2026-09-10 18:51:13
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CHAPTER 12 PART 2
The young woman dropped heavily onto the edge of the bed. The cheap mattress sagged under her weight. She pulled her knees up against her chest and wrapped her thin arms around them tightly."You do not understand," she said with a quiet and broken voice, staring at the scorched black circle on the carpet. "I want it to burn. I want all of it to burn.""What exactly do you want to burn?" Derek asked with a steady but cautious tone, keeping the lighter firmly behind his back."Everything," she whispered with a hollow and empty expression. "This room. This place. Every single thing that reminds me of him."Derek looked at the torn book on the floor. He looked at the scattered clothes and the empty bottles. He understood now. This was not just a drunk woman playing with fire. This was a woman who had been destroyed by someone and had decided to let the wreckage burn.He had seen that look before. He had felt that exact same emptiness inside his own chest just a few hours ago."What is yo
CHAPTER 12 PART 1
Derek crossed the parking lot in five fast strides. He pressed his palm flat against the door of room number six. The wood was warm but not yet hot. The fire was still small. He had time.He stepped back and drove his heavy boot into the door right beside the lock. The cheap frame cracked on the first kick and the door swung wide open. Thick gray smoke poured out into the cool evening air.Derek dropped low and moved inside. The room was dim and messy. Empty glass bottles covered the small table. Clothes were scattered across the stained carpet. A small fire was burning in the center of the floor. Somebody had piled towels and crumpled newspaper on the carpet and set them on fire. The flames were still low but spreading steadily toward the wooden bed frame.A young woman sat cross legged on the floor about two feet from the fire. She wore a wrinkled white shirt and faded jeans. Her dark hair hung loose and tangled around her face. She held a cheap plastic lighter in her right hand and
CHAPTER 11 PART 2
Derek put his phone back into his pocket and kept walking. The sun was getting lower in the sky and the air had turned cool against his face. His injured leg ached with every step, but the pain felt distant now, like it belonged to somebody else.Monday morning. The courthouse. The divorce. He would be there. He would sign whatever needed to be signed. And then it would be over.For the first time in weeks, the heavy weight on his chest felt a little bit lighter. Not because he was happy. There was nothing happy about watching a marriage end. But there was something almost peaceful about knowing the divorce was finally moving forward instead of hanging over his head like a threat. He had spent three years trying to breathe life into something that Erin had never wanted to keep alive in the first place. He was tired of performing rescue operations on a relationship that did not want to be saved.He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his worn leather wallet. He opened it slowly
CHAPTER 11 PART 1
Derek looked at Erin standing there in the bright parking lot with her arms crossed and her chin raised high. She was waiting for him to crumble. She was waiting for the fear and the begging and the desperate negotiation that had always come before whenever she pushed him toward the edge. That was the pattern of their entire marriage. Erin would threaten, and Derek would bend."Monday morning," Derek repeated with a completely calm and steady voice, nodding once. "The courthouse. I will be there."He said it without a single second of hesitation. No shaking voice. No heavy pause. No last look of longing or regret. He just agreed to end their marriage the same way a man agrees to a meeting time at work. Simple. Final. Done.Then he picked up his duffel bag, turned around, and walked away from her without looking back once.Erin stood completely frozen in the parking lot. Her mouth was slightly open. Her prepared arguments died silently on her tongue. She had expected resistance. She ha
CHAPTER 10 PART 2
Derek looked at his wife standing there in the bright parking lot. He felt absolutely nothing. No anger. No sadness. No longing. Just a flat and total emptiness where all of those heavy emotions used to live. "Hello, Erin," Derek greeted with a very calm and neutral voice, adjusting the duffel bag on his shoulder. "Save the pleasantries, Derek," Erin cut in with a tight and controlled tone, taking a step closer to him. "You disappeared into that wildfire for over a week. You did not answer a single one of my messages. Do you have any idea what I went through?" "You went through my text messages," Derek replied quietly, looking at her with a perfectly still face. "That is what you went through." "I drove all the way to Los Vangees to find you," Erin stated with a stiff posture, lifting her chin slightly as if presenting evidence of her devotion. "I went to that horrible camp. I walked through that terrible morgue area looking at dead bodies to see if one of them was you." "I know,"
CHAPTER 10 PART 1
The convoy rolled into the city just before noon. The six hour drive back from Los Vangees had been mostly silent inside Engine Forty Two. Brett slept in the rear seat with his heavy jacket folded under his head. The other two crew members talked quietly about cold beer and warm beds. Derek said nothing the entire way. He just watched the road ahead with tired and empty eyes.When the trucks finally turned onto familiar streets, the atmosphere inside the cab changed completely. The men sat up straighter. They checked their phones. They smiled at the bright screen messages from wives and children who were already waiting at the station.Brett woke up and stretched his arms with a loud yawn. He looked out the window and recognized the neighborhood immediately."We are about ten minutes out," Brett announced with a relieved and happy voice. "My wife said she is bringing the kids to the station. She made a whole pot of chili.""My girl sent me forty seven text messages since yesterday," o
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