Page 98 of The Firefighter's Fate

“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?

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