Chapter 2

As soon as I tried to speak, I couldn't hold back my tears. "He really seems to hate us. It's like he wants us dead in this freezing weather."

Hector gave me a half-serious scolding. "Did you catch a fever or something? Why are you saying such crazy things?"

Aurora, the nanny, jumped in to back him up. "Honestly, Mrs. Conway, Edmund's just a little mischievous, but he really cares about you.

"I'm honestly envious. There's no way he'd ever want anything bad to happen to you."

Hector chimed in to comfort me. "That's right. Edmund just called me, even in this freezing weather.

"He and Alice are worried about leaving us two old folks home alone, so they're heading over right now."

As soon as I heard Edmund was coming, I totally freaked out and blurted out, trying to stop them. "No way, don't let Edmund and Alice come over."

Edmund was an abandoned baby we found twenty-eight years ago. Ever since he could run and jump, he was always full of energy and mischief.

Hector and I were both busy with work, so we had to hire a nanny, Aurora, to look after him.

When Edmund started school and couldn't keep up with his classes, I hired the best private tutors to give him extra lessons.

Whenever Edmund got into fights, I was shelling out cash and apologizing left and right.

AfterEdmunde bombed the college entrance exams, I sent him overseas without a second thought, even hired Aurora to be his chaperone abroad, paying her a fortune. I spent millions, and in the end, all that money just led to him getting expelled for gambling.

At my wit's end, I had to pull some strings to get Edmund a job that didn't pay much, but at least it was steady.

Edmund kept his nose clean for a while, and then he fell head over heels for Alice.

Without hesitation, I bought them a spacious four-bedroom apartment downtown as their wedding gift, and even gave them a generous monthly allowance of three thousand dollars for living expenses.

But I never imagined that all the unconditional care and backing I gave would only be repaid with so much hatred.

Right now, Hector didn't believe me at all. He was just focused on riding out this blizzard safely with Edmund and Alice.

I tried to stop Hector, my voice weak and desperate. "Hector, you have to believe me. Edmund isn't the person we think he is. I'm absolutely sure.

"If this freeze really turns into the apocalypse and all communication goes down, he's young and strong.

"If he's here, he'll take control, and if he wants to do us harm, we'd be completely powerless to stop him."

Seeing how upset I was, Hector looked troubled, but finally nodded. "Okay, let me call Edmund and ask him to stay put for now."

Once Hector agreed, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Without hesitating, I sent all the household staff home. At a time like this, the fewer people here, the safer we'll be.

Soon, the only ones left in the villa were Aurora, who'd spent most of her life working for us, single and with nowhere else to go, plus Hector and me.

I've always been the type to hoard supplies, and Hector never missed a chance to poke fun at me for worrying too much.

But after Aurora and I went through everything in the basement, we saw that if we stretched things out, the three of us could easily get by for months.

But as I watched the snow keep falling harder outside, I couldn't help but feel anxious. 'Maybe I should stash even more supplies... just to be safe.'

Thinking about it, I grabbed my phone and called up a supermarket that wasn't too close but not too far either.

I told the owner to deliver 30 thousand dollars worth of food, water, and daily supplies ASAP. Especially stuff that's easy to store and won't go bad anytime soon.

Just then, Aurora, who was usually pretty quiet, suddenly spoke up. "Ma'am, since we're already stocking up, maybe we should get even more.Better safe than sorry, right? There's three of us to feed after all."

"Better safe than sorry, right? There's three of us to feed after all."

Her words made sense, so I didn't hesitate. I doubled the budget to 70 thousand dollars.

The supermarket was already closed, but when the owner heard I was dropping 70 thousand dollars on supplies. Plus an extra two thousand for delivery, he just couldn't say no.

Normally, it's just a twenty-minute drive, but thanks to the blizzard, it took the owner a whole hour and a half to get here.

After I handed over the cash, the owner thanked me over and over, then gave me a confused look and asked, "Is this blizzard really never going to stop?"