Chapter 7 - The Arrest in the Ashes
The heat was unbearable. It singed my eyebrows and made my skin blister instantly. I fell back down the stairs, coughing violently as the smoke began to fill my lungs, dark spots dancing across my vision.
Through the flames, I saw Clara run toward the back of the house, heading for the master bedroom's fire escape.
"Ethan! Get out!"
Sarah Martinez was suddenly beside me, grabbing my shoulder and dragging me toward the front door. We burst out into the fresh air, collapsing onto the lawn just as the first fire truck screamed down the street.
"She went... she went out the back," I gasped, coughing up black soot. "The bedroom escape."
"I have officers at the perimeter," Sarah said, helping me stand. "She’s not escaping."
Sure enough, as we walked around the side of the burning house, we saw Clara. She had scrambled down the iron fire escape, but as her feet hit the grass, three armed police officers converged on her, their weapons drawn.
"Drop to your knees! Now!"
Clara looked around, her eyes darting from the officers to the burning house, and finally to me. The madness in her eyes seemed to flicker and die, replaced by a cold, hateful stare.
She dropped the empty gas can, raised her hands, and slowly knelt on the grass.
As the officers clicked the handcuffs around her wrists, she did not weep or beg. She only looked at me, her voice cold and hollow.
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"You think you saved her, Ethan," she whispered as they dragged her past me. "But she’s broken. She’ll never love you. She’ll only see me when she looks in the mirror."
"No, Clara," I said, wiping the soot from my face. "She’ll see a survivor. And she’ll see a father who stayed."
