Chapter 71 The Villa On The Slope

• Rania woke with a wave of nausea that made her entire body feel inverted. An unfamiliar wooden ceiling stretched above her, and the pale, foggy daylight filtered through the sheer lace curtains, creating golden stripes across the thick blanket that was not hers. For a few seconds she could not remember where she was. Then the memory returned all at once: the gray van, the mute driver, the winding road climbing through the night, and a small injection in her arm that she had accepted with her head bowed when someone said she needed to rest.
• She tried to get up, and her stomach immediately protested. She barely made it to the bathroom in the corner of the room before vomiting into the sink. With trembling hands she washed her face, staring at her reflection in the mirror: pale, red-eyed, hair disheveled.
• A soft knock came at the door.