by A. G. Khaliq
And now, you're going down for good.
“Congratulations, Maya. You're in for a heck of a promotion at work. You've done an amazing job. Your boyfriend Brett will be waiting for you, when you go back to Washington.”
I screamed bloody murder, letting out one blood-curdling scream after the other. Feeling my vision go foggy.
Feeling like I’d been shot with a million daggers straight to my fucking heart.
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This couldn’t be real.
This couldn’t be fucking real…
“Now you're coming with me, you fucking scum,” Boss snarled, grabbing hold of Donte. “Get the fuck in the car.”
Donte couldn't even look at me. He couldn't even speak. My heart shattered into millions of pieces, watching tears slide down his cheeks.
I'd broken his heart.
I'd completely broken him...
I had no fucking idea that the truth would come out like this.
I could barely breathe, looking at the hurt, the betrayal and sadness… That was written all over Donte's face.
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When my boss said that he was going to get his own back…
I never fucking expected this.
I began to sob uncontrollably. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I'd ran here to Donte's house to tell him I wanted to marry him, and instead, I saw him get arrested by my ex fucking boss.
Everything that Donte and I had was real...
I loved him.
I loved him with all my heart and soul.
But now, my Boss was taking him to prison...
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And he would rot in there, thinking that I set him up. Thinking that everything we had was a fucking lie.
Hating me.
Despising me.
I struggled for air as I continued to sob, collapsing to the floor as I rocked myself backwards and forwards. Feeling at loss because the one man who gave me the reason to breathe had been ripped away from me. Ripped out of my life, leaving nothing but our memories behind.
My life was over. I couldn't comprehend this. How the fuck did Boss have enough for an arrest warrant for Donte, when I'd never shared any of my fucking evidence with him? When I'd left the Service? All of my evidence was at home in my room. Not in anybody else's 420
hands…
And then I felt the colour drain out of my face as I came to the realization.
The realization hitting me from hundreds of different directions all at once, causing my head to sear in pain.
MY ROOM!
I got to my feet as fast as I could, bolting towards the Highway at full speed, as quickly as my body would will me to move.
It felt like my whole body was failing me, but I ran home, tears streaming down my face. I needed to destroy all of the evidence that I had in my apartment, before my boss got his filthy hands on it.
I could barely breathe. I was 421
struggling to keep myself straight, because it felt like this was a fucking nightmare. That I was trapped in a nightmare and I couldn't wake up. I'd given my all to Donte. I loved him with all my heart...
And my Boss ruined it all.
He blew the whole fucking operation, and every vein inside of me was on fire. All I could do was sob. I wanted to get out of this goddamn maze.
I wanted this all to be a bad dream…
I'd endured a lot in my fucking life.
With the way that Fibonacci used to torture me, with how violent the underground fights got, all those years ago…
But the pain and hurt of those things
were
absolutely
nothing
compared to how I was feeling right now.
422
It felt like my world had been taken away from me.
It felt like I had no purpose in life anymore.
I couldn't live without Donte...
Heck, I could barely breathe without him.
I continued to run, not stopping to take a breath. Heat roaring through my body, pain searing through my blood.
But I wouldn’t stop.
I wouldn’t fucking stop.
As soon as I got home, I bolted to the room where I had gathered all my evidence. I needed to fucking burn it 423
immediately.
But as I stood in the middle of the room, and looked around…
All of the evidence was gone.
Every last bit.
All of the photographs.
The videos.
The documents.
The witness statements…
It was all gone.
It was all fucking gone.
I let out another scream.
Scream.
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Kick.
Wail.
Kick.
Wail.
Scream.
Scream.
Scream.
It felt like I would never stop screaming.
This was why he had enough for an arrest warrant.
He'd broken into my apartment, trashed the evidence room, took all of the evidence...
425
And then tampered with it to make Donte look guilty.
When all I was trying to do was prove Donte’s innocence…
I collapsed to the floor in agony, howling and bellowing as I rocked myself backwards and forwards.
I was going crazy.
I’d reached the brink of insanity.
I was going fucking crazy…
Why did you have to do this, Heavenly Father?
Why did you have to ruin every good thing that I had in my life?
Why did you have to punish 426
another man for my own fucked up actions?
Why did you get me attached to something that was no good for me?
Why did you give me hope that I’d found love…
Only to take it away from me?
Why?
Why?
Why…?
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46
maya
Donte's face kept flashing in my mind.
The betrayal and hurt written all over him.
And I could barely fucking breathe.
