18. Alex

Alex discovers Ophelia nearly drowned in the tarn with bruises suggesting an attack. He resuscitates her and learns she's being stalked by someone using Hamlet quotes, suspecting it may be Carmichael. The chapter culminates in Alex and Ophelia sharing intimate vulnerability until midnight, with Alex unable to leave despite their mutual insistence on distance.

Alex begins the chapter in therapy with Dr. Harwood, struggling with frustration over his failed business proposal and the weight of his mother's mental illness and his sisters' care from afar. While working out at the mansion gym, he violently attacks Shawn Miller after Miller makes crude comments about Ophelia, damaging the gym mirror. Vincenzo removes him from the situation. Alex runs through the Solemn Woods to clear his head, where he discovers Ophelia unconscious and half-submerged in the tarn with a neon orange float nearby. He performs CPR and rescue breathing with Belladonna's phone guidance until Ophelia coughs up water and stabilizes. Carrying her back to the mansion, Alex places her in his bed and Belladonna arrives to treat her injuries—bruises on her neck suggesting strangulation, cuts, and scrapes. While helping Ophelia bathe, she shows Alex a series of disturbing emails from someone named "Alan" who has been stalking her, killing Sofia, and drugging her. The most recent email quotes Hamlet: "Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia." Ophelia suspects Carmichael based on a Brontë book she saw in his office, though Alex doubts this. Alex allows Ophelia to stay in his bed until midnight, and they share confessions: Alex reveals his mother's severe mental illness, his decision to leave Yale to care for her, and his father's neglect. Ophelia admits she cannot trust him with her heart despite what he makes her feel. They fall asleep intertwined, with Alex unable to enforce the midnight boundary he agreed to.