CLAUDE
I COULDN’T EVEN look at the food in front of me. My stomach roared from hunger—but I couldn’t stomach it. Not when my mind felt like it was suffocating me.
Too much.
Everything was too much.
I yanked at the collar of my shirt, but it didn’t help. Nothing helped. It was like I was drowning in air—my chest so tight, it felt like I couldn’t even breathe.
“Claude?”
I snapped my head toward Nikolai, his gaze locked on me, eyes narrowed, like he could see right through me. But I couldn’t look at him.
I did the right thing but I felt guilty. Guilty that I’d lied.
But I felt like I had.
“Claude, you need to eat.”
I couldn’t even bring myself to move. My fingers tightened around the fork in my hand, the metal cold under my touch, but I stayed silent. My lips pressed into a thin,
