HIS REGRET (Ex-Husband wants Me Back) novel Chapter 942

Then the sound came again.

Grrrrrrr...

The deafening roar of an engine passed overhead. This time, it was much closer. The ceiling trembled slightly. Fine dust drifted down through the cracks in the concrete.

Naomi looked up. “What is that?” she whispered.

The elderly woman lifted her head as well, as though she had already grown accustomed to it. “Since I regained consciousness... I've heard it five times.”

“An airplane?”

“Maybe.” The elderly woman nodded. “Every so often.”

Naomi frowned. The smell of fuel that had been filling the room suddenly made much more sense. She closed her eyes, trying to piece everything together. An old warehouse, the smell of jet fuel, the sound of aircraft flying very low. Vibrations strong enough to be felt through the floor.

An airport?

Or at least... they were very close to a flight path.

Her heart began beating a little faster. If her guess was correct, then they weren't being hidden deep in the forest as she had imagined. They were somewhere in an industrial or warehouse district near an airport.

A small glimmer of hope began to emerge.

Naomi looked down at the shackle around her ankle again. Its locking mechanism looked old. Rust covered parts of it. She grabbed the chain, trying to get a closer look at the connection between the shackle and its lock. Her gaze shifted to the floor. She immediately searched for something that could be used to remove the shackle.

Broken bolts, thin pieces of wire, and several small fragments of metal were scattered near the base of a weathered wooden crate.

Naomi held her breath. Slowly, she crawled as far as the chain would allow. Her fingertips almost reached a thin, rusted piece of wire.

“Don't rush,” the elderly woman whispered.

Naomi turned to look at her.

“He'll hear it,” the woman whispered again.

Naomi gave a slight nod, then carefully picked up the wire with the utmost caution. Her fingers trembled as she tried to straighten it. It was small, but it might be enough to try to work the shackle's lock.

“Where do you think he went?” Naomi whispered.

The elderly woman remained silent for quite a while. “I don't know.”

“He never said anything? Or you didn't overhear anything?”

“He did.”

Naomi immediately looked at her.

The woman closed her eyes, trying to remember. “A few hours before you woke up... he was talking to someone on the phone.”

Naomi waited.

The elderly woman immediately reached for Naomi's hand and gripped it tightly. “Don't make a sound,” she whispered, her face drained of color.

Naomi knew she wasn't the only one who was afraid. The elderly woman was terrified too, yet she was still trying to calm Naomi. Truly, if not for the woman's presence beside her, Naomi would have already been consumed by overwhelming panic.

Both of them froze.

Neither of them dared to move.

Naomi could even hear the pounding of her own heart, hammering so violently against her chest that she feared the sound would carry beyond the room. Her fingers instinctively tightened around the thin piece of wire, while the elderly woman beside her gently squeezed her wrist, as though pleading with her to stay calm.

Then... the sound of metal scraping against metal echoed through the room. Someone was unlocking the iron door from the other side.

Once, then came the second turn.

The sound of the locking mechanism that had separated them from the outside world rang clearly through the silence. It seemed unbearably slow, as though each passing second was deliberately prolonging the fear that was beginning to consume the room.

The door hinges creaked softly.

A narrow gap slowly opened, allowing a beam of light from outside to slip in and cut across the dark concrete floor. The long shadow of someone fell across the ground, stretching until it almost reached the tip of Naomi's shoe.

She couldn't and didn't dare lift her head.

All she could do was hold her breath as her heart pounded more and more wildly, waiting for the figure who was about to step through that doorway.