Chapter 6 - The Dusty Tool Box
For two days, Clara lay on the cold concrete inside the cage, given only small bottles of water and stale bread pushed through a narrow feeding slot near the floor.
Her body burned with fever, and her contractions began starting early due to the severe physical stress and lack of proper medical care.
On the third afternoon, while Marcus was upstairs hosting a lavish dinner party for his board members to celebrate his upcoming "promotion," he sent his private handyman, an elderly man named George, down to check the furnace pipes.
George was terrified of Marcus, but his eyes filled with sorrow when he saw Clara locked inside the cage.
"Mrs. Vance... oh Lord, what did he do to you?" George whispered, keeping his voice low so the floorboards above wouldn't creak.
"George... please," Clara begged, crawling to the edge of the bars. "Call the police. Please, my baby..."
"He checked my phone before sending me down here, ma'am. He has guards at the driveway," George stammered, his hands shaking violently. "If he catches me helping you, he'll destroy my family too."
George couldn't unlock the heavy padlock, but while pretending to fix the furnace unit behind the cage, he quietly kicked an old, forgotten metal toolbox from beneath a dusty workbench closer to the iron bars.
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Inside that rusted toolbox lay an old, secondary smartphone Clara had used three years ago before upgrading—a phone Marcus had completely forgotten existed.
👉 How did Clara manage to get an internet signal from deep inside a sealed concrete basement?
