My son had a febrile seizure from a high fever. I rushed home to find the apartment at 115°F. The nanny, claiming to be cold-sensitive, had refused to use the AC. My son was rushed to the ICU. I slapped her, paid her severance, and fired her. That night, my husband Michael came home accusing me: “Lara! Was it worth giving Nina a chill by running the AC? She’s now hospitalized because of you!” I shoved the video of our son’s resuscitation in his face. “It might not kill me, but it could’ve killed our son! If a grown woman can’t handle 38 minutes of AC, why is she a nanny?!” Michael softened instantly. “Okay, you’re right. My fault.” Everything seemed normal until our son’s fever spiked again. Michael pretended to take us to the hospital but flew us via private helicopter and dumped us in the Arctic. With his arm around Nina, he laughed down at me: “Cold air helps fever, right? Play doctor today! Enjoy the climate!” Calmly, I texted the only number that mattered: 【Come take out the trash.】 1 The message had barely been sent when one of Michael’s goons let out a triumphant shout. “Boss, she did it again! Just like you said, she’s texting her brother. Good thing we brought the signal jammer!” Michael glanced at my screen and sneered. “Lara, when are you going to grow out of this pathetic habit of running to your big brother every time there’s a problem? It’s disgusting, you know that?” He mocked the words on my screen. “‘Come take out the trash!’ Ooh, so tough. I’m so scared.” His cronies pointed at me, howling with laughter. “You’re gonna listen to the boss today! With this jammer on, you can’t even send a period!” Michael looked pleased. He draped a lavish fur coat over Nina’s shoulders and glared down at me, huddled with our son. “Lara, have you learned your lesson yet?” I was only in a thin silk nightgown. The -50 degree air was already making my body convulse with shivers. My son’s lips were turning a frightening shade of blue, his tiny body trembling violently in my arms. I clutched him tighter. “Michael, what lesson is there to learn?!” I shrieked, my voice raw against the wind. “It’s my house! My AC! Our son was having a seizure! He could have died! I showed you the ICU video, are you blind?!” A gust of wind tore across the ice, feeling like a thousand tiny knives on my exposed skin. My son let out a piercing, agonized wail. I stumbled toward the helicopter, waving my arms frantically. “Michael, you know his condition! If he keeps crying like this, you know what will happen!” His expression flickered. His reckless lifestyle before we had a child had resulted in our son being born with a congenital lung defect. The doctors had warned us repeatedly to keep him from crying excessively, as it posed a risk of suffocation. Michael had even quit drinking and smoking for him. He’d once beaten a previous nanny and put her in the hospital just for letting our son cry for two minutes during a diaper change. And now? For Nina, he was willing to risk our son’s life. Seeing his hesitation, I pressed on. “Michael, please…” “Michael, honey, let’s just bring her up,” Nina interrupted, her voice a delicate murmur. She snuggled deeper into his arms, her eyes glistening with fake tears. “I’m fine. So what if I almost collapsed from a chill? It’s not important. We shouldn’t let Lara and the baby suffer because of me…” She paused, then added slyly, “Besides, you shouldn’t worry too much, Michael. I saw the nanny cam footage from that day. The baby was in that air-conditioned room for hours, and even though he was crying later, probably because he got cold, nothing bad happened…” Almost collapsed? Crying for hours? She had practically sprinted out of my apartment that day. And I had rushed my son to the hospital the second she was gone. “She’s lying, Michael! The security app is on your phone! You can check the footage right now!” But before I could finish, his face hardened. He lowered the rope ladder, his voice a low growl. “Go! Strip them both! This woman can’t speak a single word of truth. Today, I’m going to teach her a real lesson!” The helicopter descended slightly, and Michael immediately pulled Nina into a protective embrace, fussing over her coat. “You lied about our son’s condition too, didn’t you?” he spat at me. “You’d even use your own child just to get attention! You make me sick, Lara. You keep making things worse for yourself. If you don’t start begging for forgiveness, you can stay down there and rot!” He then turned to Nina, cupping her face with a look of profound tenderness. “Nina, as long as I’m here, I will never let anyone hurt you. Don’t be afraid.” 