CHAPTER 31

I stared up at the ceiling, How long had it been now since that fateful Christmas dinner where this whole charade began? Four months? Five? The days and weeks had blurred together into a hazy torrent of deception and performance.

Back then, posing as the unconscious Paul for a single evening had seemed like an adventure - a crazy but harmless way to earn some quick cash. Just one night of playacting among strangers, and then back to sweet normalcy.

I never imagined how catastrophically wrong things could go. How that single impulsive decision would warp my life into a waking nightmare.

Now here I was, trapped indefinitely in the role of an entitled aristocrat halfway across the world. Forced every moment to speak, walk, and think as Paul Auclair. My own identity buried so deep even I struggled to find it in the rare quiet moments like this.

I wondered sometimes how the real Paul was faring lost in the darkness of his own mind. Did some part of him sense my clumsy attempts to imper