PART 2: THE BILLIONAIRE WHO HEARD MY SCREAMS
I had one advantage Derek knew absolutely nothing about. Seven years earlier, before I married him, I had worked as a financial investigator for a pharmaceutical company owned by billionaire Nathaniel Cross. And Nathaniel had once given me something I never imagined I would need again: a tiny emergency transmitter hidden inside a silver bracelet.
He had told me, “Grace, if you ever find yourself in danger because of something you know, press this button. I will find you.”
I had laughed at the time. But now, trapped inside a freezer at −50°F, eight months pregnant with twins, I realized that bracelet might be the only reason my children would ever see daylight.
My fingers were already stiff. I could barely feel my hands as I reached beneath my cardigan and touched the small silver charm on my wrist.
I pressed it once.
Nothing happened.
I pressed it again, holding it down with every ounce of strength I had left.
A tiny red light blinked.
Then it disappeared.
“Please,” I whispered. “Nathaniel, please remember.”
Another contraction tore through my stomach. I dropped to my knees, gasping as the freezing floor burned against my skin. My babies moved desperately inside me, and tears froze against my cheeks.
I had no idea whether the transmitter still worked after seven years. All I knew was that I couldn’t afford to stop fighting.
Three buildings away, inside a private office overlooking the industrial complex, Nathaniel Cross was reviewing financial documents when a sharp alarm sounded from his desk.
His assistant, Marcus, looked up. “Sir, that’s impossible.”
Nathaniel stared at the flashing screen.
EMERGENCY SIGNAL ACTIVATED.
REGISTERED USER: GRACE BENNETT.
His face went pale.
“Grace?” he whispered.
Seven years earlier, Grace had helped expose a massive financial fraud involving Nathaniel’s former business partner. The man responsible had disappeared before prosecutors could question him.
That man’s name was Derek Bennett.
Nathaniel had spent years searching for him.
Now, the woman who had saved his company was sending a distress signal from a pharmaceutical storage facility less than half a mile away.
“Get security,” Nathaniel ordered. “Call emergency services. Tell them we have a pregnant woman in immediate danger.”
Marcus grabbed his phone.
Nathaniel was already running.
Meanwhile, outside the freezer, Derek sat comfortably in his office, watching the security monitor.
He had poured himself a glass of whiskey.
On the screen, his pregnant wife was barely moving.
“Ten more minutes,” he muttered. “Then I’ll make the call.”
His plan was simple. He would tell investigators that Grace had accidentally entered the freezer while helping with inventory. He would pretend the emergency release had malfunctioned. He would cry at the funeral, collect the insurance money, and disappear with his mistress.
What Derek didn’t know was that his carefully constructed story had already started falling apart.
Nathaniel’s security team had arrived at the loading dock.
And Nathaniel himself was demanding access to the building.
Back inside the freezer, I had lost feeling in my feet.
My contractions were coming closer together.
I tried to stand, but my legs collapsed beneath me.
“Not yet, babies,” I whispered, pressing both hands against my stomach. “Please stay with Mommy.”
Through the fog in my mind, I remembered Nathaniel’s promise.
I wondered whether he had forgotten me.
Whether the bracelet was broken.
Whether Derek would get away with everything.
Then I heard something.
A distant metallic crash.
Footsteps.
Men shouting.
My heart jumped.
“HELP!” I screamed, though my voice was barely audible. “PLEASE! I’M IN HERE!”
Outside, Nathaniel reached the freezer corridor just as Derek appeared from his office.
Derek stopped dead.
“Nathaniel?”
For one terrible second, neither man moved.
Then Nathaniel looked at the security monitor behind Derek.
He saw me lying on the frozen floor.
His expression changed from disbelief to fury.
“Open that door,” he demanded.
Derek forced a nervous laugh. “You don’t understand. It’s a controlled-temperature storage unit. We can’t just—”
Nathaniel grabbed him by the collar.
“THAT IS A PREGNANT WOMAN!”
Derek’s face drained of color.
“She’s my wife.”
Nathaniel froze.
“Your wife?”
He looked from Derek to the monitor, and suddenly seven years of unanswered questions began connecting in his mind.
“You married Grace?”
Derek swallowed.
Nathaniel released him and turned to his security chief.
“Get that door open. Now.”
One guard tried the access panel. Another searched for an emergency override. But Derek had disabled the normal controls.
Nathaniel stared at him.
“You locked her in there deliberately.”
Derek said nothing.
“Where is the manual release?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“Seven years ago, you stole millions from my company. And now you’re trying to murder the woman who helped expose you.”
Derek’s jaw tightened.
Then he smiled.
“You still don’t understand, Cross. Grace knows something she shouldn’t.”
Nathaniel went completely still.
“What does she know?”
Derek glanced toward the freezer.
“Something worth a lot more than her life insurance.”
At that moment, the security chief shouted, “Sir! We found the mechanical override!”
Nathaniel rushed toward the door.
The locking mechanism groaned.
Metal scraped against metal.
Then the massive freezer door finally swung open.
A blast of freezing air poured into the corridor.
Nathaniel ran inside and dropped beside me.
“Grace! Grace, can you hear me?”
I opened my eyes just enough to recognize his face.
“Nathaniel?”
“I’m here. You’re getting out.”
I tried to speak, but another contraction stole my breath.
He shouted for the waiting paramedics while helping them move me out of the freezer and begin emergency treatment.
My vision blurred.
“Nathaniel,” I whispered.
“Don’t talk. Save your strength.”
I grabbed his sleeve with trembling fingers.
“You have to listen.”
He leaned closer.
“Derek didn’t just want the insurance money.”
Nathaniel’s expression darkened.
“What do you mean?”
I forced the words through my frozen lips.
“The twins…”
My voice broke.
“The twins aren’t the reason he married me. He married me because of what my father left behind.”
Nathaniel stared at me.
“My father found something before he died,” I whispered. “Something Derek has been searching for all these years.”
“What did he find, Grace?”
I pulled Nathaniel closer and whispered six words into his ear.
His entire face changed.
He looked toward the corridor, where security guards were holding Derek.
Then he reached for his phone.
“Marcus,” he said quietly, “contact my attorneys. And find the original investigation files from seven years ago.”
He paused.
“Because if Grace is telling the truth, Derek Bennett didn’t just try to kill his wife tonight.”
Nathaniel looked back at me, his voice trembling with anger.
“He’s been hiding a murder for seven years.”
And just before the paramedics carried me into the ambulance, I heard Derek shouting from the other end of the corridor.
“SHE’S LYING! DON’T BELIEVE A WORD SHE SAYS!”
But the most terrifying thing wasn’t Derek’s shouting.
It was what Nathaniel whispered as he followed my stretcher.
“Grace, your father didn’t die in an accident.”
I stared at him.
He continued, “And I think I know exactly who killed him.”
Then my next contraction hit, stronger than all the others, and a paramedic shouted the words that made everyone freeze.
“WE NEED TO GET HER TO SURGERY! ONE OF THE TWINS IS IN DISTRESS!”
As the ambulance doors slammed shut, I realized the nightmare inside that freezer had only been the beginning.
Because Derek had tried to kill three people that night.
But the secret I had carried for seven years could destroy everyone who had helped him.
And the one person I thought I could finally trust was hiding a secret of his own…
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 3…