2 The moment Michael had Nina settled, his goons swarmed me. They leered, their eyes raking over my body before one of them ripped away my thin robe. I scrambled backward, clutching my son, but I was no match for them. They shoved me to the ground, tore my son from my arms, and ripped off his last layer of clothing, tossing his naked body onto the ice. A heart-wrenching scream tore through the air, but it was already weaker, thinner than before. Panic seized me. I started crawling toward him, ignoring the searing pain as my bare skin froze to the ice, tearing away with every movement. A long, crimson trail marked my path. My son was also frozen to the surface, and every attempt to lift him only made him cry harder. I huddled over him, trying to use my own body heat to melt the ice beneath him, whispering soothing words as my own blood pooled around us. Minutes later, Michael must have noticed the growing sea of red. He pushed Nina aside and leaned down for a better look. Before he could speak, Nina slid down the ladder. “Lara, just apologize! A man has his pride. All his friends are here today. If you don’t apologize, how can he face them?” I lunged, grabbing the collar of her coat. “Why should I apologize?! My son was in the ICU because of you! Do you dare let Michael check the security footage right now?! Only an idiot like him would fall for your pathetic lies!” I screamed. “You said you collapsed? Show me your hospital report!” Michael had followed her down. My words made him look at Nina with a flicker of doubt. But in that instant, Nina tore off her own fur coat and dropped to her knees beside me with a thud. She started slapping her own face, hard. “Michael, it’s all my fault! Please, just take Lara and go home! Don’t fight with her because of me…” she sobbed. “But… Michael, I swear I wasn’t lying. I’ll just kneel here. In a few hours, when I collapse from the cold, then you’ll believe me…” The doubt in Michael’s eyes melted into pure adoration. He rushed to her side, helping her up with a look of utter devotion. Then he turned to me, his eyes like ice. “Lara! You have a real talent for twisting the truth. If I wasn’t here to protect her, you’d eat a sweet girl like Nina alive! Since you insist on this attitude, don’t blame me for what happens next!” He turned and barked an order. “Go! Open the cage and let the polar bear out! Let him have some fun!” A chorus of whoops and cheers erupted from the helicopter. “Whoa, never seen a polar bear play with a human before! Thanks for the show, Mrs. Cole!” They scrambled toward a large iron cage. Just as they were about to open it, a young woman’s timid voice piped up from behind. “Boss… my dad saw a polar bear on an expedition once. He said they’re incredibly aggressive. If they smell blood, they’ll… they’ll actually eat people. Look, Mrs. Cole and the baby are covered in it. If you let it out, someone might actually die…” Michael motioned for the man at the cage to pause. He was about to speak when Nina let out a faint, pained whimper. “Michael, never mind. I’m not afraid of collapsing. I’m just… I’m worried about the baby in my belly…” she whispered. “And that day… I had just found out I was pregnant when Lara threw me out. Maybe… maybe that’s why she’s so angry…” I didn’t even know the bitch was pregnant! But I had no chance to defend myself. Michael’s face became a mask of cold fury. “Open the cage!” he roared. The next second, the seven-foot-tall beast was charging directly at us. Michael hauled Nina onto the helicopter and watched me scramble away with my son, roaring with laughter. “Lara! Let’s see how tough you are now! You tried to harm Nina, and you tried to harm her unborn child! You deserve everything that’s coming to you!” 3 I ran, my lungs burning, my feet slipping on the ice. The young woman who had spoken up before tried to intervene again, but Michael cut her off. “Not another word. I have a medevac on standby. Nothing fatal will happen. But if you say one more thing, you can go down there and join her!” The girl shrank back, terrified into silence. The bear, true to her warning, was driven into a frenzy by the scent of blood. I desperately scooped up snow and rubbed it on our bodies, trying to mask the smell, but every step I took left a fresh, bloody footprint. The massive animal followed my trail, its roars echoing across the frozen wasteland. The extreme cold and blood loss made the world swim. Finally, my legs gave out. As I collapsed, I saw the bear lunging. In a last, desperate act, I rolled over, shielding my son with my own body. The bear’s paw, bigger than my head, slammed into my back. A sickening tearing sound filled my ears. I felt its claws scrape against my spine, and a river of hot blood streamed down my back. I arched my body, trying to let the warmth of my blood cover my son, hoping for some small sign of life, a whimper, a stir. Nothing. I reached up a trembling hand and placed it under his nose. There was no breath. Scrambling forward