Page 44 of My Damaged Protector

“I don't know,” I say hesitantly.

“Please, please, please, save Ziah, please.”

I glance back at the building, trying to gauge if I can still go back and make it out alive. The chance is fifty-fifty.

“Don't do it, Ian,” Richard barks, but I am already moving. “Ian! Get back here.”

I enter the building, the heat of the fire hotter than ever. I focus all my energy on getting the dog, ignoring the sweat pouring down my body from the heat. I get to the dog. He's a wild one, but I manage to grab him and make it out of the fire with him successfully.

It’s not until I am back outside with the danger now behind me that I realize what I had just done.

Fuck.

Richard is still back by the truck when I get there. The rest of the guys have joined Shine in putting out the fire, and they're succeeding.

“Richard.”

“Go home, Ian. And don't let me see you around the station until I say so this time. If I do, say goodbye to your job permanently.”

Although I can understand why he's angry with me, I still can't find it in me to feel bad.

I just save lives. Isn't that what matters most?

Sure, I disobeyed him, but the ends justify the means, don’t they?

Shaking my head at him, I walk away to the back of the truck and pull off my getup.

I know he'll come around, eventually.

There's a new feeling of fulfillment flowing through me as I walk back to my truck and drive home.

When I'm back at my apartment, I immediately get showered before I step back into the living room and put on the TV. For the first time in weeks, I turn on the local news station, wanting to know what is going on in the world.

Lately, I've been keeping myself busy with a TV series to keep me from losing my mind.

When the TV comes on, I'm surprised by the name I'm seeing on the screen. It's the last one I expected to be honest.

Popular novelist and bestselling author Sarah Brown has once again warmed the hearts of her readers with her recent noble act of donating bone marrow to save her estranged father.

What the fuck?

14

SARAH

Two weeks ago,I found out that I not only have a stepbrother that I wasn't aware of all my life but I also have a stepsister.

Her name is Lauren, and she's a few years younger than me.

Peter is only a year younger, so it means my asshole of a father had his eyes outside my mother before he eventually got tired and left.

It was a terrible thing to realize, and with it comes a more terrible feeling of hurt, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I would eventually find out from Peter that the only reason Neville came looking for me was because both he and his sister Lauren weren't a match.

Talk about being punched in the gut.

I was broken. I felt manipulated and deceived.

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