She rushed to help Hector to his feet, then turned to me, her expression twisted with disgust.
“Yoseph, you’ve been coddled for far too long. Hector has endured your temper in silence for years. And now, when it’s clearly your fault, he still suffers for your sake. How can you just stand there like this?
“I’m not letting this go. If you won’t admit your mistake, don’t even dream of leaving.”
She snapped her fingers at the people nearby. “Bring in more ice bricks, stack them around him. Drench the ice with water and make sure he presses right up against it!”
Just as she finished, a woman tugged at her sleeve. “Janet, please. If you pour water over ice and force skin to touch it, it’ll freeze instantly. If he moves, the skin will rip right off. And he’s holding a child... something could go very wrong.”
Janet paused, her hand still in the air. The silence stretched, until Hector’s quiet voice broke it. “Janet, let it go. The ICU wasn’t as bad as you think.”
His words made Janet’s eyes turn icy. She lowered her hand and said coldly, “Do it. Just like I said.”
The woman opened her mouth to argue, but Janet cut her off with a wave. “This is nothing compared to what Hector’s endured. I’ve already got an ambulance on standby. He’ll survive.”
The young woman fell silent as soon as Janet spoke.
On her signal, the group carrying the ice cubes reentered the cold storage.
They grabbed my hair, shoved me back and surrounded me with blocks of ice. Then came a basin of freezing water, dumped straight over my head.
My skin clung to the ice as if it had fused. My daughter let out a heart-wrenching cry, shaken by the shock of the cold.
The chill drilled into my bones, seeping in through every pore.
We had been trapped here for over five hours. Her tiny limbs had turned a dark shade of purple, almost black.
I tried to shift—to reposition myself and shield her better from the cold—but even the smallest movement ripped flesh from my body where it had frozen to the ice.
Her breathing was faint, each breath weaker than the last. I ignored the pain and forced my body to move, inch by inch, curling around her like a shield.
Blood began to stain the clear ice, turning it a deep crimson. By the time I adjusted my posture, the ice around us was red.
The people who had been mocking us moments ago fell silent, their laughter swallowed by the sight before them.
I screamed through the crimson-stained glass, my voice shaking, "Janet! If anything happens to this child, you, her own mother, will be her killer! I’ll pray at her grave every day, just to curse you with a miserable end!"
Janet flinched. The certainty in her eyes wavered. She took a slow step forward, trying to peer through the bloodied frost to see us.
Then, a sudden voice echoed behind her. "Janet! My dad just said a plane was spotted on the Gardner Family’s private flight path!"
Her expression shifted in an instant. Rage overtook her.
She slammed her fist against the glass and shouted, "Yoseph! What the hell is this?! Are you trying to control me with your Gardner name for the rest of my life?"
Before I could speak, Hector moved beside her, gently rubbing her back, his eyes full of blame as he stared at me.