I wouldn't even be able to use my evidence to prove his innocence now, 428
because my boss fucking broke into my flat and took it all.
All I could do was sob.
Tears sliding out of my cheeks, pit-pattering onto the floor in tiny little droplets.
Drip.
Drop.
Drip.
Drop.
I didn't know how I was going to live without him. I'd grown so fucking attached to him. My heart belonged to him…
Nobody else.
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I couldn't even live with myself after this.
I had so many opportunities...
So many opportunities to break things off between me and Donte.
To stop leading him on.
To stop stringing him along.
Opportunities to be with other men.
Milo, or other men at the club.
But I always chose him.
I always ran back to him…
And he was always willing to take me back.
430
Like he was my fucking lap dog.
He was head over heels for me, and I hated that I took advantage of him.
I didn't deserve him at all.
I didn't fucking deserve him.
I tried and tried to stay away from him, but my body failed me each time.
And now, I’d got him serving life in prison for something that he didn't motherfucking do.
I saw the real, raw Donte when I was with him.
The real Donte…
And his real emotions.
He'd admitted his involvement in 431
the Mafia, admitting that he was forced into it when he was born, that his parents broke off from it to live a legal life as their children got older.
That the only people he
'd ever killed were rapists, or paedophiles.
He was such a good man...
Such a good man…
And I'd just destroyed his fucking life.
I was a worse person than him.
In the underground fights all those years ago, I'd killed a man. I'd killed a man for the sake of a match, for the sake of some motherfucking money.
The day I got my job in the Secret Service...
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And my boss was probably holding that as leverage against me. He probably had evidence that I was involved in those illegal fights, so that if I ever decided to cross him, he would give that evidence to the police.
Have me thrown in jail.
But I couldn't understand why...
I couldn't understand why it was just Donte that had been arrested.
None of his brothers, Pedro, Iglesias, Arturo.
Not his parents.
Why only Donte?
I furrowed my eyebrows as my torturous
thoughts
kept
flooding
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through my body and mind. My head searing with pain.
This must have meant that his whole family were still at their house.
They
must
have
been
fucking
heartbroken.
His parents had now lost their son...
Pedro, Iglesias and Arturo had now lost their brother.
The only time they were ever going to see him now, was through conjugals, behind a glass wall.
Donte was never going to be able to see the real world again.
He might even be tried for the fucking death penalty for what he was sentenced for.
434
I took a deep breath in, trying my best to get myself together. To regain my strength. My composure. Trying to keep myself calm and sane.
A deep breath in…
…And a deep breath out.
A deep breath in…
…And a deep breath out.
But it was no fucking use. His family must have got the news that I was behind his arrest by now. They were probably going to want to seek vengeance. I double-crossed them... I didn't tell Donte who I really was.
I had to go over there. Make them see sense. Tell them that I had nothing to do with his arrest. Because I fucking 435
didn't. I loved that man... It was just my boss that was up to no fucking good.
Made me look like the bad guy.
I knew that they wouldn't want to hear what I had to say...
But they had to understand things from my point of view.
Yes, I came here as a Secret Agent.
Yes, I came here under a new identity...
But all of the feelings that I had for Donte were real.
And when I'd seen that he wasn't the stone-cold murderer I thought he was, or my boss thought he was, I started gathering evidence to find out who was really behind the murders.
436
Not to frame Donte.
I let out a deep sigh that I didn’t know I was holding, knowing I couldn’t just sit here all day kicking and screaming. I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing, and keep replaying everything that happened over and over to myself like a form of torture…
“I should start making my way there,” I mumbled to myself, before I got to my feet…
And began making my way back to Donte’s house.
437
47
arturo
Dad had Mom in his arms, and she was sobbing against him. My heart broke watching my mother cry. I couldn’t bear this. I couldn’t fucking bear it.
This didn’t feel real. Donte was always the good one. The sensible one.
And yet, he was being put behind bars for 438
something that he didn’t even fucking do.
And that was screwing with my mind to the point of no fucking return.
I couldn’t process this.
I couldn’t fucking process it.
“I can't believe this is happening,” I breathed, feeling my heart hammer against my chest, my head searing with pain at the thought of losing my brother.
My fucking rock. The man I did everything with. Grew up with, built an empire with.
He was in fucking jail.
“I should've known that there was something fishy about that bitch from the start,” Iglesias spat bitterly. “Now we're gonna have to grow up without a 439
fucking brother.”
“Even I had no idea…” Pedro heaved exhaustedly. “She played him so well. Isn't there anything we can fucking do? To get him out of there? To prove his innocence?”
