Caleb Rhodes stopped in his tracks. Without turning back, he said coldly, "Brother, did you really think you covered your tracks so well that no one would find out how your wife truly died?"
"You know damn well why you married Lana Shaw!"
The color drained from Leo Rhodes’s face in an instant. His hands balled into tight fists, veins bulging on them.
But he said nothing, only watched with a dark expression as Caleb Rhodes walked away.
Next to the Rhodes family’s water tower was a small storage shed. It was normally used to hold tools, but it also served as a place to punish those who had done wrong.
This wasn’t the first ti Nina Wynn had been locked in here.
Over the past several years, she had been locked in here countless tis.
The longest she had ever been trapped was when Crystal Rhodes and Zyler Rhodes locked her in for two days and two nights without giving her a single drop of water.
If soone hadn’t co to fix an issue with the water tower, she would have died of dehydration right then and there.
But in all the previous tis she’d been locked up, at least she had been wearing proper clothes.
Not like this ti. Nina Wynn was only wearing a thin knit sweater.
Although the enclosed space was shielded from the wind, the temperature was still more than ten degrees below zero. After just a short while, she was so cold she started to feel delirious.
She hugged a nearby plastic tarp used for covering tools, trying to draw a sliver of warmth from it.
But it was no use. The damp, bone-chillingly cold ground was already coated in a thin layer of ice, and the soft-soled slippers she was wearing offered no insulation whatsoever.
She curled up in a pile of plastic tarps, so cold she was on the verge of losing consciousness. Only one thought remained in her mind: ’I hope Caleb Rhodes gets here soon.’
’I know he won’t do anything to the Rhodes family for my sake, but he seems to have so feelings for now. He wouldn’t let just freeze to death in here.’
Hypothermia sets in quickly in this kind of extre cold. Before long, she felt as if she’d turned into a block of ice, her body completely numb.
Her consciousness was starting to fade, as if she were about to drift off to sleep.
She didn’t feel despair. There had been far too many days for that. All that remained was numbness and the resolve to escape this place as soon as possible.
The only thing that made her heart ache was Lana Shaw’s attitude and the look in her eyes.
’She watched get beaten and listened with her own ears to how I had been tornted, yet she showed no reaction. She didn’t even spare a single glance.’
’Has she completely given up on our mother-daughter bond?’
At these thoughts, she pressed her hand tightly against her chest.
It was as if by doing so, her heart wouldn’t feel quite so cold.
She didn’t know how much ti had passed when the sheet tal door was yanked open with a loud BANG.
A tall figure appeared in the doorway. Silhouetted against the light, she couldn’t make out his face, but she heard him call her na in a hoarse voice.
"Nina!"
Caleb Rhodes’s eyes imdiately fell on the person curled up amidst the plastic tarps.
Her small face was purplish-blue from the cold, and her eyes were unfocused—the sa vacant look she’d had that ti she’d run away injured.
There was no life in them, no plea for help. All he saw in her eyes was numbness and utter despair!
His heart seized violently, and even breathing beca painful.
Seeing him, Nina Wynn’s lips moved as if she wanted to say sothing, but no sound ca out.
Caleb Rhodes couldn’t bear to look at her for another second. He quickly shed his overcoat, strode forward, and wrapped it around Nina Wynn.
His body heat enveloped her, and with it ca a faint, stinging pain.
It was the kind of pain your skin feels when you suddenly enter a warm room after being out in the ice and snow for too long.
The pain helped Nina Wynn regain so of her senses. She leaned her head against his shoulder and said softly, "Caleb Rhodes, you ca!"
Caleb Rhodes’s eyes grew moist, and his throat felt so tight he couldn’t speak.
A gut-wrenching pain stole his voice.
After a long mont, he finally managed in a hoarse voice, "I’m sorry. I ca too late."
Nina Wynn said softly, "You’re not late. This isn’t the first ti, anyway. Winter is more bearable than sumr."
After a pause, she added, "You’re the first person to co save in years, Caleb Rhodes."
Caleb Rhodes held her so tightly it felt as if he were trying to rge her into his very bones.
He said in a low voice, "I should have co back sooner."
’No, coming back sooner wouldn’t have been enough. I should have taken her under my wing personally ten years ago, kept her by my side, and raised her myself!’
"It’s all my fault!"
Curled in his arms, Nina Wynn began to regain feeling as a little warmth returned to her body. She started to shiver. "Caleb Rhodes, I’m so cold!"
Caleb Rhodes held her in his arms and strode outside.
The wind was strong outside. Nina Wynn felt the shirt he was wearing and asked softly, "Caleb Rhodes, are you cold?"
Caleb Rhodes held her even tighter. "I’m not cold. Holding Nina keeps warm."
Nina Wynn buried her head in his shoulder, deeply inhaling his crisp, cedar scent.
In a voice that was barely a whisper, she asked, "Caleb Rhodes, why did you have to be a Rhodes?"
The wind was a bit strong, and Caleb Rhodes didn’t quite hear what she said. He carried her up the steps in just a few strides.
The door to a room at the top of the stairs was open, and warm air spilled out. Caleb Rhodes carried her inside.
Just then, Warner Zimrman hurried over as well.
Seeing Nina Wynn’s state, her normally expressionless face revealed a look of pity.
The young woman’s exposed skin was entirely purplish-blue from the cold. Blood was still seeping from the corners of her lips, and a large stain had already soaked the collar of her sweater.
Moreover, the bloodstains had frozen into a thin layer of ice.
Warner Zimrman felt a sting in her nose and quickly handed him the blanket and clothes she had brought.
Caleb Rhodes set Nina Wynn down on a chair next to the radiator and wrapped the blanket around her.
Then, he knelt on the floor and began to remove her partially frozen socks.
Her normally small, plump feet seed to be frostbitten. They had stuck to the socks, and as he peeled them off, small patches of skin were torn away.
But she seed unable to feel the pain, sitting perfectly still and letting him tend to her.
Caleb Rhodes examined her feet, dabbed the injuries with a tissue, and then slipped a pair of soft, fuzzy slippers onto them.
After doing all this, he poured a cup of hot water and tried to help her drink.
But as soon as the water entered her mouth, she spit it back out along with a mouthful of blood.
The inside of her mouth was cut and had been bleeding continuously; the hot water made it sting terribly.
Caleb Rhodes glanced at the bloody water on the floor and the bloodstains on her collar, and the murderous glint in his eyes intensified.
He took a tissue and gently wiped the lingering traces of blood from the corners of her lips. His voice was dangerously low. "They hit you."
Nina Wynn’s lips moved. "It doesn’t hurt," she whispered. "It’s much better than before. It was just a few slaps."
Caleb Rhodes gripped the cup in his hand, the veins on the back of it throbbing violently.
And just like that, the thin glass shattered in his grip.
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