The Panic Room's Deadly Secret

I was eight months pregnant when my husband drugged me and locked me in our panic room. The contractions started immediately, fierce and too soon.

He told me over the intercom that his late partner's widow was also in labor. Her child had to be born first to inherit billions from a tech fund.

He ignored my screams, my pleas, the blood soaking through my nightgown. He called me dramatic and manipulative.

His sister arrived, not to help, but to inject me with another drug to "keep me quiet." I felt my baby's life fading along with my own.

I was left to die, a casualty of my husband's greed. But he made one fatal mistake.

He never knew I was Elinor Guzman, the sole heir to the Sterling empire.

And now, two years after my supposed death, I'm back to collect the debt he owes-with interest.

Chapter 1

Elinor Guzman POV:

The first contraction tore through me, a white-hot wave that buckled my knees. My hands flew to my swollen belly, instinctively trying to protect the life within. It was too soon, too fierce. I was only eight months along.

A metallic taste filled my mouth. My head swam, the edges of the opulent panic room blurring.

My husband, Isaiah, had drugged me.

He had promised me rest. A quiet afternoon. A moment of peace in our secure sanctuary.

Instead, I awoke to this.

The room was supposed to be a haven. Bulletproof, soundproof. Designed to keep danger out.

Now, it kept me in.

The thick steel door mocked me, its cold surface reflecting my terrified face. No handle on the inside. No way out.

"Isaiah!" My voice was a raw, desperate croak. "Isaiah, please! I'm in labor!"

The intercom crackled, his voice, calm and controlled, slicing through my panic. "Elinor. Don't be dramatic."

Dramatic? I was having our baby. Alone. In a cage.

My body tensed again, a new wave of pain tightening around me. It felt like my insides were being twisted.

"It's real, Isaiah! The baby is coming! I need a doctor! Now!" I pressed my ear against the cold metal, hoping he could hear the terror in my voice, the urgency.

A sigh filtered through. "That's precisely why you're in there, my love."

His words hit me harder than the contraction. My heart seized in my chest. Love? He called this love?

"What are you talking about?" My breath hitched. The drug made my tongue heavy.

"Isabella is also in labor, Elinor." His tone was flat, devoid of emotion. "Her doctor estimates delivery within the hour."

Isabella. Isabella Gray. His late business partner's widow.

My mind struggled to connect the dots through the haze of the drug. Her labor. My labor.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I whimpered, another sob tearing from my throat. The baby kicked violently, as if mirroring my fear.

"The inheritance clause, Elinor." He spoke as if explaining a simple business transaction. "It states, quite clearly, that the firstborn child inherits a controlling stake in the tech fund. Billions, Elinor. Billions."

My blood ran cold. He couldn' t. He wouldn' t.

"You're delaying my labor? For money?" The words were barely a whisper, choked by pain and disbelief.

"For stability," he corrected, his voice sharper now. "For Blackwood Industries. For everything we've built."

My stomach clenched, not just from the contraction, but from a sickening twist of betrayal. "Our baby, Isaiah. This is our child."

"You already have my love, Elinor. Isabella has nothing left."

The cruelty of it. The sheer, unapologetic savagery of his words. They echoed in the small, sterile room, each syllable a fresh wound.

"Please, Isaiah! I'm bleeding. I think something is wrong." A sharp, searing pain shot through me, hot and wet. I looked down, my nightgown stained crimson.

"Elinor." His voice held a hint of impatience. "Don't try to manipulate me. You always were prone to exaggeration."

"I'm not!" I shrieked, the sound desperate and raw. "I swear it! Just let me out! I'll do anything! I'll give up the inheritance. I don't care about the money. Just let me have our baby safely!"

There was a pause, a fleeting moment where I dared to hope.

Then, his voice, closer now, as if he was right outside the door, chilling me to the bone. "Don't you see, Elinor? Your child can't be born first. It complicates everything."

I heard a faint click, then the sound of muffled conversation. He was talking to someone outside. Isabella?

The thought sent a fresh wave of nausea through me.

My vision swam. The floor felt cold against my cheek as I crumpled, unable to stand against the force of the contractions.

Each one was a vise, twisting and tearing. My body was screaming, but no one was listening.

"Isaiah! Please!" I begged, my voice cracking. "I'm begging you! Don't do this! Don't do this to our baby!"

The intercom remained silent. He was gone. He had disconnected.

Panic, cold and sharp, pierced through the drug-induced haze. I was utterly alone.

