The snow was loud enough to swallow my screams. One second I was looking at my husband, and the next, I was falling backward into a blinding white abyss, my fingers desperately clawing at the empty, freezing air.
As I plummeted, Victor’s voice drifted down from the ledge above, bright with absolute cruelty: “Don’t worry, Elena. The baby won’t suffer long.”
The world shattered into white. By some miracle, I didn’t fall all the way to the jagged rocks at the bottom of the canyon. Instead, I violently slammed into a narrow, snow-laden rock ledge halfway down the cliff face. Sharp, agonizing pain burst through my ribs, my cheek, and my swollen belly. I tasted iron and ice, gasping for air, terrified that the impact had killed my baby. I lay perfectly still in the freezing darkness, praying for a flicker of movement in my stomach.
Above me, I saw Victor’s dark silhouette lean over the cliff edge. He had his phone out, likely timing the event or making sure there was no visible trace of a struggle. Then, a second silhouette joined him. It was Serena, his administrative assistant—a woman I had welcomed into my home and trusted.
“Is she dead?” Serena’s voice drifted down, muffled by the howling wind.
“She’s gone,” Victor replied coldly. “No one survives Blackthorn Cliff in a blizzard. The $50 million payout is ours. By the time they find whatever is left of her in the spring, it’ll look like a tragic accident. The useless woman deserved it anyway.”
Hearing those words ignited a fierce, primal fire inside me. The baby kicked—a sharp, frantic movement that told me my child was still fighting. If my baby was fighting, I was going to fight.
I crawled deeper into a small recess under the rocky ledge, completely hidden from their view. I watched through the gloom as their headlights finally turned around and vanished back down the mountain.
What Victor didn’t realize was that the $50 million life insurance policy he had secretly taken out on me weeks prior was issued by my father’s corporate empire. Victor thought he had played the system, but he had walked directly into the dragon’s den.
