Hell on the Line, Salvation on the Line

On our final divorce cooling-off day, I called Jackone last time. Would he really drain our assets for Karina?

He picked up, but his voice was frantic, not cold. Beth! Don't hang up! It's a trap! That bitch set me up!

Wind roared in the background. Three months from now, it's 160 degrees! The empire is melted scrap! Karina took my last cooling suit and ran!

"Beth, please! Let me into your bunker! Just one piece of ice and I'm yours for life!"

Before I could speak, the villa doors opened. Jack walked in, cold air trailing him. He slammed the papers onto the table. "Enough with the phone theatrics."

"Karina needs the money for a manor to recover. Sign, and take the abandoned bunkers."

Listening to his future screams and staring at the man before me, I ended the call.

"Alright. I'll sign."

...

I scribbled my name and pushed the papers back to him.

Jack was visibly stunned.

He probably thought my phone call earlier was just one last desperate attempt to manipulate him into staying.

After all, for the past five years, I had loved him so much that I was willing to sacrifice everything for him.

"You signed it?" Jack frowned, a flash of displeasure crossing his eyes.

But his cold mask quickly slipped back into place. "Glad you finally know your place."

He pulled a rusty ring of keys from his pocket and tossed it onto the table.

"These are the keys to the abandoned military bunker out in the west suburbs. That, plus the five million in your account, is enough for you to live on for the rest of your life."

"Beth, stay away from Karina from now on. She has a weak heart. She can't handle the stress you cause her."

I picked up the rusty keys and let out a self-deprecating laugh.

Five million? Was he treating me like a beggar?

The company had over two billion in liquid assets.

He had drained the entire account just to buy Karina some massive vacation estate with sprawling lawns overseas.

If this were ten minutes ago, I might have cried from the heartbreak.

But now, all that echoed in my head were his agonizing screams from three months in the future.

"It's a hundred and sixty degrees out here! The entire family empire is just melted scrap metal."

"That vicious bitch ran off with my last temperature-controlled suit."

What was two billion dollars anyway?

Three months from now, global temperatures would skyrocket past a hundred and sixty degrees.

All that money would turn into worthless ash.

But this rusty ring of keys in my hand? It was going to become Noah's Ark.

"Don't worry. I won't bother either of you."

I gripped the keys tightly. "Jack, I hope the two of you have a long, happy life in your overseas manor."

I grabbed my purse and walked toward the door without looking back.

Just as I reached the entryway, Jack's phone rang.

He answered it, and his harsh voice instantly melted into something sickeningly gentle. "Hey, Karina."

"Yeah, she signed it. That's right, all the funds are being transferred to your name right now. We'll fly out to look at the property next week."

The volume was loud enough that I could hear Karina's delicate, breathy voice. "Jack, do you think Beth will be angry at me?"

"Maybe we should leave a little more money for her. How is she supposed to survive without you?"

"She brought this on herself," Jack sneered, turning his head to glare at my back. "She owes you this."

Owed her?

I stopped in my tracks, my fingernails digging into my palms.

Did he forget how he built this empire in the first place?

I was the one who stood by him when he had nothing. For five years, I worked thousands of late nights. I drank with investors until my stomach bled. I even drank myself into a hospital bed just to secure his first round of funding.

We went through hell together.

But a year ago, a car accident outside the office ruined everything.

When the truck swerved toward us, I was the one who pushed Jack out of the way.

But Karina, the new intern who hadn't even passed her probation period, used the chaos to throw herself into Jack's arms.

She walked away with a scratched knee. But afterward, she was miraculously diagnosed with severe heart failure, supposedly caused by the "trauma of shielding someone from a deadly crash."

And Jack?

Not only did he forget who actually pushed him to safety, but he slapped me across the face right outside her hospital room.

"If she hadn't tried to save me, she never would have gotten this sick! You owe her a life, Beth!"

From the moment that slap landed, the five years of devotion I poured into him became a joke.

Karina suddenly became his untouchable angel.

And I became the ungrateful sinner who nearly got her killed.

