Chapter 7 - The Fire
Daniel charged toward Ethan.
Ethan swung a metal bar into Daniel’s ribs.
Daniel hit the concrete floor.
Rachel pulled me behind a row of boxes and called 911.
The storage door slammed shut.
A sharp chemical smell filled the unit.
Gasoline.
“You’re insane!” I shouted.
Ethan’s footsteps moved through the darkness.
“No, Claire. I’m cleaning up your father’s mess.”
A flame appeared near the entrance.
He dropped it.
Fire raced across the floor.
Rachel grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and blasted the nearest flames, but they spread behind the stacked boxes.
Smoke filled the ceiling.
Daniel pushed himself up, clutching his side.
“There’s an emergency exit at the back.”
We ran.
Heat pressed against my skin. Smoke burned my throat.
A shelf collapsed in front of us.
Rachel dragged boxes aside while Daniel kicked at the emergency door.
It wouldn’t open.
“Padlocked from outside,” he said.
I heard Ethan coughing somewhere behind us.
He had trapped himself inside too.
“Claire!” he shouted. “Help me!”
For years, those words would have made me turn around.
I rested one hand over my baby.
Then I saw a window above the emergency door.
Daniel made a step with his hands. Rachel climbed onto his shoulders and struck the glass with the extinguisher.
Once.
Twice.
The window shattered.
Smoke poured through the opening.
Rachel climbed out first, then reached back for me.
A contraction tore through my abdomen.
I doubled over.
“Not now,” I gasped.
Daniel lifted me toward the window.
Rachel and a police officer pulled me through.
Daniel came next.
Firefighters arrived as flames broke through the roof.
“What about Ethan?” I asked.
Before anyone could answer, the front door burst open.
Ethan stumbled out through the smoke.
A firefighter dragged him to safety.
He fell to his knees, coughing, and pointed at Daniel.
“He started it!”
Police officers surrounded us.
Rachel held up her phone. “I recorded Ethan admitting he was cleaning up Robert Hayes’s mess.”
Ethan’s head snapped toward her.
“You recorded me?”
“Every word.”
An officer handcuffed him.
For a moment, I thought it was over.
Then Vanessa’s black SUV tore out of the parking lot.
Daniel stared after it.
“She was here.”
A firefighter approached with a half-burned wooden box.
“We found this near the entrance.”
It was my father’s box.
The wood had split open from the heat.
Inside were two small objects.
Half of a metal key.
And a tiny digital recorder.
Daniel picked up the key.
“I have the other half.”
Rachel examined the recorder.
A red light blinked once.
“There’s still power.”
She pressed play.
My father’s voice came through the damaged speaker.
“If Ethan hears this recording, Claire is already in danger.”
May you like
Then another voice answered him.
It belonged to Vanessa.