My breathing became shallow, ragged gasps. The pain was unbearable, a monster tearing its way out from within.

Something shifted inside me, a sudden, violent lurch. A horrifying gush.

More blood. So much more blood.

I tried to push, to fight, to simply exist. But my body was failing. The drugs were working. They were slowing me, weakening me.

My baby. My sweet, innocent baby.

I tried to reach for the emergency button, but my hand was too heavy, too sluggish. It just scraped uselessly against the wall.

This room. This secure, panic-proof room. It was my tomb.

The baby moved again, a frantic flutter, then a weaker tremor. My heart pounded, a frantic drum against my ribs.

My vision tunneled. I felt like I was shrinking, fading. My strength draining away with every agonizing breath.

"Help me!" I screamed, a guttural sound torn from the deepest part of my being. It was a primal cry, not for myself, but for the life inside me.

Distantly, I heard footsteps approaching the heavy door. Heavy, deliberate steps. Not Isaiah's.

Hope, fragile but fierce, ignited within me. Someone. Anyone.

"Please!" I shoved myself against the door, my bloody hands thudding against the metal. "I'm in labor! The baby is coming! I need help!"

The heavy door hissed open a crack. A woman's face, cold and unyielding, peered through. Kandace Mueller. Isaiah's sister.

"Oh, look at this mess." Her voice was a sneer, laced with disgust. "Just as Isaiah said. Always so dramatic, Elinor."

"Kandace, please!" I choked out, a fresh wave of pain making my body arch. "It's not a trick. I'm really hurting. The baby needs help."

She stepped inside, pulling a sterile wipe from her pocket. She dabbed at a drop of blood on the pristine floor, her face twisted in distaste. "You Sterlings really are something else. Always making a scene."

"I'm not making a scene, Kandace! I'm dying!" My voice was a desperate rasp. "And your nephew... or niece... is dying too!"

Kandace scoffed, her eyes raking over my blood-soaked nightgown. "Don't try to guilt me, Elinor. I know you. You'd do anything to ruin Isaiah's plans."

"I'll sign anything! I'll disappear! Just get me a doctor, please! I don't want to lose this baby!" I reached out a trembling hand, trying to grasp her arm.

She recoiled as if I were diseased. "Disgusting." She pulled out her phone, holding it to her ear. "Isaiah? She's bleeding a lot. And she's screaming. Sounds pretty real to me."

My heart leaped. She was talking to Isaiah. This was my chance.

"Isaiah! It's not a lie! Please! Our baby!" I screamed into the phone, hoping he could hear me, hoping the sound of my agony would pierce through his greed.

Kandace's brow furrowed. "What if she's not faking? She's really pale." She paused, listening. "No, I know. But still, the blood..."

I saw Kandace's eyes flicker, a hint of uncertainty there. She was almost human for a second. Almost.

"Maybe you should just come down, Isaiah," she said, her voice softer than I'd ever heard it. "Just to be sure."

Another pause. My world held its breath.

Then, a sweet, saccharine voice drifted from the phone, clear and chillingly close. Isabella Gray.

"Oh, Isaiah, darling, don't let her disturb you." Isabella's voice was a silken whisper. "Remember what the doctor said. Stress isn't good for our little one. You need to be here for us."

The words. Our little one.

My eyes met Kandace's. She was looking past me, into the phone, a strange, almost worshipful expression on her face.

Isabella was in a luxurious medical suite, I realized. Probably surrounded by doctors and nurses. While I was here, bleeding out on the cold floor.

"Elinor is a manipulator, Isabella," Isaiah's voice, now hard and cold, snapped back into focus. "Always has been. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere."

"See?" Kandace sneered, her brief flicker of humanity extinguished. "He knows you, Elinor. He sees right through you."

"But Isabella is right, Isaiah," Kandace continued, her voice hardening. "This noise is entirely too much. And what if she actually does manage to hurt the baby? That would look bad, wouldn't it? Even if it's the wrong baby."

I heard a sharp click. Isaiah had hung up. He didn't care.

Kandace's face contorted, a mixture of frustration and fury. "He just cut me off! All because of your theatrics! He thinks I can't handle you!"

She glared at me, her eyes burning with an intense, personal hatred.

"You're such a pest." She reached into her pocket again, pulling out a small, gleaming silver syringe. The needle glinted under the harsh panic room lights.

"This is for your 'drama,' Elinor," she hissed, advancing on me. "To make sure you stay quiet. For good."

The last thing I saw was the needle, glinting, coming closer. My body screamed, but no sound escaped.