When my son suddenly had a seizure because of a high fever, I rushed home. At home, I found the room temperature had soared to forty-six degrees Celsius.
The nanny claimed she had a cold and refused to let me turn on the air conditioner. As a result, my son had to enter the ICU. So, I slapped her across the face, paid her wages and fired her.
The moment Simon Gordon came home that night, he confronted me, "Harper Bloom! Would it kill you to turn off the AC for a while? Do you know because you turned it on for thirty-eight minutes, Janet caught a cold and is now paralyzed in the hospital?”
I shoved the video of our son being resuscitated in the ICU that very afternoon right in front of him.
"No. But my son will!" I yelled. "If an adult gets paralyzed just for thirty minutes of AC, then what business does she have working as a nanny?"
Instantly, Simon's expression changed. He smiled. "Alright, it’s my fault. Don’t be angry…."
Life returned to normal after that, until the morning when my son's fever spiked again.
Putting on an act of taking us to the hospital, Simon dumped me and my son in the Arctic.
From the helicopter, with his arm wrapped around Janet Birkin’s delicate waist, he looked down at me and laughed manically. “Cold weather cures fevers, right? Well, today you can better tend to your son’s illness! Enjoy this chilly place … you and your son should savor every moment!”
Clenching my teeth, I calmly pulled out my phone and sent a message to that number.
[Come and clean up the mess.]
——
The moment the message was sent, Simon's lackey exclaimed in surprise, "Simon? Your wife really did message her brother again! Thank goodness we listened to you and brought the intercepting device!”
Simon glanced at the message and sneered with contempt. "Harper, when will you stop this nasty habit of running to your brother at the first sign of trouble? Don't you know how disgusting that is?”
"What does this 'Come and clean the mess’ nonsense mean? How arrogant … I'm scared."
His lackeys behind him pointed and laughed hysterically at me. “Today, you’ll just have to listen to Simon! With this device, you won’t even be able to send a single punctuation mark!"
With a pleased expression, he draped a mink coat over Janet. Then he directed at me, who was clutching my son tightly and spoke slowly, "Do you know your mistakes, Harper?"
It was minus fifty degrees Celsius there and I was only covered with thin pajamas, so I was shivering. Meanwhile, my son's lips had turned blue from the cold and his tiny body shook like a leaf in my arms.
I pulled him tighter against me, raised my head and roared at Simon, "Simon, what's wrong with me turning on the air conditioner in my own home? My son had a high fever and was having a seizure—it could kill him! I’ve shown you the ICU video, didn't I? Are you blind?”
A gust of icy wind swept over me and made my skin hurt, like being cut by a knife. Suddenly, my son wailed in my arms.
I stumbled toward the underside of the helicopter, then waved frantically at Simon. "Simon! You know what's wrong with our son’s condition, right? If he keeps crying like this, you know the consequence?”
His expression shifted a bit. During pregnancy, his excessive smoking and drinking caused our son's congenital lung defect. When Leo Gordon, our son, was discharged from the hospital, the doctor warned us repeatedly to minimize his crying, or he might suffocate. Back then, he took it seriously and quit smoking and drinking entirely.
And when our nanny at home made Leo cry twice while changing his diaper, he beat her so badly that she ended up in the hospital.
But now, with Janet here, he was willing to risk his son's life for her?
Seeing that he was hesitating, I hurriedly spoke again, "Simon …."
"Simon, just let Harper go, okay? I'm alright. It doesn't bother me that I got a cold that almost paralyzed me. Don’t let me be the reason your wife and child suffer…”
Before I could finish my words, Janet cut in. As she snuggled in Simon's arms and tears welled in her eyes, she said again, "But Simon, don't worry too much. Though I went to the hospital that day, I saw it all on the surveillance footage. The child stayed in the air-conditioned room for hours. Later, maybe he cried nonstop from the cold, but nothing else happened...”
Nearly paralyzed? Cried for hours? She practically ran out that day and after she left, I rushed my son to the hospital immediately.
"She's lying! Our home surveillance system's app is connected to your phone. Verify it for yourself!"
But before I could finish, his expression darkened. He lowered the ladder and barked an order, "Guys! Strip her and the child naked! That woman never tells the truth. Today I’ll teach her a lesson she won’t forget!”
As the helicopter descended, Simon hurriedly pulled Janet closer. His eyes never left mine as he adjusted her clothes.
"Tell me … you made up about my son's illness, didn't you? Just to win my favor, you even used your own son! You're so disgusting, Harper! You've made many mistakes already, so if you don't sincerely admit your fault today, you can stay there!”
Then he bent and cupped Janet's face. His eyes filled with tenderness. "Janet, as long as I'm alive, I'll never let you suffer injustice. Don't be afraid.”
