Chapter 171

Anderson POV

The headache started in the middle of the meeting, slow at first, like a dull pressure building at the base of my skull before settling into something steady and persistent. I tried to ignore it, like I had been doing with most things lately, leaning back in my chair while the discussion continued around me.

My assistant, David, glanced over at me with a slight frown, noticing something I didn’t want to acknowledge, but I only waved him off lightly.

I was fine.

Just tired.

That was the explanation I kept giving myself, and the one I gave everyone else too. I hadn’t been sleeping properly for days. My appetite had disappeared without warning, leaving me forcing down meals I didn’t want or skipping them entirely when it became too much. I had even started losing weight—enough that people around me noticed—but I always brushed it off as stress, as workload, as life simply moving too fast.

Stress did that.

Didn’t it?

I