Chapter 4

Daniel sat in the passenger seat, and Laura, unwilling to sit in the back, slid in beside him.

"Daniel, I'm still a little worried. Why don't you call Bella and explain that you only hung up on her because you were worried about me? She loves you, so I'm sure she'll understand."

Daniel gave a nod, his face the picture of disdain. "You don't have to worry about that. Bella's just being willful. She's even run away from home, but she's done this before. She'll come back in a few days."

Lowering her head, Laura began to sob softly. "It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, you two wouldn't be fighting like this. I'm really sorry. Let me get out. I don't want you arguing because of me."

She made as if to get out, but Daniel quickly stopped her.

He reassured her warmly, "You've done nothing wrong, Laura. Bella's willfulness isn't anything new. I'll just explain things to her. And besides, you're pregnant. It's not safe for you to be alone."

Laura bit her lip, gazing pitifully at Daniel. "Really? You really don't blame me?"

Shaking his head with a chuckle, Daniel pulled out his phone. "Of course not. How could I ever blame you? Since we're heading out on a call anyway, I'll just let Bella know so that her imagination won't run wild."

He unlocked his phone. Only then did he see the final message I had sent him just three minutes earlier.

Letting out a laugh, Daniel tapped swiftly across the screen. "Bella, our dog misses you. Be good and come back, okay?"

The message was delivered, but he never got a response.

Daniel sneered. "That woman has gone and disappeared on me."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the person driving suddenly hit the brakes. The immense inertia propelled Daniel and Laura forward. Laura yelped in pain from hitting the dashboard.

"What's going on?"

Frowning, Daniel got out, only to be stunned by the sight before him.

My apartment building was already engulfed in raging flames.

"W-What's going on here?"

Daniel rubbed his eyes in disbelief as the incident commander stormed over.

"You have some nerve asking that! Because of your delay, the fire got out of control! One person is already dead, ten are injured, and the fire is still spreading! And you're only just getting here? If you'd come sooner, it wouldn't have gotten this bad!"

The incident commander ripped off his helmet and hurled it at Daniel. The blow made Daniel stagger back a step, his face instantly turning pale.

At that moment, a stretcher was pushed past him. Beneath the white sheet lay my charred body.

As the stretcher swayed, the bracelet on my wrist shimmered in the sunlight. It was a double-strand moonstone bracelet, though only one strand remained now.

Daniel stared blankly at the bracelet, his pupils shrinking sharply.

Grief-stricken, the incident commander roared, "Do you even realize how many lives you've cost? The woman on that stretcher was in her 20s! Her life was just getting started! What am I supposed to tell her family? That you didn't save her because you were too busy flirting?"

Daniel's face became deathly pale. He tried to defend himself. "I-I was responding to an emergency at the time—"

"Emergency?"

The incident commander laughed wryly before pointing at Laura, who was getting out of the fire engine.

"Was accompanying her the emergency? Daniel, your womanizing ways are none of my business, but you're about to be married to Bella soon. You should've pulled yourself together by now!

"And Laura, you know he has a fiancee, yet you cling to him anyway. Don't you think you're crossing the line?"

Daniel clenched his fists as a lump rose in his throat.

The moment the stretcher passed him, he clearly saw that the bracelet was identical to the one I always wore.

Daniel froze instantly.