Chapter 221
Chapter 221:
She quickly dialed their numbers to check, only to find it wasn’t either of them. Josh’s voice carried a guilty weight as he explained, “Phyllis’s scandal may have died down, but there are still strangers stirring up trouble. I didn’t dare visit your mother today. If anyone had followed me, I might have disturbed her peace p>
Gabriela murmured a few reassuring words before ending the call.
But if neither Josh nor Farley had left those flowers, then who had?
She mentally sifted through everyone she knew, yet no one seemed to fit. For the moment, she chose not to linger on it.
She stood before the gravestone, her fingers trembling as she traced the engraved name. “Mom… I came to see you,” she murmured, her voice barely carrying in the still air.
When her mother was alive, Gabriela had believed she was the happiest girl in the world.
Even now, she often dreamed of being small again, tucked against her mother’s chest, shielded from every storm.
“Mom, Uncle Josh has treated me well. He agreed to move out and return the house. You don’t need to worry about me anymore. I’ve found work at a big company, my paycheck is steady, and my boss… he’s been nothing but kind p>
After pouring her heart out, Gabriela rose slowly and started to walk away. The cemetery lay so deep in the hills that she knew it would take a long, lonely walk—half an hour at least—before she reached the main road again.
Before she could escape the secluded path, a coarse burlap sack dropped over her head, cutting off the light. Her world plunged into darkness, and the moment she tried to cry out, a sharp wave of dizziness swept through her until everything went black.
When she finally stirred, the air around her was unnervingly still. She fumbled for her phone, the faint glow of the screen revealing her surroundings. She was inside the steel belly of a refrigerated truck compartment. Frost clung to the worn metal walls, and the damp chill gnawed at her skin until her teeth began to chatter.
𝗙о𝘭𝘭о𝘄 𝗎𝗌 𝗼𝘯
The horror deepened when she noticed water creeping in from the seams of the floor. Thin trickles ran across the grooves, pooling faster with each passing second. A sick realization hit her like ice—someone had locked her inside this truck and left it to drown.
With no reception, calling for help was impossible. She might end up sinking in silence, her life snuffed out at the bottom of the water.
Forcing herself to breathe evenly, Gabriela fought the panic clawing at her chest. A crime drama flickered across her mind—the scene where the protagonist was trapped in a locked car trunk, just like she was. How had the male lead survived? He’d smashed open the air vent and caught a signal that way.
But here, in this icy coffin, breaking the vent would only let the freezing water pour in faster, dragging her under even quicker. Understanding her situation, Gabriela could do nothing but keep dialing for help, her fingers trembling with each failed attempt.
More than an hour slipped by, yet her phone remained stubbornly without signal.
Meanwhile, Wesley, tired of waiting for Billy’s investigation to yield answers, finally snapped, “Get the car ready. We’re going to Rosemont Gardens p>
When word reached Marie that Wesley was at the door, unease washed over her. She rushed to the entrance, forcing a nervous smile as she greeted him. “Hello, Mr. Moss. What brings you here p>