Chapter 6 - Chloe's Awakening
Back at the Arlington estate,
the atmosphere had deteriorated into an icy war zone.
Chloe Vance woke up late that afternoon with a splitting headache,
a dry throat,
and a massive gap in her memory.
She remembered staggering into Rebecca’s room demanding water.
She remembered drinking a glass of orange juice handed to her by her sister-in-law.
And then—nothing.
Blackness.
Now,
sitting at the kitchen island while sipping a cup of black coffee,
Chloe confronted her father,
who was reading the financial news across from her.
“Dad,
why did I wake up in Rebecca’s bed yesterday morning feeling like my brain had been scrambled by an eggbeater?” Chloe asked suspiciously,
rubbing her temples.
Arthur didn't look up from his tablet.
“I already told you,
Chloe,
you had far too much gin at the club the night before,
” Arthur replied smoothly,
his voice devoid of any hesitation.
“You wandered upstairs in a drunken stupor and passed out in her guest room.
”
“That doesn't make any sense,
” Chloe frowned,
shaking her head as fragmented memories began to pierce through the fog.
“I remember Rebecca handing me a glass of juice.
And I remember.
Dad,
I remember you coming into the room later.
I remember you saying something weird.
”
Arthur stiffened,
his fingers tightening around the edge of his tablet screen.
“Your mind is playing tricks on you,
sweetheart,
” Arthur said,
forcing a warm,
paternal smile as he lowered the device.
“Rebecca has infected you with her paranoid delusions.
She’s unstable,
Chloe.
That’s why she packed her bags and ran away like a coward yesterday.
”
“She ran away?” Chloe asked,
blinking in surprise.
“Where did she go?”
“Who cares?” Evelyn chimed in coldly as she walked into the kitchen,
pouring herself a cup of coffee.
“Good riddance to bad rubbish.
David is filing for separation as we speak.
That ungrateful little gold-digger has caused enough chaos in this family.
”
Despite her usual disdain for me,
a strange unease settled in Chloe's stomach.
She remembered the look in my eyes when I handed her that glass of juice.
It wasn't the look of someone running away in fear.
It was the look of someone who knew a devastating secret.
Later that afternoon,
while her parents were occupied in the study,
Chloe slipped quietly into my abandoned bedroom.
She walked over to the nightstand where the orange juice glass had sat two nights ago.
The cleaning staff had removed it,
but the faint,
powdery white residue had left a slight chalky mark on the wooden surface where some droplets had spilled.
Chloe dipped her pinky finger into the residue and touched it to the tip of her tongue.
It tasted bitter,
medicinal,
completely unlike normal fruit pulp.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Her father lied.
It wasn't gin hangover alone.
She had been drugged right alongside whatever sinister plan Arthur had originally prepared for me.
Fear and fury collided in Chloe's chest.
For two years,
she had blindly parroted her parents' cruelty toward me,
believing herself superior.
Now,
standing in my empty room,
she realized she was just another disposable pawn in her father's sick game.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket with an incoming text message from an unknown number.
She pulled it out and unlocked the screen.
It was a text from me: *'Chloe,
I know you remember what happened in the dark.
May you like
Call me if you want to know what kind of monster your father really is.
'*
