Chapter 1

The minus-22-degree-Fahrenheit chill from the freezer gradually seeped into my body.

Outside the door, my sister Nicole Schmidt's voice was already breaking with sobs.

"Dad, I'm begging you!" She kneeled on the floor and clutched our father David Schmidt's pant leg. "I promise I'll listen to you from now on, okay?"

"Please let Chris out. He's frail. He can't take this!"

David merely looked down and coldly shook her hand off.

"Nicole, I expect you to become someone great. Everything I do is for your own good.

"How many times have you promised me? And yet what happened? You kept disobeying me again and again!"

Nicole's voice grew increasingly desperate.

"I mean it this time! If you let Chris out, I promise I'll get into Hulton College! I swear!"

David fell silent for a long moment. He didn't immediately berate or refuse her.

For a second, I thought there was hope.

Then his cold voice passed through the iron door. "No. This time, I'm going to make sure you remember the lesson."

I sat on the floor and rubbed my body repeatedly while trying to warm myself.

I slowly dragged myself to the door and begged weakly, "Dad, I'm so cold. Please let me out. It's freezing in here."

The tone he used with Nicole was stern but still carried warmth, but the tone he used with me was far colder.

"Just endure it, Chris. This is why you were born. You don't get a choice!"

My nose stung.

David was right. It was all because he firmly believed I was the perfect tool to push Nicole toward success.

He always said, "What's the point if both of them fail? It's better to put all our effort into raising one successful child! There's nothing wrong with sacrificing the other one."

Whenever Nicole's grades slipped, he made me run laps around the school field in the dead of winter until my knees bled.

Once, Nicole came home ten minutes late. David threw a fit.

"Nicole! Do you know how dangerous it is out there?"

As he scolded her, he stripped off my clothes and tossed me outside.

"I'm going to teach you that nowhere is safe except home and school!"

I was only in the seventh grade. I stood there naked while strangers stared and pointed at me.

"Dad! Please let me back inside!"

Feeling their gazes all over me, I could never forget the humiliation. It still haunted me to this day.

'It's so cold. Why is it so cold?' I was beginning to lose consciousness.

Within minutes, frost covered my eyelashes and eyebrows.

Outside the freezer, Nicole seemed to stand up.

She shouted through tears.

"Chris! Hang on! I'm going to find someone to save you! Please wait for me!"

Then came hurried footsteps and David's angry roar. "Nicole! Get back here!"

He ran after her.

Their voices gradually faded. I forced my eyes open. There was still hope.

'Don't fall asleep. Nicole will come back for me.'

I hugged myself and rubbed my body while trying to fight the cold that had seeped into my bones, but my whole body shook uncontrollably.

Soon, I heard a frantic, heartbroken voice.

"Chris!"

My breathing quickened. I pressed against the door and said, "Mom, I'm so cold."

My mother, Rhonda Jackson, pounded on the door repeatedly.

"Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! I'm getting you out!"

She then screamed at David. "Give me the key! You've completely lost your mind!"

David was breathing heavily, but he shouted back.

"Absolutely not! The fact that Nicole went to find you proves she still doesn't understand what she did wrong!"

"Dad!"

Nicole's voice trembled. She was clearly sobbing.

Seeing her like that, David softened slightly. His tone wasn't so cold anymore.

"Enough! I'm not actually going to freeze my own son to death! I raised the freezer temperature by 54 degrees. Besides, he was wearing a down jacket. He'll be fine!"

I looked down at my thin, worn-out clothes. These were the clothes I'd had for years, and the padding had long since flattened. My chest felt cold.

David had probably forgotten about this, but two years ago, the freezer had malfunctioned after some meat spoiled inside. Since then, the temperature control stopped working. It had been stuck at minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit ever since.