“They had enough for an arrest warrant,” Iglesias seethed, “so I don't think there's anybody getting him out of this.”
I balled my hands into fists, rattling them angrily. Wanting to murder.
I was so angry.
I was so fucking angry.
“What am I going to do without my son?” Mom sobbed. “I raised him so well.
He didn't do this... And now he's going to prison for life, for something that he 440
didn't even fucking do.”
“I know, baby,” Dad sighed. “I know.”
It felt like my lungs were constricting on me, and the walls were closing in on me. After everything that him and Sapphire went through. After he saved her from being kidnapped, and was held at gunpoint for her sake. After he tore the world apart to prove his love to her.
This was what she fucking gave him in return.
“Look at what the cat dragged in,”
Pedro snarled, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I blinked, darting my eyes to the direction that he was pointing at.
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She was here.
The audacity of this bitch.
The fucking audacity…
“Hello, Sapphire,” I sneered. “Or should I say, Maya?”
“You've got some fucking nerve showing up here after what you fucking did!” Iglesias roared.
“I just wanted a chance to explain,”
Maya mumbled.
“Oh, that's fucking rich,” Iglesias snarled. “We've got nothing we wanna fucking say to you. You thought you could just shimmy your way into my brother's life, hypnotize him with a bit of ass, and then use him at your own damn disposal?” Iglesias broke off his sentence, letting out a blood-curdling scream as he 442
punched his fists into the wall behind him repeatedly, until they cracked open and blood was gushing out of his flesh.
“I swear to you. I didn't want any of this to happen,” Maya pleaded.
“Everything I had with Donte was real. I loved him! I can't live without him!”
“You don't know what love is,”
Pedro barked. “I can't believe you did this. From the day I saw you at Indigo Limited, I could see the way that Donte acted around you. The way he behaved around you. I backed off for his sake. We could all see how crazy he was about you, from the first damn day he met you. How he would speak about you, and rave about you.
“And this is what you do to him.” A tear slid down Pedro’s cheek.
Maya continued to sob.
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“I won't deny that I came to Manhattan on orders from my boss. He wanted me to find out who was behind the murders. I started gathering evidence against Donte at first, but as time went on, I saw things. Like Donte killing a rapist in front of my own eyes, and I got witness statements that told me Donte wasn't involved. And as I got to know him better, I realised that he was a good man. I ended up falling in love with him.
“And from that point, I tried to do all I could to prove his innocence. To find the real man behind all the murders.
“But my boss wasn't having any of it. So I told my boss that I'm leaving the Secret Service. But he didn't take it well…”
Maya broke off her sentence, shaking her head as she cried. I was 444
get
ting quite sick of this pantomime act, and her acting like she was innocent in all of this, when she wasn’t. Nothing would be able to erase the actions that she’d done. Nothing would be able to rewind time. Nothing would be able to save Donte from prison now. Nothing would be able to erase the way she fucking betrayed him.
“If any of that was remotely true, then why the fuck is Donte behind bars right now?” Iglesias snarled, rolling his eyes. Doing his best to keep himself together, before he ended up doing something that he would regret.
“My boss broke into my apartment and stole all my evidence,” Maya sobbed.
“You've got to believe me! I wouldn't frame Donte like this! I loved him so much…”
“I don't give a fuck about any of 445
your
damn
reasoning,”
Iglesias
interjected, cutting her off her sentence, seething. “Even if you fell in love with him, you lied to him from the very start.
Your whole relationship was built on a lie. If you loved him so much, you would have come clean with him. You would have told him the truth, before he got on the wrong end of the receiving stick. You would have been honest with him, no matter what it meant for you and him.
Even if it meant letting him go to protect him. You wouldn't have let this happen.”
Iglesias rattled his fists again, his eyes bloodshot, his veins pulsating their way to the surface of his skin.
Each word that came out of his mouth was nothing but the brutal truth.
And it reminded me even more of what we’d lost as a family. Donte, our rock, our foundation. And Maya was here trying to defend herself, instead of trying to make 446
amends. The only thing that would make all of us feel better about this would be her getting Donte out of jail. Not any of this lovey-dovey fairytale bullshit that she was feeding us. Real life wasn’t a fucking fairytale. She was a cop, and Donte was a criminal. There was no more fucking to it.
“I know I can't erase the things I did,” Maya pleaded, her chest heaving upwards and downwards, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I'm so sorry… I don't know how I'm going to live with myself.
