"Ms. Serena."
"What in the world happened to my room?" Serena asked, her eyes scanning the chaos.
"Did we get burgled? Are the other rooms trashed too? Was I attacked in my sleep last night? Why am I covered in bruises? And why is everyone acting like I’m so sort of monster?"
The maid recounted the previous night’s events in painstaking detail.
Serena was incredulous.
"And why is my hand so swollen and painful?"
"That would be because you attempted to karate chop a dining table last night," the maid explained, a nervous edge to her voice.
"Ms. Rose said you might have a slight fracture. Luckily, it didn’t displace, so you don’t need to be realigned. Just a cast for a couple of weeks should do."
Karate chopping a table? A fracture?
The disbelief on Serena’s face deepened as the maid continued to spill the beans about her antics upon returning ho: jogging in place, knocking over vases, tumbling down the stairs, and continuously passing gas.
But karate chopping a table and ending up with a fracture? What on earth were those about?
Only under relentless questioning did the maid finally stamr out the full account.
Serena felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. She couldn’t believe that she had, in front of Roo and Martin, embraced a tree and smothered it with kisses, attempted a pole dance, and the table-chopping.
Not to ntion the mortifying things she’d blurted out.
And it didn’t end there. She had even tried to take a shit on Rosemary’s balcony in front of several servants!
She was beyond embarrassed.
"Because you were causing such a scene last night without any antidote, Eunice had no choice but to tie you to the bed."
Saying that, Thurn glanced at the missing tie on Serena’s wrist. Clearly, Serena had snapped it during the night.
"Eunice tied to the bed? Then how co I’m standing here?" Serena looked down at her wrists, noting the layered marks. It seed she had been restrained with so cord but had broken free.
Thurn went on to tell Serena how she had tried to kiss her grandfather, hurled insults at her grandmother and Eunice as if they were Rosemary, and explained the servants’ fear.
"Last night, you insisted on feeding Zola with a slipper, claiming it was a pastry you’d made. You said not eating it was an insult to you."
"You tried to pull out Iria’s hair, convinced she was wearing a wig and determined to expose her ’baldness.’"
"You also claid yourself the farm owner, ordering everyone to crawl on the ground like animals. You said the ’sheep’ should eat the ’grass,’ which turned out to be clothes from your wardrobe, and the ’cattle’ should drink ’water’ from your toilet."
"You even slapped Thurn, saying she was a howrecker, and knocked out so of her teeth."
Serena couldn’t believe that last night’s drug was so strong that it caused her to do so many humiliating things!
No wonder the servants looked at her like she was a ghost. Thank goodness Liz had filled her in, or she’d still be clueless about the extent of her absurd behavior.
"Umm... I didn’t do anything to you last night, did I?" Serena feigned concern.
"You were relatively kind to , Serena. You just made play a horse, carrying you around the room," the maid hesitated.
"Though you did whip my back with a leather belt for half an hour. It still hurts a bit."
Serena winced in empathy. She could never have imagined the bizarre things she’d gotten up to the night before.
"I’ll give you all a bonus later, to apologize. I’m really sorry. I got carried away after drinking last night."
After drinking the lemonade—which she realized had been drugged—she had foolishly tried to cover it up by purposely drinking a shot of whiskey in front of her family.
She planned to bla all her behavior on the classic excuse of having been drunk.
After all, getting a little wild after a few drinks was a common enough tale.
"I’ll go freshen up. Would you mind asking soone to tidy up my room?" Serena said, feeling the uncomfortable stickiness all over her skin.
Half an hour later.
When she got down the stairs after her shower, she imdiately noticed Eunice sitting in the pri spot on the couch, looking at her tablet.
Eunice was browsing the financial news and looked up at the sound.
"Feeling better now?"
"Aunt Eunice." Serena’s voice was timid, afraid that Eunice might be about to settle scores.
Eunice put her tablet aside and, with a commanding presence, instructed,
"Call the doctor over."
"Yes, Mrs. Griffith," the servant hurried to get Dr. Justin.
"You put on quite the show last night trying to break a table with your bare hands and ended up with a fractured wrist, so I called the doctor to have a look."
Serena had a creeping feeling that Eunice was settling scores with her, but she expressed her gratitude nonetheless.
"Thank you, Eunice."
"Serena, take a seat, and let’s have a look at that hand," said Justin, a renowned orthopedic surgeon and one of the Griffith family’s trusted doctors.
Sitting down on the couch, Serena could feel Eunice’s penetrating gaze and began to explain,
"I had too much to drink last night and did a lot of ridiculous things. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if the servant hadn’t told . I’m so sorry for my behavior, Eunice. I didn’t an to be so disrespectful."
Eunice, cutting straight to the point, asked,
"Have you always had feelings for Roo? Haven’t you moved on?"
"It’s not like that! Rose and Roo are the perfect couple. Besides, I’m with Martin now."
"From what I see, you don’t seem too fond of Martin."
Eunice’s words made Serena anxious.
"Eunice, whatever I said or did last night was beyond my control. If I could have controlled it, why would I let myself be so embarrassed? It was all that whiskey."
"Was it the lemonade, perhaps?" Eunice’s gaze was challenging.
Serena played dumb.
"What about the lemonade? It was the whiskey that did in last night, I just couldn’t handle it."
"But the doctor found hallucinogens and other toxins in your system. How do you explain that?"
"You an, soone drugged my drink?" Serena’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"At your restaurant, who would dare? Did you find out who it was? Was it the whiskey? Or the food? Did any of you get affected too?"
"You really don’t know anything?" Eunice’s tone suggested she wasn’t easily fooled.
But Serena insisted,
"Eunice, why would I drug myself? What’s in it for ?"
"What if you ant to harm soone else but ended up harming yourself by mistake?"
Eunice’s suggestion left Serena stunned and in disbelief.
Eunice always had an air of cool authority, and right now, her gaze was piercing.
Facing Eunice’s imposing deanor, Serena felt the weight of her gaze.
Eunice was Serena’s elder—her presence and intensity outmatching Serena’s.
Just then, Serena faintly heard her grandfather’s footsteps descending the stairs, and tears welled up as she asked with a hoarse, aggrieved voice,
"What are you implying, Eunice? Everyone at the dinner table last night is family. Not to ntion the years we’ve spent together—even my sister, who’s only been back in the family for half a year, has given precious gifts and shown nothing but kindness. How could I harm anyone? Why would I harm you all?"
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