Chapter 38

The warmth of the bathwater should have been relaxing–it should have been the kind of heat that melted away tension, easing my sore muscles after days of stress and endless calculations for the proposal. But for some reason, it felt heavy instead–too heavy–pressing against my skin like an invisible weight. I was trembling, my breath was shallow, with my head heaved back on the edge of the bathtub. Then without warning, a sharp, stabbing pain gripped the side of my neck, making me hiss from the pain. I gasped, my body flinched automatically, and my footing changed. My hand slipped away from the porcelain. The next thing I knew, I got suck deeper into the water. Fuck. How unlucky could I be? At first, I thought I could push myself up. But my limbs feel sluggish–is it because I drunk too much whiskey this time? The water around me had thickened into something syrupy that made my heart begin to pound in panic. I tried to kick, to force my upper body back above the surface, but my muscles w