You're Invited(99)

“Amaya, what the fuck are you doing here?”

My eyes finally adjusted to the darkness of the small room in front of me. It took me a moment to notice the man slumped over in the corner.

“Spencer?” I called out.

“Amaya!” Kaavi said in return.

“Did he do this to you? Did he hurt you?”

“Amaya, god, you’ve got to help me. She’s crazy.” Spencer’s voice was a rasp.

“What’s going on?” I turned to face Kaavi. She looked livid.

“What’s going on is that you need to get out of here right now. Just go outside and hide or something.”

“No way. I’m not leaving you.”

“Amaya, seriously.”

“Leave while you can,” Spencer mumbled. “She’ll kill you too.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Spencer. Kaavi’s not going to hurt me. Or you. Are you, Kaavs?” But she didn’t meet my eye.

“Tell me,” she addressed Spencer now, “tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you. After everything you’ve done?”

“I haven’t done anything, Kaavs. All I wanted to do was give you the life you wanted. That’s all. I’m sorry if, oh god, I’m sorry I did some fucked-up shit to get here. Look, we’ll call the whole thing off, okay? I’ll delete the pictures. We’ll just put it all behind us. You have to understand that I never meant to hurt you.”

“And what about Zoe Bassett, Spencer? Did you never mean to hurt her too?”

Even in the dimly lit room, I could see Spencer pale.

“Zoe? She’s just an ex-girlfriend. I don’t know what crazy shit she’s told you, but I’ve never done anything to her.”

“Like you never did anything to hurt me?” The question was out of my mouth before I even thought about it.

It was the voice he’d just used—placating, gentle, seeking out forgiveness. I’d heard that voice before. I’d fallen for that voice before.

Seeing him here, on the floor, helpless—it brought out a wave of something in me. I’d blown Spencer up as a monster in my head. A powerful, cruel monster who was always able to hurt me. Just the memory of him had been enough to knock the wind out of me. To make it hard to breathe. To make me tremble. And here he was, more than five years later, just a man. Just a man who was trying to hurt again.

“Why don’t you tell Amaya the truth, huh, Spence?” Kaavi spat. “Tell her how you went to our college reunion after Zoe dumped your ass and moved away, because your funds had run out. You needed a quick buck, didn’t you? And you figured the best way to do it was to try and worm your way back into Amaya’s life again. I’m right, aren’t I?”

Spencer didn’t say anything, and my body went cold. Would I never be safe from him?

“But Amaya didn’t come to the reunion, of course. I was there instead. Open and ready to be your next victim.” She snorted. “The thing you should have learned along the way, Spence, is that I’ll never be a victim. And definitely not a victim to a two-faced, abusive pedophile asshole like you.”

“Kaavi, please, you have to—oh my god!”

It was only when I heard the panic in his voice that I saw it, glinting in Kaavi’s hand. A gun.

Where the hell did she get that from? Mahesh said it was near impossible to get one in Sri Lanka.

“Look, I need you to just shut the fuck up and—”

Kaavi was interrupted as the door burst open once again.

It was the bald man I’d seen outside her house on the day of the cocktail party.

“What the hell is going on here? You asked me to meet you and I—”

“Mr. Ananda. Fucking finally.”

Bang!

The shot was so loud my hands reached out on their own to shield my ears. But I couldn’t close my eyes.

Mr. Ananda’s face was frozen as he collapsed, first onto his knees, and then backward onto the ground.

Kaavi stood over him, her eyes wide, breathing hard. She was shaking like a leaf.

She turned over to look at me, panic starting to etch itself onto her face, when suddenly she was falling also. Using what just happened with Mr. Ananda as a diversion, Spencer had managed to get onto his knees and tackled her to the ground.

“You stupid bitch.” His voice was devoid of all the softness and weeping from earlier. “You think you can just get away with this bullshit?” He was wrestling with her now, trying to reach for her gun.

“Amaya!” Kaavi called out, desperate.

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I launched myself onto both of them and strained to get a grasp on the gun myself. Everything became a blur. I was only vaguely aware of a shoulder against my neck. A knee in my back. An elbow to my face. And then finally, my fingers brushed against something cold. I reached for it with everything I had. It was almost out of my grasp, but then it was between my fingers.

And I felt Spencer on top of me, like he had been so many times before. He was trying to pin me down, his face contorted in the same way that still gave me nightmares.

“You’re pathetic,” he heaved.

I closed my eyes. My fingers pulled the trigger.

Bang!

I don’t know if his eyes actually went wide with the realization that I killed him, but that’s my last memory of Spencer.