CHAPTER 2: Morning Mourning
By 7:12 a.m., Nathan returned.
I heard his voice before I saw him—tight, rehearsed, trembling in all the right places.
“Evelyn?” he called, pounding on the freezer door. “Evelyn!”
The door burst open.
I collapsed the moment warm air hit me.
Strong arms caught me—paramedics, exactly as planned. Their arrival had been triggered remotely the second Nathan unlocked the unit.
“Oh my God,” Nathan whispered, dropping to his knees beside me. “She’s alive… she’s alive…”
His performance was convincing.
If I hadn’t known the truth, I might have believed him.
But the cameras saw everything.
The microphones recorded everything.
Including what came next.
“You said the lock would hold,” Nathan hissed under his breath, just loud enough for panic to crack through his grief.
May you like
“I—I thought it would,” Paige stammered nearby.
That was all we needed.