on my hands and knees, I screamed at the helicopter, a raw, animalistic sound of pure agony. “Michael! He’s not breathing! Even a monster doesn’t eat its own young! You’re a beast! We’ll haunt you from our graves!” My scream seemed to stun him. He ordered the pilot to descend. When he saw the vast, bloody slush on the ice below, the color drained from his face. Before he could speak, one of his men rushed forward. “Boss, we got a reply to that text she sent! It says… it says in one hour, we’ll all be meeting our maker…” That message sent Michael into a full-blown panic. He pointed a shaking finger at me. “Lara! What did you do?! The jammer was on! How could you get a reply?!” I stared back, my eyes burning with hatred. “What’s the matter, you coward? Scared now?! It doesn’t matter how I did it. The message is right! In less than an hour, you’re all going to hell! Every last one of you monsters!” Fear warred with fury in Michael’s eyes. He fell silent, but Nina stepped forward, pointing at me with a trembling finger. “Lara, what are you doing? I brought that equipment myself! It’s impossible to get a signal through it! You and Michael are family! Why would you try to scare him like this?!” She turned and clutched Michael’s arm. “Michael, let’s just bring her up. I’ll forget you ever promised to protect me. My feelings don’t matter. As long as you’re okay…” Her words reignited his rage. He turned to his men, his voice dripping with venom. “You guys like to play with knives, right? Use her as a target. Anyone who hits her gets ten million dollars, on the spot!” “Bring the chopper in closer! Let’s make this interesting!” A deafening cheer went up. The next second, a hail of blades rained down from the sky. My back was mangled; I couldn’t get to my feet. I could only roll on the ice, trying to shield my son’s body. But my movements were clumsy, and within seconds, five knives had embedded themselves in my legs and ribs. A blackish tint immediately spread from the wounds. The knives were poisoned. As I rolled, one of the knives in my ribs was driven deeper, tearing through my stomach and into my son’s back. A sharp, piercing cry erupted from the bundle in my arms. Seeing my son’s body, now covered in his own blood, I finally broke. “Michael! Pull me up! Get us to a hospital! The knives are poisoned! My son… he’s really not going to make it!” The raw terror in my voice seemed to cut through his rage. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and looked down. The sight of the black blood spreading across the ice made him lose his composure completely. He grabbed one of his men, shaking him violently. “You said it would just be a few scratches! What the hell is this?! Call the medevac! Call them now!” 4 The man looked at him helplessly. “Boss, Nina was in charge of the medevac. Only she has the contact number…” Michael grabbed Nina’s wrist, his voice trembling. “Nina, now! Call the rescue team! Save Lara! Save our son!” Nina, startled by his intensity, fumbled for her phone. But just as she raised it, she paused. “Michael, I can’t make the call. The signal jammer is still on. If we turn it off, her brother will get the message for sure…” Michael hesitated for a split second, then grabbed a walkie-talkie. “Fly to the nearest hospital! Now!” Before he could finish, Nina snatched the device from his hand. “Michael, she hasn't even apologized yet. That’s the whole reason we came out here. If we just go back now, how will you look your friends in the eye…?” she cooed. “I’m just thinking of you, Michael. I don’t have any selfish motives…” He immediately switched off the radio. He looked down at me, curled in a pool of my own blood, and screamed, “Lara! Just apologize! Say you’re sorry and I’ll take you to the hospital!” His voice cracked. “I’m worried about him too! For our son’s sake, just give in! Please! I’m begging you!” The poison was making my vision blur. I pointed a bloody finger at him and used my last ounce of strength to scream, “You are a monster, Michael! Take us to a hospital now! Or when my brother gets here, I swear to God I will have him kill you!” Nina feigned a look of panicked concern. “Lara, stop being so stubborn! Your brother is not going to get that message! Just pretend to apologize and we can all go to the hospital, okay?” Michael was pacing frantically. He grabbed a megaphone and pleaded into it. “Lara, please! I’m on my knees here! Just say you’re sorry! It’s the only way to save our son! No one else can help you! Your brother is not coming!” The last word had barely left his lips when a single gunshot blew the megaphone out of his hand. Suddenly, the sky was filled with the thrum of rotor blades. Dozens of helicopters swarmed above us. “Her brother is here!”
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