Chapter 11: The Second Fire
Chapter 11: The Second Fire
“Harper, stay where you are!” I shouted.
Clara smiled.
“She wanted to come home.”
“You kidnapped her.”
“I rescued my daughter.”
Flames spread through the kitchen doorway.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
I lunged for Clara.
She threw the key into the fire.
Then she ran toward the basement.
I grabbed a heavy lamp and smashed the front window.
“Harper, come down!”
She moved halfway down the staircase before a burning curtain collapsed across the hallway.
She screamed and backed away.
I climbed the stairs through the smoke.
Heat pressed against my face.
My ER training took over.
Stay low.
Control breathing.
Find the child.
Harper crouched behind the upstairs railing, hugging Scout.
“I can’t!” she cried.
“Yes, you can.”
“The fire came because I told.”
“No. The fire came because your mother is afraid of the truth.”
I crawled toward her.
A section of ceiling crashed behind me.
The staircase caught fire.
There was no path back down.
I carried Harper into the master bedroom and closed the door.
The window opened onto the porch roof.
“Can you climb?”
She shook her head.
“I’ll go first.”
I lowered myself onto the sloped roof, then reached for her.
Harper froze at the window.
Smoke curled behind her.
“Look at me,” I said. “Not the fire. Me.”
Her eyes locked onto mine.
“Are you leaving?”
“Never without you.”
She reached out.
I pulled her onto the roof seconds before flames burst into the bedroom.
Below us, police cars flooded the street.
Ruiz shouted for us to move toward the edge.
A firefighter raised a ladder.
I handed Harper down first.
As soon as she reached the ground, she screamed, “Clara’s still inside!”
The basement door flew open.
Clara emerged through a side entrance carrying the metal evidence box.
She had planned an escape route.
Ruiz ordered her to stop.
Clara ran toward the alley.
Then another woman stepped from behind a police cruiser.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
A silver raven pendant hung around her neck.
Clara stopped dead.
The woman stared at her.
“Hello, Clara,” she said.
May you like
It was Lena.
Alive.
