37. gray
37
GRAY
N othing had prepared me for witnessing the desolate aftermath of the inferno. But it wasn't just that—it assaulted every sense. The acrid smell of fire that had raged for hours. The ash floating around, settling on my bare arms. Everything seemed black, even though the sky above our heads was a radiant blue. My mouth dried up, and with each step crunching through the rubble under my feet, the sight became harder to bear. It would haunt me in my dreams, not just tonight but for as long as it took to rebuild this place.
It held a piece of my heart and made up a large part of my life. It was a landmark of the town. Despite the warmth, I shivered.
Ten years of work—gone just like that.
I didn't even dare to think about the cause as that would make me get in my car and go to the hospital where Amelia's ex-boyfriend was lying. I was never a violent man, but in this case, it seemed perfectly justified to grab him by the collar and tell him off.
Amelia stood forlorn amidst the remains of the house that she and then Declan had renovated. Except for the stove, which was dented and melted on one side, nothing else was usable. Glass shards sprinkled the ground, and other than charred pieces, no wood remained.
It was a tragic sight.
"We need to notify the insurance. We might as well send them the preliminary police report right away. And then we need to find workers… clear everything away before we can start rebuilding. We need to cancel the reservations for the next few weeks, and it'd be wise to post some job ads. We just can't handle all this alone without the bed-and-breakfast suffering losses for countless months. Has Wilder contacted us about Declan and Manon?"
Like her, in the rush, I hadn't thought to grab my phone. So I shook my head, my lips pressed tightly together.
All the planning Amelia had already done impressed me. It was more of a plan than I had because my mind was a complete blank.
Ten years of work, destroyed in one night.
How was that even possible?
Amelia suddenly appeared beside me. The walk home had already taken over half an hour because we kept stopping to assess the damages. A soft voice whispered to me that I should just let Amelia take the lead as I wasn't feeling up to it at the moment.
Inside me was a yawning emptiness that theWildwood Hideaway had previously filled. If I indulged my need for inaction, nothing would happen in the coming days.
She snapped me out of my thoughts. "Let's catch up on a few hours of sleep and then make a plan. You can also give me all the important details, and I'll take care of any urgent matters."
Seamlessly, she linked her arm with mine, and I followed her upstairs toward my house. It was the only building on the entire property that was intact and undamaged, except for the charred planks at the back of the garden front.
After a short shower that washed all the dirt of the night down the drain, we went to bed. I held Amelia close to my body as it felt like she was my anchor—the only reason why my razor-thin patience didn't snap, causing my dark mood to spiral.
"It does scare me a bit," she murmured before looking up at me. "But I guess I can be optimistic for you for a while until you can be again."
This made me want to hold Amelia even tighter.