Then she convinced my father not to call the police right away, telling him that it would ruin our family name, and had him use a third-rate security company instead. Thank god, because there was no way this whole charade would have ever held up under a serious investigation. She also pretended she had no idea who Mr. Ananda was during her interview, so that he wouldn’t get called in for questioning instead of showing up at the beach. She even managed to get me a gun, though it was touch and go for a while there.

Amaya was my backup in case Mr. Ananda didn’t work out. In case he didn’t respond to my message and meet me at the shack on the beach. That’s why my recording was so ambiguous. I hadn’t quite decided who the true villain was yet. No way could it have been Spencer. At least, not to the real world. I could picture the headlines now—Groom Attacks Bride the Night before the Wedding. I’d have been a fucking laughingstock. Everyone always blamed the woman for letting it get that far. Why wasn’t she a better judge of character? Why couldn’t she just leave? If only things were ever that easy.

Of course Tehani had to almost ruin everything by drunkenly staggering to my room while I was in there with Spencer, but fortunately Amaya knocked her out. That whole debacle got swept away, thank god, along with all accusations against Amaya. She did come out the hero in this. She should thank me, really.

“Well, everything’s done now. Things can go back to normal, hopefully. I’ll just use all this press to get another endorsement or something. Things always work out for the best.”

“No need to get cocky, Kaavindi. Be prudent. You’ll probably need to be in the months to come.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t believe you haven’t noticed. I thought we’d taught you better than that, but then, you have been distracted, I suppose. Fonseka Jewellers has not been doing well, Kaavindi. So much so that I’ve had to dip into your charity fund from time to time.”