The soft morning sunlight filtered through the translucent curtains, falling on her swollen eyelids. Melda slowly opened her eyes with difficulty.
The first sensation that overwhelmed her was the softness of the king-sized bed cradling her aching body. The faint aroma of lavender-scented aromatherapy candles wafted gently to her nose, different from the familiar scent of expensive perfume and faint cigarette smoke in Alan's room.
"Mmm..."
The young woman groaned softly in her throat, trying to move, but the heavy feeling in her head, as if weighed down by a stone, made her grimace. The whole world spun, causing the images before her to overlap. The fever and over twenty hours of unconsciousness made her body protest heavily.
As the last memory from the parking lot rushed back, her slen
