Chapter 4

Half a month later, a fire broke out suddenly at a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The last of the Cloud Project's paper records were stored there. The flames spread with terrifying speed.

"Ms. Rodney, there are still four workers inside! The emergency exit is blocked, buried under collapsed formwork!" the project manager shouted at me.

I didn't hesitate. I pulled on a gas mask, threw a soaked fire blanket over my shoulders, and ran in.

The thick smoke stung so badly I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt my way through the dark to the trapped workers and led them toward the emergency exit.

Suddenly, the load-bearing steel frame overhead groaned.

"Watch out!"

Someone slammed into me. I stumbled and hit the ground. I turned around.

It was Wade. He'd thrown his whole body between the falling debris and Rose.

"What are you two doing here?" I frowned.

"Rose said she'd dropped her USB drive in here and needed to come find it," Wade said, coughing hard, one hand still shielding her.

So he hadn't shoved me out of the way to save me at all.

Another groan sounded overhead. The steel beam sagged half an inch lower.

"The emergency exit's blocked. The only way out is through the ventilation shaft." I pointed at the vent in the corner. "I'll go up first. Follow behind me."

I climbed onto a pile of debris and pulled myself up toward the shaft opening, then turned and reached back. The metal frame beneath my feet shifted.

"Wade!" Rose screamed, her whole body pitching toward the flames.

Wade's hand tore itself from mine instantly. He spun around and threw himself forward, pulling Rose into his arms.

"Don't be scared. I've got you."

With nothing left to brace against, I dropped straight down from the frame, more than two meters up. The pain whited out my vision. I couldn't catch my breath.

Through blurred eyes, I watched Wade climb onto the very pile of debris I'd stacked, hoisting Rose up into the vent, inch by inch. He was less than three meters away from me. From start to finish, he never once looked back.

This was the man I'd spent an entire lifetime loving, in my last life. When it came down to life and death, he chose someone else.

I gritted my teeth against the searing pain and crawled, inch by inch, toward another vent.

By the time I reached safety, the ambulance lights had already painted half the sky red. As they lifted me onto a stretcher, I caught sight of Wade through the crowd. He was holding a completely unhurt Rose, blocking the cameras that had swarmed in around them.

"Rose was the first to spot the fire. She only got trapped trying to save people. I don't know anything else. Please, don't photograph her face."

I closed my eyes, my stomach churning.

On the third day, the fire investigation results arrived at my hospital room. Someone had deliberately stacked flammable material in the warehouse and sabotaged the fire suppression system. The suspect caught on the security footage was me.

Wade walked into the room while I was eating porridge.

"Elisa, just how far are you planning to take this madness?" Wade slammed a stack of photos down on my hospital bed. "You'd risk the workers' lives just to get back at Rose? Do you have any idea that fire nearly killed all of us?"

The figure in the photos, from behind, wore a trench coat like mine, with a build close enough to my own.

"It wasn't me." I set down the bowl.

"If not you, then who?" Wade sneered. "The footage is perfectly clear."

The porridge was still warm, but I suddenly didn't want another spoonful.

"Wade, if I really wanted to set that fire, why would I have run in to save people?"

"You've always been like this." He cut me off. "Willing to risk your own life just to get what you want. You think running in to play hero clears your name?"

I stayed silent. He wasn't wrong. In my last life, I really had been the kind of madwoman who didn't value her own life.

"Wade." I looked at him. "The moment I ran in there, no one asked another question about the data leak case, did they?"

His gaze shifted just slightly to the side. "I'm only stating a fact."

I reached under my pillow and pulled out a miniature voice recorder. "This has a recording of a conversation between Rose and the man who set the fire. Fifty thousand dollars, to put on clothes like mine and torch the warehouse."

Wade said nothing, his knuckles whitening.

I looked at him and suddenly smiled. "Wade, you're afraid to listen."

He snatched the recorder out of my hand. "Physical evidence can't be kept privately. I'll have someone send it for examination."

Send it for examination. How nicely put.

"A fake like this won't fool me." He clenched his jaw. "No matter how many times this plays out, I will never believe you."

How many times this plays out.

The hum of the air conditioner suddenly sounded very far away. I looked up and met his eyes.

So this whole life, from the very first moment he'd seen me, he'd been collecting on a debt.

"Fine. Wade. Have it your way."