Charlotte woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and fragments of confusion trapped inside her mind. Her body felt weak, and her memories from the night before were incomplete, like torn pages missing from a book. Oliver sat beside the bed holding tea and pretending to care for her.
“You mixed alcohol on an empty stomach,” he explained calmly. “You collapsed. That’s all.”
Charlotte stared at him carefully.
Something inside his expression felt wrong. There was concern on his face, but beneath it she sensed another emotion entirely — relief.
Over the next month, similar incidents kept happening.
Every time Ethan and Marcus visited, Charlotte eventually became dizzy or exhausted. Sometimes she woke up still wearing yesterday’s clothes with no memory of climbing the stairs to bed. Other times she found bruises on her arms that she couldn’t explain. When she questioned Oliver, he always had excuses prepared.
“You’re stressed.”
“You need more sleep.”
“You’re imagining things.”
But deep inside, Charlotte’s fear continued growing.
