CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1: The Frost & The Lie

The wind screamed through the dead trees, whipping snow into my face like shattered glass. I hugged the canvas bag of canned stew and bread tight against my chest.

To get this food, I had walked four long miles through a -40⁰C blizzard to the last open supply depot, spending the very last bill in my wallet. Inside my thin gloves, my hands were black, stiff, and completely numb. Every single step felt like stepping on sharp nails, but I kept going. I kept thinking of my family, my husband Ethan, my sick five-year-old boy Leo, and my widowed sister-in-law Anna, who had lived with us since her husband passed away three years ago.

When I finally reached the porch of our villa, I banged my frozen elbow against the heavy wooden door.

"Ethan! Anna! Please, open up!" I cried out. "I brought the food!"

The door creaked open. Ethan stood in the warm entryway, heat pouring out around him. Behind him, Anna wrapped a thick fur blanket over her shoulders.

"Give me that," Ethan said, snatching the heavy bag right out of my stiff hands.

"Please... let me step inside," I sobbed. My jaw shook so hard I could barely get the words out. "I can't feel my feet... it's so cold out here..."

Instead of pulling me into the warmth, Ethan planted his heavy boot flat against my chest and shoved me hard.

I flew backward off the porch steps, crashing into a deep snowbank. Pain shot through my spine, but my body was too frozen to move.

"Ethan! What are you doing?!" I screamed, struggling to push myself up. "It's -40⁰C! I'll freeze to death!"

“ Then die,” he said. Immediately the front door opened wider. Anna stepped onto the porch holding a heavy, rusted butcher’s cutlass from the tool shed. The cold steel caught the porch light with a sharp shine.

"You're not coming back in, Aria," Anna said. Her voice was flat, totally stripped of the sweet, gentle tone she had used on me for years.

"Anna... please, no!" I scrambled back on my raw elbows, my heart hammering in my chest. "I bought you food! I fed you when your husband died! I took you as my sister!"

Anna didn't say a word. She stepped off the porch and brought the heavy blade down with all her strength.

The cutlass sliced straight through my coat and deep into my thigh. A high, ragged scream burst from my throat as warm blood sprayed across the white snow, steaming in the freezing air.

"Stop! Please stop!" I choked out, throwing up blood. Ethan just stood on the porch with his arms crossed, watching me like it was nothing.

Anna swung a second time. The heavy blade hit my collarbone with a sickening crunch. I collapsed onto my side, my vision flashing bright red as agony tore through my body. I couldn't move. I could only lie there as my blood pooled into the snow under me.

Anna knelt down, resting the cold, wet edge of the steel against my cheek. A dark smile stretched across her face.

"Do you want to know why you're dying out here, Aria?" Anna whispered softly. "Because you were so stupidly easy to fool."

"My... my boy..." I gasped, blood bubbling out of my mouth. "Where is... Leo..."

Anna burst out laughing, a sharp, cruel sound that echoed in the dark.

“ Maybe I will tell you where he is if he were to be your son”

“ W..what are you talking about?”

"Leo isn't your son, you idiot." My heart stopped. "What...?"

" You remember Five years ago, when we were pregnant at the exact same time?," Anna sneered, digging the heel of her boot right into my open wound.

"I made you believe my baby belonged to a secret lover, then I pretended he died at birth so you wouldn't ask questions. But guess what? my baby didn't die. Yours did."

I had believed all her lies years ago, because why shouldn't I ? I took her like a sister not knowing that my precious husband Ethan has been a green snake in a green grass.

"No..." I gasped, tears freezing on my cheeks. “ No no.. Ethan wouldn't do that to me”

"You think so ? She burst out laughing again

“Ethan and I paid the clinic nurse to switch off your daughter's incubator five hours after she was born," Anna whispered, her eyes wide and full of hate. "She froze to death while you were passed out from your C-section. Then the nurse placed my baby in your arms and told you he was yours."

"Why..." I sobbed, blood choking my throat. "Why would you do that to me...?"

"Maybe because I and Ethan needed a gullible fool to work three jobs, sell off her mother's land, and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on our son's luxury life and fake medical bills. You starved yourself for five years to raise my child while your own daughter was thrown into a nameless grave."

"You... monsters..." I wept, my chest heaving as the icy air filled my torn lungs.

"Thanks for the bread, Aria," Ethan called out from the door, taking a big bite of the fresh loaf I had nearly died to get. "Try not to make a mess on the driveway."

Anna turned around, walked inside, and slammed the heavy door shut. The lock clicked into place.

I lay alone in the pitch black, my blood turning into dark red ice beneath me. The burning pain of the cuts slowly faded into a dull, heavy numbness. My eyes grew heavy, my vision went black, and my very last breath slipped away into the freezing night.

---

"Aria! Are you deaf?! Sign the papers!"

A hard, stinging slap cracked across my face.

My eyes flew open. I gasped, pulling a deep breath of warm air into my chest. No blood in my mouth. No slash across my neck. No icy wind.

I looked down at my hands. The skin was smooth, pale, and completely unhurt. I snatched my phone off the glass table:

April 12, 2026. 2:15 PM.

Sixty days before the global freeze.

Standing over me was Ethan's mother, Beatrice, her hand still raised from hitting me. Sitting right beside her on the sofa was Anna, wearing a modest black dress, dabbing her eyes with a tissue and playing the part of a fragile, caring sister-in-law. Ethan stood over by the window, his arms folded, watching me with the exact same cold, greedy eyes he had worn on the porch.

"Your mother's estate trust matures this week," Beatrice barked, shoving a thick stack of papers right against my chest. "Leo needs another expensive treatment in Switzerland. The deposit is $500,000, and you're signing the property over today!"

Anna leaned forward, taking my hand in a soft, trembling grip that made my skin crawl. "Aria, sweetie, please don't argue with mother," Anna whimpered softly, fake tears welling in her eyes. "Since my poor husband passed, you and Ethan are all I have left. You know how weak little Leo is. If he doesn't get this money, I don't know how our family will go on..."

I stared at Anna's soft face, remembering the wild grin she had worn while hacking that blade into my bone. They were still using my love for the boy and Anna's fake widow act to drain every last cent I had.

"Five hundred thousand?" I asked, my voice low and steady as I pulled my hand out of Anna's grip.

"Yes! And don't you dare act stingy!" Beatrice snapped, poking her finger an inch from my nose. "He is your son! How can you sit there being so heartless when your child's life is on the line? Sign it over to Ethan right now!"

Ethan took a step closer, forcing his usual warm, caring smile. "Aria, honey, do it for our boy. You know I'd pay it myself if my business accounts weren't tied up right now. Don't be selfish."

I looked at the three parasites sitting in my warm living room. A deep, quiet fury lit up inside my chest, burning hotter than any fire.

Before I could rip the contract to pieces, a clear tone chimed inside my head. A faint blue screen floated right in front of my eyes:

[Apocalypse Hoarding System Activated]

[Countdown to Global Sub-Zero Event: 59 Days, 21 Hours, 59 Minutes]

[Initial Spatial Storage Unlocked]

[Current Task: Liquidate all non-essential assets and hoard maximum survival resources.]