CHAPTER 2:THE BEST LIAR

“Did she find out?”. Maya Thought on her way home, maybe it is about work or he is planning a surprise.

Ciara was in the sitting room pressing her phone,The second she saw Maya she flipped the phone face down.

Maya sat across from her. "Tell me everything."

"He is completely obsessed with me." Ciara wrapped both hands around her mug. "He texted this morning already."

"Already? What did he say?"

Ciara's smile broke through,"That last night was perfect…"

Maya reached across the table and grabbed her hand, "Ciara. I'm so happy for you."

Ciara looked down at their joined hands, Something moved through her expression, quick and flat and gone before Maya could name it and then the smile covered it back up like it had never been there.

Maya looked at the bracelet. “Birthday gift, That is all”.

"How's Damien?"

"Good, He had an early morning."

"He always has an early morning..." Ciara picked up her mug”.

Maya pulled her hand back slowly, "Is there something specific you're not telling me?"

Ciara looked at her, "Just a feeling."

A feeling? Ciara had feelings about the neighbor's dog, About the color of the new curtains, About every man Maya had dated since she was nineteen, She was protective, that was the whole of it, That was all this was.

**********

Victoria had set the table properly with Candles, good plates, flowers in the center that Maya hadn't seen come in. Maya sat down and looked around and thought it was just a regular dinner, just Victoria being Victoria, wanting everything nice right up until Damien put his fork down halfway through the main course and stood up.

He didn't make a speech, he just looked at her.

"I don't want to wait anymore, I know what I want."

He put the ring on the table in front of her.

"Will you marry me."

Maya stared at it, She looked at him, looked at Victoria , both hands pressed over her mouth, eyes bright and full. She looked at Ciara, on her feet already, clapping, beaming, the warmest smile Maya had ever seen on her face.

"Yes." “Maya said”.

The room came apart and Damien slid the ring onto her finger and pulled her up and held her, and over his shoulder Maya found Ciara's eyes. Ciara was still smiling wide and warm and completely convincing.

Maya smiled back.

She pressed her face into Damien's shoulder “I think I'm going to be okay.” Maya thought.

Damien left at nine then The house went quiet room by room.

Maya went to brush her teeth and Ciara went to her room. Sitting on the edge of her bed, She picked up her phone, She dialed and waited two rings.

"It worked…" Her voice was low, even and unhurried. "She said yes...". "Exactly as planned…. " and "She has no idea, let's Just make sure the timeline hold."

She hung up and looked at herself in the mirror on the back of her door for a long time.

Her expression did not look like someone who had just watched her sister get engaged.

**********

In the days that followed, Maya started noticing the fog.

Not every morning, Just some of them, a thickness in her thoughts, a half-second delay between wanting a word and finding it. She mentioned it once at breakfast.

"I feel like I can't think straight lately, Like everything's just slow."

Victoria Came and put a fresh cup of tea in front of her.

"You've been under so much stress, baby. The engagement, the planning; Your body's just catching up."

"I keep forgetting things."

"You've always been a little scattered." Victoria patted her shoulder. "Just like your mother."

“My mother” This conversation has nothing to do with my mother… why does she have to bring my mom up. “Maya thought”.

Maya wrapped both hands around the mug and drank.

*********

She was at Damien's apartment three days later, the wedding guest list spread across the coffee table between them, when his phone rang.

He looked at the screen, Let it ring out.

It rang again, He declined it.

The third time it rang, Maya looked up.

"Just answer it, Damien. They clearly need something." Maya stretch her hands to pick the phone.

"Get your hands off my privacy!" Damien roared, snatching the phone away with an ugly rage that shook the walls.

Then he blinked, seeing her terrified face, and the anger instantly faded as he whispered, "Maya... God, I'm so sorry.”

Damien stood up. "I'm going to grab us some more coffee," he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck as he walked into the kitchen.

The moment his footsteps faded, Maya’s eyes glued themselves right back to where that phone was, feeling stupid even looking at it. But if it really was just some annoying coworker calling about a shift, why completely shut the thing down?

Why push it away like it was a ticking bomb about to ruin their afternoon.

“Is he hiding something?” The thought finally formed clearly in the fog.

Maya felt entirely emptied out. Without a word, she walked away from the table, crawled into the quiet safety of the bedroom, and pulled the blankets up to her chin. She closed her eyes, letting the darkness swallow the questions she wasn't ready to answer.

********

He walked through the boutique door and across the room Damien's shoulders went tight.

‘whoever that is, Damien was not expecting him.” Maya thought.

She was standing on the fitting platform in the third dress of the afternoon ivory, fitted through the waist, the kind of dress Irene had been crying happy tears at since the first one and she watched Damien's smile stay perfectly in place while something behind it went away entirely.

He crossed the room like the floor beneath him belonged to him in his late fifties and his shoes echoing loudly on the ground. When Damien lifted his eyes, they widened in shock.

Maya looked at him, confused. "Is there a problem?"

His mouth was still hanging open as she traced his eyes to ELIAS.