Chapter 2 - THE MAN I NEVER WANTED TO SEE AGAIN
The contraction lasted nearly a minute.
When it finally released me, I slid against the metal wall and struggled to breathe.
“No.”
I pressed both hands against my belly.
“Please, babies. Not yet.”
The glowing control panel still showed:
SET TEMP: -50°F
At the time, I thought that meant the room around me was already fifty degrees below zero.
Later, investigators would discover something important.
The number was the freezer’s programmed target temperature, not the temperature it had actually reached.
A malfunctioning condenser and an automatic defrost cycle were slowing the cooling process.
That technical failure probably saved my life.
But inside that room, I knew none of it.
I knew only cold.
And pain.
I tried the emergency release again.
Nothing.
Victor had disabled it from outside.
Of course he had.
My husband had spent months planning this.
He knew the warehouse.
He knew its security schedule.
He knew I sometimes came in after hours to review inventory records.
And apparently he knew exactly how to make my death look like the kind of accident a grieving husband could survive with several million dollars.
Another contraction came.
I screamed.
Then forced myself upright.
Movement.
I needed movement.
Shelter.
Anything.
The freezer stored packaged pharmaceutical materials awaiting shipment. Near the rear wall were stacks of insulated shipping panels, thermal wraps, and thick packing blankets used during transport.
I pulled everything I could reach toward one corner.
My fingers were already becoming clumsy.
I wrapped my legs.
My shoulders.
My stomach.
Then I heard something.
A dull metallic sound.
I froze.
Another.
Not from inside.
Outside the freezer.
I began pounding the door.
“HELP!”
My voice cracked.
“PLEASE!”
Silence.
Then footsteps.
I screamed again.
The handle moved once.
Stopped.
Then a man shouted:
“Who’s in there?”
I knew that voice.
And for one insane second, I almost wished nobody had come.
Because I hated that voice.
I had hated it for four years.
“Lena?”
The man outside sounded stunned.
“Lena Carter?”
I hit the door.
“Adrian!”
Adrian Cross.
My former business partner.
My former best friend.
The man I blamed for nearly destroying my career.
The last person on earth I expected to save me.
“Get me out!”
“Back away from the door!”
“I can’t!”
“What?”
“I’m in labor!”
Silence.
Then Adrian swore.
Metal crashed outside.
He tried the override.
Didn’t work.
Then:
“Lena, listen to me.”
“I’m calling emergency services.”
“I’m getting maintenance.”
“You keep talking.”
Another contraction hit.
I screamed.
“Lena!”
“I’m here!”
“Stay with me!”
“I hate you!”
There was a pause.
Then Adrian shouted:
“Fantastic. Hate me tomorrow. Stay alive tonight.”
Despite everything—
I laughed.
The laugh turned into sobbing.
Then I heard him say something to someone else.
“Kill power to this unit.”
A second voice answered.
“I can’t without authorization.”
Adrian snapped:
“There’s a pregnant woman trapped inside!”
Footsteps ran.
Minutes passed.
Or hours.
Time had stopped meaning anything.
Then emergency sirens became faintly audible beyond the walls.
Adrian kept talking.
“Tell me about the babies.”
“What?”
“The babies.”
“Names?”
I curled beneath the thermal wrap.
“Not decided.”
“Victor wanted Nathan and Noah.”
“And you?”
I started crying again.
“I liked Emma and Grace if they were girls.”
“Okay.”
“Tell Emma and Grace their uncle Adrian says this is a terrible place to be born.”
“You’re not their uncle.”
“Details.”
Another contraction.
Much stronger.
I screamed.
Something shifted low in my body.
I knew enough to understand.
This was happening.
“Adrian.”
My voice changed.
He heard it.
“What?”
“The first baby is coming.”
Outside, Adrian went silent.
Then I heard him talking urgently to emergency dispatch.
A paramedic’s voice eventually came through his phone on speaker.
“Lena, we’re outside. We’re working on access.”
I cried:
“You need to work faster!”
Adrian said:
“That’s the Lena I remember.”
“Shut up!”
“Good. Keep yelling.”
Then something enormous struck the exterior locking mechanism.
Again.
Again.
The door finally shifted.
A blade of warmer hallway air appeared along the frame.
Light.
Actual light.
Adrian forced his shoulder against the opening with two maintenance workers.
The door gave.
I will never forget his face.
He saw me wrapped in silver thermal material, trembling on the floor, my dress soaked, my lips blue.
All the anger disappeared from his expression.
“Oh, God.”
He crossed the room.
I tried to push him away.
“My babies.”
“I know.”
“Victor…”
“I know.”
“No.”
I grabbed Adrian’s coat.
“You don’t know.”
His eyes met mine.
“He did this.”
Adrian became completely still.
“Victor locked you in?”
“Yes.”
Then the paramedics reached us.
Everything became voices.
Blankets.
Warm air.
Hands.
A stretcher.
Someone saying my blood pressure.
Someone else asking how long I had been inside.
I looked at Adrian.
“Don’t let him near them.”
“Who?”
“Victor.”
“Don’t let Victor near my babies.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“He won’t get near you.”
Then I was rushed toward the ambulance.
But before the doors closed, Adrian leaned close.
“There’s something you need to know.”
“What?”
His face had gone pale.
“I didn’t come here by coincidence.”
My heart stopped.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been investigating Victor for three months.”
May you like
Then the ambulance doors shut.
And suddenly I no longer knew which man in my life had been lying to me longer.
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