Chapter 6 - THE LONGEST NIGHT
The temperature had fallen below zero.
Snow erased the driveway.
Grace pressed Lily beneath her coat and ran toward the detached garage.
It was locked.
She tried the guest cabin.
Locked.
Every outdoor keypad had been disabled.
Ethan had prepared the property.
Grace pulled out the hidden phone.
The screen showed one bar of battery and no signal.
She typed a message to Margaret anyway.
HE LOCKED US OUT. NORTHCREST HOUSE. BABY WITH ME.
The message remained unsent.
Grace knew there was an old caretaker’s cabin beyond the eastern tree line.
It had not been used in years, but it contained a wood stove.
The cabin was less than a mile away in summer.
In the blizzard, it might as well have been another state.
Grace wrapped Lily’s face loosely to protect her from the wind.
Then she began walking.
Snow reached her knees.
Branches disappeared beneath white drifts.
Twice, Grace fell.
Each time, she turned in midair so her back struck the ground instead of the baby.
Lily’s crying weakened.
“Stay with me,” Grace begged. “Please stay with me.”
Behind them, Ethan moved through the mountain house deleting messages.
He used Grace’s regular phone to send Margaret a text.
I overreacted. Everything is fine. Ethan and I are discussing it.
Then he drove Grace’s SUV toward the ridge road.
He left it near a dangerous curve with the driver’s door open.
Inside, he placed Grace’s coat, wallet, and a bottle of prescription pain medication.
He wanted rescuers to believe she had driven into the storm while emotionally unstable.
Sabrina wiped the forged documents and returned them to the study.
Neither of them checked the doorbell system’s cloud backup.
At 1:47 a.m., Grace’s hidden message finally sent.
Margaret called Detective Reed.
By then, the mountain roads were impassable.
Search crews could not reach the house.
Grace reached the caretaker’s cabin just as the hidden phone died.
The door would not open.
Ice had sealed it shut.
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Lily no longer cried.
👉 Grace had found shelter, but the silence against her chest frightened her more than the storm.