Just as he helped Janet sit down, his men rushed toward me in a frenzy. They eyed me up and down, grinning lewdly as they tore off my thin clothes.
With my son clutched in my arms, I kept retreating backward, but no matter how hard I tried, my strength was no match with several men.
They shoved me and snatched my son. Then stripped away his last piece of clothing and tossed him straight onto the ice. Instantly, my son's heartbreaking cries entered my ears, though it was clearly weaker than before.
Panic seized me. I stumbled and crawled toward him.
My bare skin stuck to the ice, each movement tearing away chunks of flesh, but I was too focused to care. I kept dragging myself forward like a madman, while leaving a long trail of blood behind me.
My son was also stuck firmly to the ice, so every time I moved him, the pain made him cry even harder.
As I tried to soothe him, I was lying beside him as an attempt to melt the ice beneath him with my body heat…
Minutes later, the ground beneath me was soaked in blood.
Clearly, Simon saw this because he pushed Janet away from his arms and leaned down to glance at my son. Just when he was about to speak, Janet slid down the ladder and pleaded, "Harper, just admit your wrongdoing. Men have their pride. With all these brothers here today, if you don’t apologize, how will Simon ever show his face again?"
I grabbed her by the collar, glared at her and screamed, "What should I admit? My son is in the ICU because of you! Do you dare ask Simon to pull up the surveillance footage from that day right now? Only a fool like him would believe such a pathetic lie!”
“You said you were paralyzed? Show me your medical record!”
Simon had followed downstairs. Hearing my words, his gaze toward Janet held a hint of unreadable emotion.
But at that moment, Janet suddenly slipped off her coat and dropped to her knees beside me with a loud thud. Then she slapped her own face violently. "Simon, this is all my fault. Hurry up … take Harper home. Don't fight with her because of me …."
"But, Simon, I'm telling the truth. I’ll kneel right here. In a few hours, when I’m paralyzed on this ice, you’ll finally believe me …”
The hesitation in his eyes immediately turned into heartache. He rushed forward, lifted Janet with tender care, his face full of anguish. Then he looked at me with cold eyes. "Harper! You really know how to twist black into white. If I didn’t protect her, a kind soul like Janet would’ve been bullied to death by you! And even now, you’re still so defiant—don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
Spinning around, he barked another order with an icy voice, “Guys! Release that polar bear from the cage! Let it have a good time!”
A burst of laughter erupted from behind him.
“Well, well, we’ve never seen a polar bear play with humans before! Thanks to your wife, we’re about to get a real show!”
Then they rushed toward the massive iron cage.
Just before the cage's door opened, a timid female's voice suddenly piped up from behind, "Simon, my dad saw polar bears during his expeditions. They’re violent creatures. If they smell blood, they really will eat people. Look—your wife and child are both covered in blood. If you release it, someone could actually die…”
Simon immediately gestured for the man at the cage door to stop. When he was about to speak, a faint, pitiful sob sounded from beside him. "Just forget it, Simon. I don’t care if I end up paralyzed in bed. I’m just worried about the child in my belly…”
"On that day, I just found out I was pregnant, Harper threw me out. Maybe she was angry about that …”
Pregnant? I had no idea this bitch was pregnant!
I did not have a chance to explain when Simon's face darkened and he roared at the men near the gate, "Open the cage!"
The next second, that two-meter-tall monster charged toward me and my son.
Meanwhile, Simon pulled Janet onto the helicopter and wrapped her protectively in his arms. As he watched me running frantically with my son in my arms, a burst of cruel laughter came from his mouth.
"Harper! Let’s see how tough you really are! You tried to harm Janet and now you want to kill the child in her womb. Everything you suffered today—you brought on yourself!”
Sprinting desperately across the ice, my lungs were about to explode.
Seeing this, Janet tried to interfere timidly again, but Simon silenced her with a glare. “Enough! I’ve already prepared a medical helicopter. Nothing will happen. But if you say one more word, you’ll be thrown down there with her!”
Terrified, she shrank back and didn’t dare speak again.
Sniffing the scent of blood, the polar bear went berserk. Seeing this, I frantically rubbed snow onto my body while sprinting like a madman.
Though the blood scent faded from my skin, it was still on my feet. With every stride, another layer of the soles of my feet was ripped off by the ice.
The bear followed the trail of my bloody footprints, roaring louder as it charged after us.
The freezing cold and blood loss made my head spin.
Finally, when my body gave out and I collapsed onto the ice, I could only watch helplessly as the bear lunged at me.
Clutching Leo, I rolled over swiftly, baring my back to the bear. A second later, a paw bigger than my face crashed into my back.
