The Return Of The Firefighter As A Trillionaire

Chapter 8

The command center had been transformed into something out of a nightmare.

Elena pulled into the makeshift parking area and stepped out of her car. The air was thick with smoke. In a cordoned-off area near one of the large tents, she could see families gathered around white sheets draped over bodies. Some were crying. Some were just standing there, staring at nothing. Some were on their knees.

Elena's stomach twisted. She moved toward the area, her eyes scanning the bodies beneath the sheets. She didn't know what she was looking for. Just something that told her Tyler wasn't under one of those sheets.

A volunteer in a yellow vest saw her approaching.

"Ma'am, you can't be over here," the volunteer said. Her voice was gentle but firm.

"I'm looking for someone," Elena said. Her voice sounded strange in her own ears, high and thin. "A firefighter. Tyler Raymond. Engine Seven."

The volunteer's expression softened. "The families are over there in the tent. You can check with them, but this area is restricted."

Elena didn't wait to be told twice. She moved past the volunteer toward the bodies. Her hands were shaking as she reached down and lifted the edge of the first sheet.

The face beneath it belonged to a man she didn't recognize. He was burned. His features were barely distinguishable. Elena felt something like relief mixed with horror and guilt. It wasn't Tyler. But someone's husband or son or father was under this sheet.

She moved to the next one. And the next. Each body she uncovered brought the same twisted feeling. Guilt that she felt relieved. Horror that any of them had died. Terror that she might eventually find Tyler's face under one of these sheets.

"Hey, what are you doing?" A woman's voice, sharp and angry.

Elena turned. An older woman was standing behind her, tears streaming down her face, her fists clenched.

"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find someone," Elena started.

"You're desecrating my son," the woman said. Her voice broke. "You're looking at my dead son like he's an object. Stop."

Another volunteer appeared and gently took Elena's arm.

"Ma'am, you need to step away," the volunteer said. There was no gentleness in her voice now. Just firmness. "The families need this space."

Elena wanted to protest. She wanted to explain that she needed to find Tyler. But the look on the older woman's face stopped her. She let herself be led away from the bodies, back toward the tent where the families were gathered.

She didn't find Tyler among the gathered families either.

Elena walked back to her car on shaking legs. She got inside and closed the door. The air was suffocating. The smoke from the fires was thick even inside the car. She couldn't breathe.

She put her head on the steElenag wheel and broke.

The sobs came from somewhere deep inside her, from a place she didn't know existed. She cried for Tyler. She cried because she didn't know if he was dead. She cried because the last thing she had done was tell him their marriage was just a fair exchange. She cried because she had brought Matthew into their home and worn his pajamas and cooked him dinner while Tyler was out risking his life.

She had taken everything Tyler gave her and thrown it in his face. And now he might be dead and she would never get to take any of it back.

Her phone rang.

Elena looked up immediately, hope flooding through her. Tyler. Maybe it was Tyler calling to say he was okay. Maybe he was fine and just couldn't reach her before.

She answered without checking the caller ID.

"Tyler?" Her voice was desperate and raw.

"Hey, baby," Matthew's voice came through the speaker. He sounded confused. "You okay? You sound weird."

Elena's entire body went cold. She pressed her forehead against the steElenag wheel again, forcing herself to breathe. She had to pull herself together. She had to hide this. Matthew couldn't know she was falling apart.

"I'm fine," Elena said. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, working to control her voice. "Just tired. I'm driving. Where are you calling from?"

"Home," Matthew said. His tone shifted, became warmer. "I've been thinking about you all morning. When are you coming back?"

Elena started the car. She pulled out of the parking area, her eyes still blurry from tears. She had to get away from this place. She had to get back to something normal, something familiar, something that made sense.

"I had to run some errands," Elena said. She was slipping back into the familiar rhythm now, the voice she used with Matthew. Warmer. Softer. Affectionate. "But I'm heading back now. I should be home in a few hours."

"Good," Matthew said. She could hear the smile in his voice. "I missed you. We could order that sushi you like. The expensive place you said you wanted to try."

Elena drove through the smoke-filled landscape, heading back south toward the city. Each mile took her further away from the command center, further away from the rows of bodies, further away from the possibility that Tyler was dead.

"That sounds perfect," she said. Her voice was steady now. Almost normal. "You know what I love about you, Matthewy? You always know exactly what I need."

As she said the words, she caught sight of something in her rearview mirror. A man standing at the edge of the command center parking area, watching her car drive away. He was tall and lean, wearing a firefighter's turnout gear even though it was torn and dirty. His face was bandaged. He was watching her leave.

Elena didn't recognize him. She turned her attention back to the road.

"Come on, baby, drive safe," Matthew said through the phone. His voice was affectionate and warm. "I want to see you when you get back."

"I will," Elena said. She pressed the accelerator, heading toward home. Toward Matthew. Toward normalcy. "I'll be there soon."

Behind her, Tyler stood motionless in the parking lot. He watched her car disappear into the smoke. He watched the car that was supposed to be driven by someone who loved him drive away while that someone laughed and flirted with someone else.

He stood there until her car was completely out of sight, his bandaged hands hanging at his sides, his burned and injured body barely able to stand.

Then he turned and walked back toward the medical tent, each step a reminder that some rescues came too late.