The bag was airtight, a tiny sweltering cell. I had been breathing only thanks to faint trickles of cool air seeping in through the zipper.
If the AC was shut off, in this hot summer night, the heat would suffocate me.
Please—don’t turn it off! Please!
I screamed inside, praying someone would sense the danger.
At that moment, my phone rang again in the bedroom.
David clicked his tongue irritably, walked in, and picked it up.
“Margaret? Laura’s not around? It’s nothing, I just found this health supplement, good for the heart… Not too expensive, just two thousand dollars. I figured Laura and Daniel could split it, a thousand each.”
His face darkened immediately—her mother again, leeching money.
She had given their father’s entire inheritance to Daniel, yet every time she needed cash, it was Laura who had to pay.
David’s voice turned icy.
“Two thousand? You’ve got some nerve… I don’t have the money! Talk to her when she gets back. That’s it!”
He slammed the call down and tossed my phone back onto the bed like trash, muttering curses.
“Bloodsuckers, the lot of them! Do they think I’m an ATM?”