Chapter 9 Unacceptable
Five minutes later, Edward sent the precise address, along with a note to stay safe.
She didn’t reply. Her focus was locked on the navigation as she floored the gas pedal.
“Julian, you better be okay,” she whispered, her voice fierce with determination.
“Even if we’re headed for divorce, I won’t let you die over some misunderstanding.”
She floored the accelerator.
The GPS estimated an hour’s drive. Elizabeth made it in forty minutes.
The closer she got to the wildfire’s epicenter, the heavier her heart grew.
Even from a distance, the acrid stench of charred wood and ash stung her nostrils.
As she got closer, she could see the scorched landscape all around.
Near the mountainside, everything, trees, and soil alike, was a bleak, charcoal black.
Chapter 9 Unacceptable
Looking at the devastating scene, Elizabeth felt as though she was already hearing news of Julian’s death.
Her heart lodged in her throat.
With one final press of the accelerator, she reached the site.
She hadn’t made it to the fire’s core. The road ended here.
Elizabeth leaped out of the car, her eyes immediately locking onto a cluster of fire trucks nearby.
Not far off, a makeshift camp of tents hummed with activity, figures in firefighting gear moving among them.
“This is it!”
Her pulse quickened as she hurried toward the camp.
But within moments, the faint sound of sobbing reached her ears, drifting from the tents.
Her heart stuttered, and she quickened her pace, urgency driving her forward.
“Julian, I’m here!” she murmured under her breath.
“Please, you have to be okay.”
2/6
As she reached the camp, a sight unfolded that stole her breath and shattered her composure.
Chapter 9 Unacceptable
3/6
Amid the bustle of firefighters, groups of locals, ordinary people, likely from nearby towns, gathered in clusters, their faces. streaked with tears.
Each group huddled around a figure draped in a white sheet.
Elizabeth saw, under some of those sheets, the sleeves of fire suits sticking out.
The scene hit her like a physical blow, rendering her speechless.
Her legs wobbled, threatening to give out.
She couldn’t bear to imagine Julian lying beneath one of those sheets.
Words swirled in her mind, desperate to spill out, but the tragedy before her, a raw, human sorrow, choked them back.
She refused to accept this.
“Julian, are you here?”
Her eyes brimmed with tears, her composure unraveling. Throwing aside any concern for propriety or her beliefs, she rushed forward, lifting the unclaimed sheets one by one, checking each face.
“Not him.
“Not him either…”
Chapter 9 Unacceptable.
4/6
In less than a minute, she’d confirmed several identities, none of
them Julian.
But relief cluded her. Too many bodies lay covered, and too many possibilities remained.
Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, at the camp’s edge, a man in a sool–streaked fire suit had just returned, carrying an injured
civilian.
When he spotted her, he froze.
Elizabeth? What is she doing here?
I rubbed my eyes, half convinced I was seeing things.
But there she was, the striking woman I’d once called my though now, she felt more like my ex.
Is she looking for me?
wife,
I stood rooted in the shadows, watching as Elizabeth frantically lifted sheet after sheet, her face etched with desperation.
I’d never seen her so rattled, so consumed with worry for me.
For a fleeting moment, her past coldness, indifference, the distance, faded from my memory.
I stared, transfixed.
Chapter 9 Unacceptable Does she still love me?
5/6
The thought sparked an impulse to call out to her, to close the gap between us. But as I took a step forward, I stopped short.
A vivid memory flashed through my mind. I still remembered. how Elizabeth, in front of everyone, affirmed her bond with Callum, and how their lips met in a tender kiss.
The pain of it stabbed me anew, halting me in my tracks.
No. It’s impossible.
Ms. Bennett, love me?
She probably saw my letter and got pissed that I dared to leave her first. That’s why she’s here, to settle the score.
The memory of that farewell letter steadied my heart, cooling the fleeting warmth I’d felt.
When I looked at Elizabeth again, her frantic movements no longer stirred me.
Let her do what she wants.
I’ve made my choice to walk away. There’s no turning back.
Whether she loves me, hates me, or came here to confront me… it doesn’t matter anymore.
The Julian who lived for her, who doted on her every need, died
Chapter 9 Unacceptable
in that wildfire.
The man standing here now is a new Julian.
And in this new life, there’s no room for Elizabeth.
6/6
With that resolve, I slipped away, moving to a corner of the camp where she wouldn’t see me. I threw myself back into the cleanup work, my focus unwavering.
I wasn’t worried about my teammates recognizing her.
Elizabeth, ever devoted to her spiritual practice, had never attended my work gatherings as my wife.
None of my colleagues knew we were married.
From a distance, I saw her stirring chaos, lifting sheets in at frenzy, only to be scolded by grieving families who’d come to claim their loved ones. She left the camp, her figure retreating,
broken and lost.
I watched her vanish, my heart calm, untouched.
