The Wife He Forgot to Marry (Winona and Yule) novel Chapter 492

Phones were strictly prohibited in the lab, leaving Winona with no way to contact her colleagues to ask about the sudden blackout.

She reached for the emergency flashlight kept on the counter. Just as her fingers brushed the cold metal, she heard the distinct beep of the electronic keypad unlocking at the door.

Winona froze. The room she was in today was a high-grade cleanroom, restricted to a single operator at a time. The rest of the team had seen the schedule; no one was supposed to enter until her session was over. An unannounced intrusion like this had never happened before.

Then, she heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of footsteps.

Everyone entering this wing was required to change into specialized, silent cleanroom footwear. But this intruder was clearly wearing heavy street shoes. Worse, through the dead silence of the room, she could hear the ragged, heavy breathing of a man.

Winona's mind flashed to the disturbing, blood-red obituary photo from the night before, and her pulse skyrocketed. This was no colleague. Whoever had just breached the lab was here to hurt her.

Remembering the emergency gas leak protocol, Winona dropped to her knees, blindly navigating the dark until her hands found the cold steel of the nitrogen tank. She twisted the emergency release valve hard.

Seconds later, a deafening siren ripped through the floor, accompanied by the frantic flashing of red emergency strobes.

The intruder let out a startled curse and scrambled frantically back toward the exit.

Shortly after, the familiar voices of Killian and another colleague echoed from the hallway.

"Winona! Are you alright?"

The tight knot in Winona's chest loosened at the sound of their voices. She hurried to the doorway, squinting against the beam of Killian's flashlight. "Did you see anyone run past you just now?"

Killian shook his head, looking confused. "No, it was just Jude and me. Why?"

Winona frowned, her heart still pounding. She knew what she had heard. There was no mistaking those heavy footsteps.

She moved to the smart lock and checked the access log on the digital display, but it showed zero keypad entries for the last ten minutes. She quickly pulled up the local camera feed integrated into the lock system, but the screen was completely blank during the time of the break-in.

Winona stared at the screen, a cold chill creeping down her spine.

Noticing her pale face, Killian stepped closer. "Winona, what's wrong?"

"I heard someone in here," she insisted, her voice tight. "Someone unlocked the door and walked in. Why isn't there any record of it?"

"Are you sure it wasn't just the machinery shutting down? Maybe your mind playing tricks on you in the dark?"

"I know what I heard. I'm not imagining things."

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