Chapter 2: The Woman Who Walked Out Alive
Chapter 2: The Woman Who Walked Out Alive
The cold hit like knives.
Within minutes my fingers began losing feeling.
Frost spread across the walls.
The emergency release handle hung broken exactly where Nathan had promised his mother it would.
Except...
It wasn't actually broken.
Two days earlier, detectives had secretly repaired it.
They simply left it looking damaged.
Everything inside Unit 7 had become part of the operation.
I waited.
Not because I couldn't leave.
Because Detective Collins had asked me to give Nathan enough time to expose himself completely.
Outside, officers watched him through hidden surveillance.
Nathan calmly climbed into his SUV.
He called one person.
Lila.
"It's done," he said.
"By morning everything belongs to us."
Minutes later he called his mother.
Miriam answered immediately.
"No problems?"
Nathan laughed.
"She's already freezing."
"I almost feel sorry for her."
Miriam replied without emotion.
"Don't."
"She built the empire."
"You'll enjoy spending it."
That sentence became the final piece prosecutors needed.
Detective Collins nodded.
"Move."
Police vehicles surrounded the warehouse before Nathan reached the highway.
Red and blue lights exploded across the darkness.
Nathan stepped out of his SUV smiling...
Until he saw handcuffs.
"What is this?"
Before anyone answered...
The freezer door opened behind the detectives.
I walked outside wrapped in a thermal blanket.
Alive.
Nathan's face lost every trace of color.
"No..."
He whispered.
"That's impossible."
He stumbled backward.
"I locked the door."
"I heard you screaming."
I looked directly into his eyes.
"No."
"You heard yourself winning."
His knees nearly gave out.
Detective Collins raised the recording device.
"We heard everything."
Nathan looked toward his mother, who had just arrived after being called to the scene.
May you like
For the first time in her perfectly controlled life...
Miriam Whitmore looked terrified.
