Charlotte was struggling in the cold water.
She hated water, the feeling of being surrounded by it, and the helplessness of her body floating up and down in the water.
But she had to use the coldness of the water to calm herself down.
Her mouth and nose broke the surface, and she breathed heavily.
Afraid that the cold water wasn't enough, she even had Vincent bring some ice cubes in.
Now, the bathtub was bone-chillingly cold.
The cold finally gave her the ability to think about something else.
The effect of the drug was so strong, it couldn't have been in her body for long, so it must have been something she ate that evening. But she only had dinner.
Dinner?!
The dinner was delicious, catered to everyone's tastes, and they all ate a lot...
If dinner was really the problem, then not just her, but Liam, Chloe, and Dylan, would all be feeling the drug's effects by now, right?
No one knew the intensity of the drug better than her. If Vincent hadn't locked the door, she might have crawled out to find a man for... But what about Liam?
If no one was there to help him, and there happened to be a woman by his side, could he resist?
Shivering, Charlotte climbed out of the tub and caught a glimpse of the screen on the wall. She was surprised to find that she had been in the cold water for nearly an hour before she came to her senses. "Charlotte, are you okay?" Vincent asked from a safe distance, looking at her worriedly.
Charlotte shook her head, got some clean clothes from Vincent, and rushed back.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
The cold bath had left her body feeling terrible and her head groggy.
But all this discomfort was nothing compared to the anger she felt when she pushed open the door to find Liam and Chloe lying together.
Liam was shirtless, with a blanket covering his lower half.
Chloe was completely naked, her body marked with suggestive red traces.
She was nestled in Liam's arms, the picture of debauchery.
Charlotte's fists clenched and unclenched, she breathed deeply for a minute or two, but she still couldn't calm down.
At that moment, she wasn't thinking about how Chloe and Liam sleeping together would affect her plans for revenge.
She was simply furious that Liam had been touched by another woman.
"Charlotte."
Just as Charlotte was about to lose control of her anger, she heard Dylan calling her from behind.
She turned around sharply to see Dylan standing at the door, his clothes in disarray. His disheveled appearance made Charlotte certain the drug wasn't only meant for her.
In fact, the true target of the drug might have been Liam!
Dylan came over and after seeing the people in the room, he felt a darkness before his eyes.
"When the drug took effect, I wasn't in my right mind," Dylan said with cold sweat still on his forehead, "so Liam and Chloe might not even remember who they were with."
He looked down at Charlotte, and in each other's eyes, they found the answer they were looking for.
"They can't end up together," Dylan said in a low voice. "If things happened between them, their engagement would be rock solid. And if Chloe gets pregnant... well, you know." He didn't finish his thought, but Charlotte got the point.
"Tonight's drug mess-did you have anything to do with it?" she asked him, her voice icy.
Dylan looked shocked, then pissed. "What? Do you think I'm crazy? Why would I drug them just to get them in bed together?!"
Charlotte stopped looking at him and cut off his defense, "Then it was Chloe's doing."
It made sense for Chloe to do something drastic after facing setbacks.
Without further discussion, they moved Chloe to her own room, trying not to make any noise.
"You should sleep next to Liam, so when he wakes up, he'll think you were the one with him," Dylan said, frowning at Charlotte. Charlotte was equally displeased.
To lie in the same place where Liam had been with another woman?
Dylan sighed, "I know you don't like it, but just bear with it, Charlotte. At least Liam is good-looking. I have to lie next to Chloe." Charlotte was speechless.
If Chloe was the one who drugged them, she knew she'd been with Liam. If Dylan took her place now, and Chloe saw Charlotte next to Liam, she'd think it was all Charlotte's doing and wouldn't turn her anger toward Dylan. That would keep Dylan out of the spotlight.
Having Chloe wake up with Dylan could keep her from getting too dramatic since she was in the wrong too and couldn't very well start pointing fingers at Liam and Charlotte.
It made sense, the best move they had.
Charlotte breathed in deeply and stepped into Liam's room. She closed the door behind her but still didn't lie down next to him.
She saw Liam tossing and turning with a troubled expression, even from a distance.
She couldn't see his back from where she stood, so she couldn't check for any telling marks.
Part of her wanted to defend Liam, but the evidence before her eyes was hard to ignore.
She went over to him, intending to push him over and check for any signs.
But Liam didn't really move, and he seemed like he might wake up at any moment. "Liam," she whispered gently, "come on."
She nudged him, and surprisingly, he relaxed and turned over as she had wanted. And there were no marks.
Not one.
That shocked Charlotte.
With the drug's effect, he should have been even fiercer.
With the drugs in his system, he should've been a wild man, right?
But if Chloe and he really got into it, how come there wasn't even a scratch on him?
Charlotte peeked under the blanket and saw Liam's pants were still on him, untouched.
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Just as she was about to tuck him back in, Liam started to wake up.
"What's up?" he said, all groggy and looking confused like he was clueless about what had gone down.
Charlotte blinked at him and pulled the blanket back over, "Nothing, go back to sleep."
She tried to slip away, but Liam wasn't having it.
He grabbed her wrist and reeled her in close.
Their breaths were close enough to mix, and all Charlotte had to do was lean in to kiss him.
"What's the rush?" Liam said with that lazy drawl that comes after a good time.
Charlotte's doubts crept back in.
"You remember anything that just happened?" she asked him.
He shook his head, "What are you talking about?"
He really didn't remember?
Charlotte squinted at him, half sitting on his legs, and made a move for his pants.
Liam flinched and stopped her just as she was about to pull them down, "Hmm?" "What do you mean 'hmm'?"
She brushed his hand away and yanked his pants down while he was still looking lost. All clear.
But that didn't prove anything; his state suggested otherwise.
Charlotte, poker-faced, went for a touch, and she felt Liam gulp hard.
But there was no reaction from him.
And just like that, Charlotte's heart sank.