Page 17 of Web of Lies
I force myself to breathe slowly as I try to remember everything Adrian has said to me since I've been ill. He has been wholly unwilling to listen to my concerns about anything, including Anne, no matter how receptive he seemed to be last night. I thought it was because he was under pressure and trying so hard to take care of me and my Dad's company. But now that I'm making myself really think about it, his demeanor has been more than a little off.
He's been... cold. He might use a pet name like babe or sweetheart, but now I'm realizing how condescending he's been. The familiar heat and tightening of panic begins climbing up my chest from the pit of my stomach and I fight to squash it back down. I can't afford to panic. I need to understand what's happening and panic won't allow me to do that.
Then my mind catches on another word she said. Consequences. What consequences? And for what?
It sounds like... It couldn't. They wouldn't. He wouldn't. Would he? Adrian wouldn't drug me. Right? What would be the purpose? What could he possibly gain? Our prenup is rock solid. He can't take anything from the marriage that he didn't enter into it with; even if I were to die, everything would be sold off for charity.
Unless … I sign off on it.
Oh my god.
He's been having me sign off on things for months. I have no idea what half of it really is because I've been too overwhelmed and confused. And I trusted him.
Trusted.
Do I still trust him?
Chapter Seven
Larken
No. I don't. I can't trust him anymore. I didn't hear that conversation wrong. There's no way I could have misunderstood what's happening and now that I'm actually thinking about the situation, things are making a lot more sense to me.
The unwillingness to get me to a doctor.
Hiring a supposed nurse to make sure I'm taken care of during the day.
Keeping me so medicated that I have no idea what's really going on outside of this room.
Recording me when I'm not coherent.
Taking my phone.
Isolating me.
To be fair, the isolation started far before this. Now that I'm really forcing myself to look at it, the only person Adrian didn'tinnocentlykeep me from was my father. And he's gone now. I need to find my phone. And I'm not signing my name on another piece of paper until I get it. I won't be taking any more medication, either.
Wait.
The smoothies.
The drugs are in the smoothies. They're probably in any other food they bring me, including that damn soup. God, I'm so stupid. How has it taken this long for me to realize my situation and what they’ve been doing to me? It makes perfect sense. That's why I lose time and sleep so much after I eat anything. I have to eat and drink, but I need to find a way to avoid what they give me. A thought from one of my long-ago biology courses flashes through my head. A human can live eight to twenty-one days without food, on average, and up to a week without water, but closer to three days realistically. I can go a few days without food and I can get water from the tap in the bathroom. I've been able to go that distance on my own as long as I'm not too dizzy. Maybe a few days without the drugs in my system will help me get stable enough to find a phone and call Regan.
But what if this is just a paranoid delusion? What if I've finally lost it completely and this is just my brain trying to convince me that I'm in danger?
No. That can't be it. And even if this is a paranoid delusion, maybe it will force Adrian to take me to a hospital. Either way, I'm done. I won't allow this to happen to me any longer.
Anne brings in lunch a little while later. An egg salad sandwich and another smoothie.
“What kind of smoothie is that?” I ask as I watch her place the tray down on Adrian's side of the bed.
“Pineapple and banana.”
The creamy yellow sandwich filling is perfect for masking anything that might have been ground up and added to it, so would the smoothie. That's fine. I'm not going to eat it anyway. “I'll eat it in a little while. Thank you, Anne.”
“At least try the smoothie. I know you how like banana.”
I smile at her. “I'll try it later. I'm not very hungry right now.”
