Chapter 6

[Alice’s POV]

David became busier and busier with his “transnational conferences.”

While I, under the double torment of my brain tumor and gestational vomiting, was rapidly losing weight.

I decided to contact my brother.

Eric and I had only recently found each other. I was actually just the adopted daughter of the Taylors. Sylvia wanted a sister more than anything in the world, so the Taylors decided to adopt one. They chose me at the orphanage when I was younger because I looked like Sylvia. They figured it would be best if both their ‘daughters’, their biological one and their adopted one, at least looked the similar.

The Taylors were always very kind to me, even though I wasn’t their biological daughter. After graduation, they even supported my dreams to study architecture in Italy.

It was there, in Italy, that I found Eric. We met at a blood donor clinic, and I knew right away that he and I were related. Our features were so similar. After a quick DNA test, it was confirmed.

Eric was my biological brother. We’d been separated a long time ago, but by some miracle, we’d found each other. We still hadn’t found our biological parents though, so I was Eric’s only relative.  

Eric was a famous surgeon in Milan. He loved Italy, and was trying very hard to persuade me to move there to live with him.

Over the phone, I told Eric about my diagnosis and my pregnancy. His voice was riddled with concern. I asked if he could help me and he immediately bought a flight to the United States to come and see me, and to learn more about my tumor.

Three days later after my phone call with Eric, I received another message from this Emry.

‘Alice. I don’t like the way things went down at your house. I feel guilty about how it played out. Can you meet me at Sylvia’s flower shop so we can talk?’

At first, I refused to meet with her. Why would I want to talk to the woman who was pregnant with my husband’s baby?

But Emry told me that David was hiding a secret from me, and she really wanted me to see it with my own eyes.

My fingers gripped the phone tightened unconsciously.  

Fueled by my own curiosity, I agreed to meet with her. But I asked Eric to join me as well, for moral support. He was staying at a nearby hotel. I sent him the address and he told me he’d be there shortly.

A few hours later, when I pushed open the delicate wooden door of the “Sylvia” flower shop, the wind chimes made a series of crisp sounds.

There was no one in the shop, only the white tulips blooming vigorously throughout the room. Their cold fragrance instantly enveloped me.

Suddenly, the lights went out and I was plunged into darkness.

The next moment, the emergency lights along the floor lit up, orange-red light reflecting between the glass and mirror surfaces, like dancing flames.

My breath caught.

Emry came out from the back room and locked the door behind her, her eyes flashing with an almost maniacal pleasure.

“Alice, I warned you last. Stand down. Leave David.”

Eying her warily, I took a step back from her.

“I won’t take threats from you,” I said, forcing a confidence in my voice that I didn’t feel.

“Oh yes you will,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Because as long as you’re ‘Mrs. David’, my child will be illegitimate.”

“Leave me alone,” I started to say, but before I could finish, Emry reached for a large  bundle of wrapping paper from the table. Frantically, she crumpled it up and then threw it on the floor. I watched with wide eyes as she pulled a lighter from her pocket, ignited it, and then tossed it onto the paper.

“Fire...”

My pupils suddenly contracted. Fire was my worst fear.

The dry wrapping paperinstantly burst into flames half a foot high. It all happened so fast.

Thick smoke filled the air, and that familiar and terrifying feeling of suffocation swept over me like an avalanche.

I was too paralyzed by fear to move.

“I know that five years ago, when a fire broke out, David saved you by accident. That’s why he married you.” Emry smiled sinisterly behind the firelight, that originally lively face now like a ferocious ghost. “So I’d like to try again. Another fire. Another choice for David. Let’s see who he’ll choose this time, shall we? Me or you.”?”

The sharp pain in my brain exploded violently under the stimulation of the smoke, as if millions of steel needles were stirring my nerves. I collapsed, exhausted on the cold tiles, my vision beginning to blur.

“Don’t...” I whispered, overcome with pain and fear. I curled up my body, tightly protecting my abdomen.

I was just about to lose consciousness when I heard the door being violently kicked open.  

A familiar figure in a black coat rushed into the billowing smoke.

Smiling, I realized it was David. He’d come to save me again.

He looked so panicked though, so lost. He glanced around the room, his eyes wild with fear, before they landed on Emry. She was closer to the door, screaming loudly.

“David! Help me! The baby...” Emry bellowed out in a high-pitched wail.

I lay in the shadows, watching as David rushed toward Emry without hesitation. His strong arms swept the woman up in a horizontal hug, just as decisively as he had saved me five years ago.

He didn’t even look back.

I was a despicable thief, and I was finally going to die today in this fire, just as I should have the first time.  Five years ago David made a horrible mistake. He never should have saved me. Now he was finally correcting his mistake.

My consciousness began to fade, and due to lack of oxygen and intense pain, my body gradually became light. I closed my eyes, resigning myself to death, allowing the flames to lick the hem of my dress.

“Okay David,” I sighed to myself as the heat from the fire settled on my skin. “You want the perfect replacement. You can have her. We both know it was never me.” .

“Alice！Alice！”

Just as I was about to fall into endless darkness, a voice called out, loud and strong.

“I’m here,” I managed to call out over the raging flames.

A pair of strong, large hands suddenly grabbed my shoulders. They weren’t David’s hands though. I felt the clean, warm, familiar embrace with the smell of disinfectant wash over me.

“Eric...?” I struggled to open my eyes a crack.

Eric’s face was black and gray. His usually calm chief surgeon eyes were red at this moment. He whipped off his coat and wrapped it around me. Then he lifted my horizontally up off the ground.

I wrapped  my arms around his neck.

“Don’t be afraid, Alice,” he said into my ear.  “I’m here now. I’ve got you.”.”

He carried me towards the exit as flames menacingly licked at us both.

Outside the burning building, I glanced to my left. With the depths of the fire blazing behind them, David was kneeling in front of Emry, anxiously checking to see if she was hurt.

The look of panic and concern on his face was the epitome of tenderness; tenderness that I had never received in five years.

He didn’t turn around to look at the ruins behind him, nor did he look for me, the woman he had called ‘wife’ for five years.

“Eric...” I buried my face in Eric’s strong chest and, using my last strength, whispered in his ear.

“Thank you for coming.”

A hot tear fell from the corner of my eye.

“I’ve decided... Take me away. To Milan. Don’t let him... don’t let him find me again.”