Chapter 14 - The Fire at Midnight
“Daniel, my dad!” I screamed, shoving the phone into his hands.
Without wasting a single second, we sprinted to Daniel’s car. He tore out of the pier parking lot, running red lights as we raced toward the coast.
I dialed Dad’s phone franticly. Ring. Ring. Ring. Answer, please, Dad, answer!
“Voicemail,” I sobbed, clutching the dashboard. “Daniel, faster!”
By the time we pulled down the long, gravel driveway leading to Dad’s cottage, orange flames were already licking the edges of the wooden roof. Smoke billowed into the dark night sky.
“Dad!” I shrieked, throwing my door open before the car had even fully stopped.
“Claire, wait!” Daniel yelled, grabbing my arm, but I broke free and ran straight toward the blazing front porch.
The front door was kicked off its hinges. Inside, through the haze of thick gray smoke, I saw my father tied to a heavy dining chair, coughing violently as the flames crept up the curtains behind him.
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Standing over him, holding a gas can, was not Mark.
It was my mother.
