Chapter 49
49
CONNOR
Eric punches me on the shoulder.
“You idiot,” he snarls at me. “You went in there alone. Without me. Without protection . What were you thinking?”
Jacob has gone back to the ambulance to take care of Ember, leaving both Eric and me alone standing by the tree.
“Yeah,” I reply slowly to my friend. “I am an idiot. But Ember was in there, and I just didn’t think.”
With that admission, I crumble to the ground. Everything is really catching up to me now. Seeing my childhood home on fire... the shock of Ember trapped in the building... running in to save her... seeing her in pain...
It’s like all the energy has left my body as I sit here in the dirt. My breathing is so fucking heavy.
I can’t breathe.
“You okay, Connor?”
I nod slowly at my friend as he stands over me.
“I am,” I reply. “I just need some water.”
Eric nods back.
“Here.”
He’s already holding a water bottle. He hands it to me. I scull it down in massive gulps. I didn’t know how much I needed water until my lips touch the liquid. I didn’t know how much pain I was actually in until I have finally stopped running.
“Are you going to be okay?” Eric asks me.
“Yes. I’ll be okay.”
“I’ll be around,” Eric says. “If you need anything, just call my name.”
“Thanks.”
Eric backs away. He knows I need to be left on my own.
But I’m not on my own for long. Someone’s approaching me from the direction of the burning mansion.
“Hello, Waylen,” I growl at my father.
“Connor,” he replies. “I came over here to check you’re alright.”
“I am.”
“Is Ember okay? I saw you emerge from the mansion with her.”
“Yes. She is.”
He stands a few yards away from me. I can see the devastation of the fire in my father’s expression. He is usually so guarded and unemotive, but now the weight of tonight’s events hangs heavy on him. His spark is gone. He looks shell-shocked.
“What caused the fire?” I eventually ask him. “Did you manage to find out?”
My father waves his phone.
“My best men are already getting to the bottom of it,” he says. “They’ve already started their investigation.”
“It couldn’t have been an accident,” I remark. “It would’ve been someone.”
“I think so too,” Waylen says.
“You need to tell me who it is when you do get that information,” I reply. “Don’t take any action until you’ve let me know who did it.”
“I can’t promise that, Connor. I want retribution as much as you.”
I stare at my father.
“It’s the one thing I will ever ask of you,” I whisper. “The one thing.”
Waylen nods slowly. He understands.
“Okay,” he says. “I’ll let you know before I make my move.”
“Thank you.”
“Is that because of Ember?” he asks me softly.
“Yes,” I reply, my voice barely a whisper. “ Everything is because of her.”
Waylen sighs.
“I read her finished article about you,” he says.
“She wrote the article?” I ask.
“It was very good, Connor. She had some things to say about you.”
“What things?”
“That you are smart, courageous, independent. That you value your community. That you cherish your firefighter brothers. These are all her words, by the way. It’s what she wrote.”
“Oh.”
“She gave me that, knowing that I could fire her at my wish. She wrote her truth, even though she knew it could anger me. She was honest, Connor. Not a lot of people are honest these days.”
My father stands there and watches me for a long time. I keep my eyes on the ground.
She wrote that article?
She said those nice things about me?
She showed it to my father?
Did she do all that knowing that I will never know?
“Is this what you really want to do?” Waylen asks me quietly. “Being a firefighter for Crystal River?”
I look up at him.
“Yes. It is.”
“Helping the community here?”
“In any way I can.”
My father nods.
“Just like this?” he asks.
“Yes. Just like this.”
“You came here tonight and ran into that fire to save someone without a moment’s hesitation,” Waylen says. “You risked your life, and I saw that with my own two eyes. I can see that this is what you were put on this planet to do, son. I came to a realization tonight... that you’re not wasting your potential. This is your potential.”
“It is,” I reply. “This is what I want to do. Above anything else.”
“Ember is a lucky girl to have you, Connor.”
“I’m a lucky guy to have her, Father.”
And we don’t say a word about it, but we both realize that this is the first time I’ve called him Father in years.
“Make sure you tell me who did this, and who nearly killed her,” I say.
Father nods.
“I will, son. I will.”