Chapter 5

I thought Mom would go straight to sleep after washing her face, but to my surprise, she got into bed and pulled out her phone to call me.

After the phone rang once, then again, with no answer, Mom let out a cold snort and muttered to herself.

"At least the brat knows his place. He wouldn't dare crawl out of that cellar without my permission."

I let out a bitter laugh. Here I thought she had finally remembered me, but she was only calling to check if I had managed to escape on my own. She knew full well that I didn't have my phone with me when she shoved me down there.

Though even if I had carried it with me, what difference would it have made?

So Mom turned around and dialed Dad instead.

"Are you at home? Go let Cody out. While you're at it, ask him if he realizes what he did wrong. As long as he's willing to apologize to Zack the second we get back, he won't have to go back down into that cellar. Besides... he's been locked up for days. What if he dies out there?"

Dad's impatient voice cut Mom off before she could even finish.

"I haven't been home for days. He's not an idiot—he definitely climbed out on his own a long time ago. You honestly think he'd just let himself freeze to death?

"Anyway, I've got a bite on my line. I've got to go!"

The line went dead.

Mom knitted her brows and muttered under her breath, "It's true. He's old enough to know better. I'm worrying over nothing."

I stood beside Mom's bed in silence.

She had completely forgotten that when she pushed me down, she never bothered to lower the ladder. From the very beginning, she never intended to let me out.

The next morning, a frantic ringtone woke Mom from her sleep. She answered groggily, only to hear Dad's panicked voice blaring through the speaker.

"Why aren't you back yet? Something happened. Cody... Cody's dead."

The phone slipped right out of Mom's hand. Her mind instantly snapped awake, and she bolted upright in bed.

"What are you talking about?! How could he be dead?!"

"The doctor said... severe hypothermia. He froze... froze to death."

Dad's voice grew weaker and softer with every word.

"Is he stupid?! If he was freezing, why didn't he just come back inside?"

Mom screamed into the phone. I couldn't tell if she was furious at me for being foolish enough to obey her orders and stay put, or angry that following her orders turned out to be a fatal mistake.

Dad snapped.

"It's a fifteen-foot drop, and you didn't even leave him a ladder! How the hell was he supposed to climb out?! The doctor said his ankle was broken, too. Even if he tried to crawl up, he couldn't have made it!"

This was the very first time I had ever heard Dad argue with Mom over me.

But what was the point now? I was already dead. He wasn't yelling out of genuine grief or love for me. He just needed someone to blame so he could stand on the moral high ground.

Mom's phone hit the floor with a loud crack, the screen shattering into a spiderweb of cracks.

Zack walked into the room right at that moment, a bewildered look on his face.

"Mom, what happened?"

Mom's face was deathly pale. Even her voice trembled violently as she spoke.

"Zack... we need to go home right now... Your brother... he..."

Zack feigned deep concern, leaning in urgently. "What happened to Cody?"

"He's dead..."

The words dropped like a heavy stone into a quiet pond, plunging the hotel room into an unsettling silence. However, there wasn't a shred of shock on Zack's face. From an angle where Mom couldn't see, I caught the subtle grin tugging at the corner of his lips.