Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1357

She was the kind of woman who meticulously plotted her escape routes long before the danger even started. She refused to leave herself exposed.

Late into the night, Sabrina Ward tossed and turned, gripped by a suffocating wave of anxiety.

Unable to sleep, she got out of bed and dialed Bella's number.

It went straight to voicemail.

Bella hadn't just turned off her phone; she had physically removed the SIM card from her primary device.

She couldn't afford a single distraction while pulling off a billion-dollar heist.

Let whoever needed her assume she was asleep and her phone was dead.

Hearing the automated voicemail, Sabrina's face tightened with worry.

For days, she had felt a deep, gnawing unease, convinced Bella was hiding something massive from her.

"Why are you still awake?"

The movement woke Martin Mercer. He sat up and draped a warm cardigan over Sabrina's shoulders.

"It's nothing," Sabrina sighed. "I had a bad dream and wanted to check on Bella, but her phone is off."

"She's an adult," Martin reasoned. "What is there to worry about at this hour? She's probably just asleep in her hotel. She's been under a lot of pressure at work. Just talk to her tomorrow. Don't wake her up in the middle of the night."

Thinking Martin made sense, Sabrina didn't press the issue.

On the other end, Jaxson Miller sounded incredibly stressed. "This security grid is a nightmare! The firewalls are military-grade! Chill out, I'm cracking it, I'm cracking it! Stop yelling at me!"

"Have you completely lost your edge?" Bella snapped. "You used to be a ghost in the system! Are you just riding on your old reputation, or can you actually do your damn job?"

Bella's panic was making her vicious, and Jaxson wasn't taking it well.

"Yeah? If I'm so useless, why don't you hack the city's mainframe from a moving car? You have no idea what I'm dealing with here!"

The insult hit its mark. Bella was forced to swallow her rage.

She possessed high-level coding skills, but she was out of practice. If she tried to crack that firewall right now, it would take her twice as long as Jaxson.

Suddenly, the two-way radio erupted with static and panicked shouting. "Ms. Ward! We've got a problem! Our brakes—the brakes are gone!"