Chapter 1 - The Stranger Beyond the Steel
The voice wasn't Derek's. It was deeper, filled with urgency, and completely unfamiliar.
"Olivia?!" the man shouted again, his heavy fists slamming violently against the reinforced steel door. "If you can hear me, stand back from the door!"
I couldn't stand. Another agonizing contraction racked my body, pinning me to the frozen floor. My lips were blue, my limbs trembling so violently I could barely draw breath, but I forced my hoarse voice to push through the frost in my throat.
"Help..." I gasped, my knuckles white as I clutched my stomach. "The door... it's locked from the outside!"
Outside, the heavy electronic latch clanked. Sparks flew as a heavy metal tool met the locking mechanism with tremendous force. Once, twice—and on the third strike, the steel lever gave way.
The heavy freezer door swung wide open.
The rush of warmer, ambient air felt like a furnace against my frozen skin. A tall, broad-shouldered man in a charcoal suit jacket rushed inside, dropping a heavy crowbar onto the concrete floor. He took one look at my shivering frame, stripped off his thick wool coat, and wrapped it tightly around me.
"I've got you," he said, his deep voice steady despite the adrenaline surging through him. "I've got you, Olivia."
As he lifted me into his arms, I looked up into his face. Sharp jaw, striking silver-gray eyes, and a deep scar running along his hairline—Ethan Cole. The man Derek had bragged about ruining seven years ago. The billionaire who had built a rival pharmaceutical empire directly across the street.
"How... how did you know?" I managed to whisper, my teeth chattering uncontrollably as he carried me out into the warm hallway.
"I've been monitoring your husband's warehouse for three weeks," Ethan said grimly, laying me gently on a soft leather sofa in the manager's office. "Derek didn't just owe four hundred thousand to bookies. He stole proprietary logistics code from my firm to pay them off. My security team was tracking his IP address tonight when we intercepted an automated alert: the freezer's internal safety release had been manually disabled from his computer."
Ethan knelt beside me, quickly dialing emergency services on his phone.
"He thought he was being clever," Ethan added, his eyes burning with intense anger. "He didn't realize my private security team was watching his front gate. I saw him drive away five minutes ago."
Before I could process his words, a fierce, blinding pain tore through my abdomen. I screamed, clutching Ethan’s forearm so hard my fingernails bit into his sleeve.
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"The babies..." I sobbed, tears freezing on my cheeks. "Ethan... I'm in labor!"
Ethan looked down at my stomach, his face going pale, but he immediately gripped my hand tightly. "Listen to me, Olivia. You and those babies survived -50 degrees. You are not dying tonight. The paramedics are three minutes away."