I shook my head, let out a scoff, and walked out the door.

The sunlight outside was blinding.

It was only May, but the temperature was already pushing a hundred and four degrees.

People online had been complaining about the suffocating heat wave for days, but nobody realized it was just the prelude to a catastrophic solar storm.

I got into my car and floored the gas pedal, heading straight for the west suburbs.

An hour later, I pulled up to the foot of a barren mountain.

This place was originally a military bunker dug out in the last century.

Jack's family bought it years ago intending to build a massive cold storage facility, but the project went bankrupt and it had been abandoned ever since.

He threw it at me in the divorce settlement just to humiliate me.

I waded through the tall weeds, shoved the rusty key into the heavy iron door, and wrestled with it for several minutes before it finally groaned open.

The moment the door swung wide, a blast of damp, freezing air hit my face.

I couldn't help but shiver.

It was over a hundred degrees outside, but inside the bunker, it couldn't have been more than sixty.

I turned on my phone's flashlight and stepped inside.

The further I walked, the more my heart raced with pure ecstasy.

Because this place was massive.

It was practically tailor-made to survive an extreme heat apocalypse.

The main corridor was lined with two feet of reinforced concrete, buried deep within the belly of the mountain.

Even if the surface temperature roasted at two hundred degrees, the bedrock would perfectly insulate the interior.

Not only that, but it was already sectioned into living quarters, and there was even a natural underground river running through the back.

No wonder the Jack from three months in the future was willing to trade his soul just for a spot in here.

My hands shook with excitement as a dozen different plans started forming in my head.

The bunker was perfect, but it was essentially a concrete shell right now.

To survive the apocalypse, it needed heavy modifications and a massive stockpile of supplies.

The ventilation shafts needed the highest-grade filtration systems to block the toxic heat waves that would come later.

The main entrance needed a bank-vault-grade blast door to keep out the desperate, heat-crazed mobs who would inevitably try to take this place by force.

But the most critical things were ice, drinking water, and thermal insulation coatings.

I immediately pulled out my phone and called my broker.

"Mark, I need you to liquidate my Porsche, and all the designer bags and jewelry my mother left me."

"As fast as possible. I need the cash tonight!"

The broker sounded shocked. "Miss Beth, you're going to take a massive hit selling them this fast. You'll lose at least half their value!"

"I don't care. If the money isn't in my account in two hours, I'm finding someone else."

I hung up and started searching for the largest ice factories and cold-chain logistics centers in the city.

The five million from the divorce, plus the couple million from liquidating my assets.

Seven or eight million dollars spent purely on ice and water could buy mountains of it.

I dialed the owner of the biggest ice plant directly. "Is this Mr. Lee? I want to buy out your entire production of industrial ice blocks and food-grade dry ice for the next three months."

The owner thought I was insane. "All of it? Lady, that's tens of thousands of tons of ice! What the hell are you doing?"

"Building a cold storage empire."

"I'll wire you a million-dollar deposit right now. I need the first shipment sent to the west suburb bunker tonight. And use the best thermal insulation packaging you have."

Just as I finalized the first order, my phone screen lit up.

It was a text from Jack.

[Beth, Karina is too soft-hearted. She's been begging me to go easy on you.]

[Here's the deal. If you come back, kneel down, and apologize to Karina, I'll give you a small subsidiary company to run. It's better than rotting in that abandoned cave.]

I laughed out loud, blocked his number, and deleted his contact.

I didn't waste a single second. I drove straight back to the city, pulling up to the best security engineering firm in the state.

As soon as I walked into the reception area, I heard a sickeningly sweet voice drifting from the VIP lounge.

"Jack, you are so good to me."

"With a lawn that big, and this top-of-the-line security system, I know I'll recover quickly once we move into the manor."

Karina was leaning heavily against Jack's shoulder, looking the picture of pure bliss.

Jack wrapped an arm around her, his voice full of sickening devotion. "Whatever you want, baby. Money is no object."

Hearing the door open, they both turned around.

