Chapter 36

The water in the carafe trembled in Adeline’s hands as she stepped out of the kitchen. The light from the living room washed over her in a soft amber glow that somehow made the space feel darker, as if the shadows in the corners had grown teeth. She felt Williams’ eyes on her before she even entered the room.

She approached with controlled steps and offered the glass.

“Put it down,” Williams ordered.

Adeline complied. Williams picked up the new, empty glass, then thrust it toward Adeline. “Go on.”

Adeline began pouring the water from the carafe. The glass was almost full, at the precise safe margin, when Williams commanded, “That’s enough!”

But Adeline ignored the order. The thin stream continued, steady and relentless.

“I said, that’s enough!”

Adeline kept pouring.

The water quickly crested the rim, spilling over the sides, drenching the table, and splashing onto Williams’ elegant new suit. The sensory shock of the cold water was the final trigger. Williams rose in a flash of pure, unbridled fury, seized the carafe, and hurled the heavy glass object onto the hardwood floor where it shattered with a deafening, violent crash.

“Do you hear what I am telling you!”

Adeline inhaled sharply. “I am sorry. I was distracted,” she pretended, then reached out, placing her hand gently on Williams’ arm, a gesture intended to help clean the mess. But Williams violently slapped her hand away.

“What do you think you are doing?” She shoved Adeline hard. “Are you trying to provoke me?”

Her steps were slow, measured, and menacingly controlled. Adeline backed away, her heart pounding against her ribs. The soft scent of sandalwood had turned nauseating. She watched Williams’ pupils dilate unnaturally, swallowing the color of her irises. It was as if she were looking straight into Adeline’s core. She backed up until the sharp edge of a side table trapped her. She was now cornered.

Romaric, outside, heard the heavy crash and the shout. His hand instantly moved to the doorknob, but he froze, watching the silent pager. One vibration. Just one. Then he would burst in. But Adeline had not pressed it.

Trapped, Adeline stared into Williams’ eyes. Williams sketched a faint, ugly smile. “You are not intelligent, Adeline.”

“No, Williams, I was just—”

But before she could finish her sentence, Williams lunged, seizing her wrists with phenomenal, bone-crushing strength and violently pinning her back against the wall.

“Williams, what are you doing?” Adeline gasped, the air knocked from her lungs.

“I know exactly what you are trying to do,” she murmured, her voice vibrating with uncontrolled rage.

Adeline thrashed, trying to defend herself, but Williams’ grip was absolute. Yet she still wouldn’t press the pager.

“You want to defy me, to get a reaction, isn’t that right?” Williams murmured, pressing her right hand flat onto Adeline’s taut stomach. “You are trying to play tough, but when I touch your stomach, do you know what I feel?”

“No,” Adeline’s voice barely escaped her throat.

“I can feel the fear hidden behind your unwavering, pathetic façade. You know.”

She pressed harder, closing the distance between their bodies until Adeline felt her heartbeat echoing against Williams’ arm.

“Do you know fear manifests itself in three ways? The first is physical.” She dug her fingers one by one into Adeline’s trembling stomach, feeling each twitch, each convulsion. “So this is where it starts,” she said, referring to her stomach.

Williams began her diagnosis, her voice switching to the cold, detached tone of a surgeon performing an autopsy, the performance made grotesque by the current violence.

“Palpitations and accelerated heart rate, yes. Sweating, chills, or hot flashes, yes. Muscle tremors, yes. Rapid breathing, yes. Feeling of choking, not yet. Discomfort in the chest…” Williams scanned her eyes like a scientist examining a captive specimen, answering herself.

“Will…”

“Quiet. Second comes emotional.” She slowly moved her hands higher, ensuring Adeline felt the pressure against the center of her chest, pushing her deeper into the plaster.

“Williams, please…”

Adeline closed her eyes, maintaining the pager tightly clutched, still refusing to press the button. She reopened her eyes, looking directly into Williams’ face, reminding herself that she had induced this chaos for a reason, to confirm her working hypothesis.

She remembered every hour of training, every case she had studied. Madame Kai had chosen her because she was the best. Because she could read anyone, and there was no way she would back down.

“So, at this stage, you should…” Williams now looked Adeline in the eyes, her gaze softening with clinical pity. “Feel intense anguish, fear of dying, of losing control. You should feel a sense of unreality or detachment from self, constant worry, and perhaps irritability.” She squeezed Adeline’s hand until she cried out.

“Williams… ah… is that what you think ?” Adeline managed to speak firmly, fighting the panic.

“Well, we will see soon. The last one is number three: behavioral.” Her hand moved toward Adeline’s shoulder, grabbing the strap of her dress to yank it down.

But Adeline erupted, thrashing violently. “What are you doing, Williams? Stop!”

The answer was a violent slap across Adeline’s face, immediately followed by the application of hard, focused pressure to her neck. Her thumb pressed beneath Adeline’s jaw, cutting the air slowly, deliberately.

Williams wanted to move on with the body navigation, but Adeline fought harder.

“Williams, stop!” she ordered while she tried desperately to press the pager, but her thumb failed to make contact with the tiny button.

Then a second, more brutal slap landed. Williams maintained the pressure on Adeline’s neck, forcing her against the wall. “If you flail like that, you’ll hurt yourself, clear?” she whispered.

“clear!” Adeline understood she was utterly trapped. Her resistance dissolved. She froze, looking up at Williams, a single, helpless tear escaping her eye and tracing a painful line down her cheek.

“Will—”

The word was cut short by the increasing pressure. Williams, in her drug-induced rage, was no longer a doctor, no longer a psychiatrist’s patient. She was a feral predator, and Adeline was fully exposed to the tragedy of her broken soul.

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