Chapter 045

AMELIA

I was peering at the screen of my computer, surfing the net and writing down prices of some items I wished to purchase when Rose, the manager of my bakery, called me.

"Hello?" I picked up the phone eagerly.

"Ma'am," she gasped and swallowed audibly. I sat upright immediately. Just that one word and I knew that something was very, very wrong.

Unconsciously, I gripped the phone tightly.

"Rose, what's wrong?"

She made a sound halfway between a gasp and a sigh. She seemed to be struggling to speak. "I'm sorry... It's just that I'm still so shaken... though we've got it under control, but for a while, I thought- I thought-" She swallowed again.

"Take a deep breath and tell me what happened," I said more calmly than I felt.

Rose audibly exhaled. "There's been a fire at the bakery."

"WHAT?" My hands trembled, and I grabbed the phone tighter.

"It's under control now," she hastened to add. “We were able to put out the fire.”

My brain whirled in a hundred d