The moment Jack saw me, the gentle look on his face vanished, replaced by disgust and annoyance.

"Beth? Are you stalking me?"

He stood up, his face hardening. "I already gave you the bunker and five million. What are you doing following me here?"

Karina shrank back into his arms, acting like a frightened little bird.

"Beth, please don't be mad at Jack. If you're really that upset, maybe we can all go to the manor together?"

Watching these two put on their little show made me want to throw up the lunch I ate yesterday.

I shook my head, walked right past them, and slapped a black card onto the receptionist's desk.

"Get your manager out here. I need a bank-vault-grade blast door and military-spec thermal insulation installed. And I need the work started immediately."

The receptionist took one look at the black card and scrambled to find the manager.

Jack paused when he heard my request, then let out a loud, mocking laugh.

"Have you completely lost your mind, Beth?"

He walked over, looking at me like I was severely brain-damaged.

"You took your pathetic little severance package and ran straight here to buy a vault door and insulation?"

"What are you going to do? Install it on that rotting cave?"

Karina covered her mouth and giggled softly. "Beth, even if you're just doing this to get Jack's attention, this is a bit much, isn't it? That cave is deep underground. Spending millions to decorate it is just throwing money down the drain."

"I'm warning you one last time," Jack said, taking a step closer. "Even if you line that filthy cave with solid gold, I will never look at you again. Take your little check and get lost. Stop embarrassing yourself."

"Embarrassing myself?"

I turned my head and stared dead into his eyes.

"Jack, if you're not going to use those eyes, you should donate them to someone who actually needs them."

"I'm spending my own money. What the hell does it have to do with you?"

"You" Jack started, his face turning red, but the manager came rushing out.

"Oh, Mr. Jack! Miss Beth! Please, calm down!"

The manager looked at my work order and hesitated, his face twisting into an awkward grimace.

"Miss Beth, we actually do have the exact equipment you're asking for sitting in the warehouse right now."

"But the installation for a system this complex is extremely difficult. We only have one crew in the entire company capable of doing it: Foreman Chen's team."

"The problem is, Mr. Jack just booked them."

The manager rubbed his hands nervously. "Mr. Jack wants us to install the security system for his overseas manor. Chen's crew is scheduled to fly out next week. The earliest we could start your project would be three months from now."

Three months?

Three months from now the heat apocalypse would hit. I wouldn't need a door; I'd need a coffin.

Hearing the manager's words, the anger on Jack's face instantly dissolved into smug triumph.

He smirked. "Did you hear that, Beth? I just booked the best crew they have."

"Even if you got on your knees and begged me right now, I wouldn't give them up."

Karina sighed, her face full of fake sympathy. "I'm so sorry, Beth. What bad timing."

Looking at their arrogant, punchable faces, I felt absolutely nothing.

I turned back to the manager and asked point-blank, "Did he pay in full?"

The manager froze, glancing nervously at Jack.

"Well... Mr. Jack signed the contract and put down a ten percent deposit. The balance will be paid once the manor is finished. He's one of our biggest VIPs, his credit is"

"I know how this business works. If it's not paid in full, it's fair game."

I cut him off completely.

"How much for the blast door, the insulation, materials, and labor combined?"

"Roughly six million."

"I'll give you eight."

I pushed the black card across the desk.

"Paid in full! Swipe it right now!"

"My only condition is that Foreman Chen and his entire crew load up the equipment and head to the west suburb bunker tonight! The work starts immediately!"

The manager's eyes practically popped out of his skull.

In this economy, contractors lived in constant fear of clients defaulting on final payments.

So...

"Beth, you dare try to steal my crew?!" Jack slammed his hand on the desk. "Manager! You give her that crew, and I swear to god, my family will blacklist your company from ever doing business in this city again!"

The manager looked trapped, sweating bullets.

"Mr. Jack, please don't be angry."

"Company policy is very clear. Clients who pay the full amount upfront get priority scheduling. Unless... you want to pay the full ten million for the manor system right now?"

"If you swipe your card for the full amount right now, the crew is yours!"

