Chapter 70

Hunter cautiously set the little boy down onto his own two feet. He then desperately tried to force the windows open, but they remained stubbornly shut, having been locked by the system for security purposes.

In Hunter's perception, time seemed to stretch and warp. Every second felt like a minute, every minute an hour. The weight of the situation pressed on him, making each breath he took feel more labored and each beat of his heart more pronounced.

His increasing distress contrasted with Christine’s attempts to mask her aversion to heights. Whether it was genuine fear or an odd sense of self-preservation became irrelevant in the gravity of the present circumstance. His condition was palpably more serious.

"Mommy, what's wrong with Daddy?" Ethan inquired, his voice a breathless whisper, the abrupt shift in his father's demeanor ringing alarm bells in his young mind.

"I'm fine, no worries, champ!" Hunter reassured, raking shaky fingers through his hair, yet the visible distress etch