Chapter 3

3

Burning to death sucks.

I still can't get the pain out of my head.

And now, I was about to be burned alive again.

I thought that if I didn't call Mike, I wouldn't repeat the same mistakes.

But, he was already on a whole other level, telling his teammate I was faking it.

The pain in my stomach reminded me of how heartless this man was.

Mike and I had been together for five years.

We bought this house two years ago, it was supposed to be our love nest.

It wasn't a fancy place, but I didn't care.

Mike and I were both normal, working-class people. To be able to buy a house in A City and have a place to call our own was good enough for me.

My parents died when I was young.

All I ever wanted was a family.

When we were together, Mike promised me that he'd make me happy and I was dumb enough to believe him.

Every piece of furniture, we picked out together.

I took care of all the plants on the porch.

I poured my heart into it, making it the home of my dreams.

Like the old electrical wiring that started this fire, something went wrong between Mike and me.

The little cracks in our lives caused so much damage.

I calmly grabbed the photo album I loved so much.

It had all the pictures of Mike and me together from the past five years.

He used to joke that we should pass the album down to our kids.

But, in a flash, the album turned to ash.

The fire was getting bigger, the flames were everywhere, burning the wooden door, the bed, the curtains.

I realized that my only way out was the window.

I quickly climbed out.

Standing on the AC unit, holding onto the hot window frame, I knew that the danger wasn't over.

This was the fifth floor.

Not too high, but I was pregnant.

I could fall and die or I could fall and not.

A lot of people were already down there.

They were my neighbors, I even knew some of them.

They saw me crawl out the window and everyone got nervous.

"Hold on tight! Don't let go!"

"We called the fire department!"

Even though a lot of these people didn't know me that well, they were still worried about me.

The man who was supposed to care for me couldn't care less.

I laughed as I realized what a mistake I'd made.

I started to lose my grip.

The pain made my face pale and my body shook.

My hands started to burn and I couldn't hold on anymore.

I fell backwards...

I thought back to when Mike and I first got together.

We met on a blind date.

We didn't like spicy food, or food that was too flavorful.

We watched movies and documentaries, and we liked taking care of plants and animals.

I thought that Mike and I were perfect for each other.

He was really sweet to me, he even promised my dead parents that he would be with me forever.

I never thought that Mike would care for someone else.

Everyone told me that Mike loved me so much and I believed them.

That was until Bethany, Mike's first love, came back from overseas.

She called Mike one night and he left in a hurry.

Maybe I should've realized how important she was to Mike.

He said that she had depression and that she needed him.

She could've gone to a doctor, or taken medication.

Bethany added me on social media with Mike's help.

They said there wasn't anything going on and that I didn't need to worry.

Bethany would send me pictures.

Sometimes it was a movie screenshot.

Sometimes it was Mike cooking her dinner.

Other times it was Mike sleeping with his head on her lap.

I fought with Mike over these pictures.

He would rub his head and act like I was overreacting.

"Ashley, I'm really tired."

"I don't want Bethany to kill herself, there's nothing going on between us."

"Can you just stop?"

Now that I know what he did after Bethany died, I can see that there was something going on.

He was willing to kill me and his child.

My mind was made up.

Mike never loved me.

I made a mistake.