Jack's face turned the color of bruised liver.

He didn't have ten million in cash lying around right now.

To buy that ridiculous vacation estate for Karina, he had emptied out every liquid asset the family had.

Everything else was tied up in stocks and real estate. It would take at least a fiscal quarter to liquidate any of it.

But Karina was still tugging on his arm, pouting. "Jack, she's going too far! She's doing this just to spite me."

"Just swipe the card! You can't let her steal your crew!"

"Shut up!"

Jack furiously yanked his arm out of her grasp, looking like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole.

Seeing him squirm like that almost made me laugh out loud.

"What's wrong, Mr. VIP? Didn't you just say money was no object?"

"Don't tell me the great prince of the city's elite can't even scrape together ten million in cash?"

As soon as the words left my mouth, the manager returned with a huge, sycophantic smile and handed my card back.

"Miss Beth, consider it done! Foreman Chen's trucks will be loaded and ready in thirty minutes. They'll start digging tonight!"

"Beth! You are going to regret this!"

Jack pointed a shaking finger at me, roared in frustration, grabbed Karina by the wrist, and stormed out without looking back.

...

Fueled by the massive upfront cash payment, Foreman Chen's crew worked in three shifts around the clock.

It only took them a month to completely retrofit the bunker.

The massive, two-foot-thick blast door was anchored directly into the bedrock. The entire facility was lined with military-grade thermal insulation.

Tens of thousands of tons of industrial ice blocks, and enough food and supplies to last three lifetimes, were packed tightly into the storage sectors.

And on the exact night the final shipment of supplies was unloaded into the storeroom...

The extreme heat apocalypse arrived early.

Without any warning, the temperature skyrocketed from the low hundreds.

Society collapsed completely within a matter of days.

Three months later, the surface temperature stabilized at a constant hundred and sixty degrees.

The city's power grid was completely fried. Outside, thousands of people were being roasted alive every single day.

While I sat comfortably inside my bunker at a cool sixty-five degrees, lazily scooping out the center of an ice-cold watermelon.

Suddenly, the proximity alarm on the blast door blared.

I tapped the monitor screen and saw Jack and Karina wrestling on the scorched earth right outside.

"Karina! Let go! If I take this off, I'll cook to death!"

Jack was desperately clutching the temperature-controlled suit he was wearing.

Karina's face was twisted in pure malice. She grabbed a jagged rock from the dirt and smashed it directly into the side of Jack's head.

Jack screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, clutching his bleeding scalp.

Karina ripped the temperature suit off his body and shoved her arms into it. Her eyes were full of absolute contempt.

"You stupid idiot! Let me tell you the truth! That two billion dollars went straight into offshore accounts managed by me and my brother!"

"That overseas manor? It never existed! I scammed you from the very beginning!"

"Now that money is worthless, did you really think I was going to sit around and die with you?"

She didn't even spare Jack another glance. She turned around and sprinted into the hundred-and-sixty-degree heat wave.

"Karina, come back here!"

Jack reached out a desperate hand, but only grasped a fistful of boiling hot sand.

The moment he lost the protective suit, the hundred-and-sixty-degree air hit him like a physical blow.

Massive, agonizing blisters immediately began forming on his exposed skin.

He shrieked as he dragged his body toward my blast door.

He slapped his bloody, blistered hands against the reinforced steel, sobbing and wailing.

"Beth! Beth, I know you're in there!"

"I was wrong! I made a mistake! It was all a trap! That vicious bitch set me up!"

"The apocalypse is here! It's a hundred and sixty degrees out here! Karina just ran off with my last temperature suit!"

"Beth, let me into the bunker, please? I'm begging you, just give me a sip of ice water, and I'll be your slave for the rest of my life!"

Every single word matched the phone call from my memory, exactly as it played out three months ago.

I swallowed my bite of watermelon and grabbed a paper towel to wipe my hands.

Then I pressed the intercom button.

"My slave?" I sneered.

"Jack, do you honestly think you're worthy of that?"