I Died In The Fire While He Married My Best Friend Chapter 10

I Died In The Fire While He Married My Best Friend Chapter 10

Zachary didn’t die.

The cut wasn’t deep enough, and Olivia called an ambulance.

He spent two days in the hospital. On the first day after he was discharged, he went to the county

jail.

Olivia had been arrested.

Zachary called in every favor he could and made sure the case became impossible to bury. The Grant family’s business suffered for it too.

Through the glass, he looked at Olivia.

Olivia looked much more worn down than before. “Zachary.”

Zachary didn’t pick up the phone. He only looked at her with empty eyes, then turned and left.

He went to Central High School.

The ruins of the science building had been cleared away long ago. A new library now stood there.

Zachary stood in the open space beneath the harsh noon sun.

He didn’t even look for shade. He stood there from dawn until dark.

I floated beside him and watched the sun beat down on him.

He didn’t move.

“Serena,” he suddenly said, his voice hoarse.

“Are you here?”

I didn’t answer. He couldn’t hear me anyway.

“I’m sorry.”

He dropped to his knees, both knees striking the hard concrete.

“I’m sorry,” he said again.

He bent down, pressing his forehead to the ground. His tears hit the concrete and quickly

evaporated.

“I was wrong.”

On the third day, Zachary fell ill.

His fever wouldn’t break, and Evan took him to the hospital.

Evan came to see him.

“Zachary, don’t do this. The dead can’t come back. What happened back then was on all of us.”

Zachary kept his eyes closed and said nothing.

His wrist was wrapped in gauze. Every day, he survived only on IV fluids, refusing to eat or drink.

I stood in the hospital room and watched him waste away.

The hospital gown that had once fit him now hung loose on his body.

That day, he had received that call.

All he had needed to say was, “Don’t be scared. I’m coming to save you.”

But he didn’t. He chose the cruelest way to answer, letting me die in despair.

“Zachary,” I said, standing beside his bed.

“Who are you putting on this devoted act for now?”

He couldn’t hear me. In his sleep, his brows drew together, and he murmured my name again and

again.

“Serena… Serena…”

He reached out, grasping blindly at the air.

I watched him coldly as my soul began to turn transparent.

I knew I was leaving.

I had been trapped in this world because I still had feelings for Zachary.

Now that the truth had come to light, my resentment slowly began to fade, along with the bitterness, love, and hatred that had consumed me over these past few days.

i didn’t care anymore.

Whether he died or lived, it had nothing to do with me.

I was only tired.

Zachary suddenly opened his eyes. He stared fixedly at the ceiling as a tear slid from the corner of

his eye.

“Serena. Is that you?”

He turned his head. He couldn’t see anything, but it was as if he had sensed something.

He struggled to sit up, then tore the IV needle from the back of his hand. Blood welled up

immediately.

Without even putting on shoes, he ran barefoot out of the hospital room.

He ran out of the hospital and into the street.

Rain began to pour. Soon, he was soaked through.

Zachary ran back to the place where the children’s home had once stood.

The children’s home had been demolished long ago. Now it was only an empty lot.

He stood in the middle of that wasteland as rainwater streamed down his face.

Then he began digging into the mud with his bare hands. His fingers were soon bloody, and his nails split and broke.

Like a madman, he dug out the glass bottle.

It was the wish bottle we had buried when we were children.

With trembling hands, he twisted off the cap and poured out the notes inside.

The notes had gone damp from moisture seeping into the bottle.

Zachary had written:

[Make a lot of money and buy Serena a big house.]

I had written:

[Stay with Zachary forever.]

Zachary clutched the notes tightly in his palm and pressed them against his chest.

He lifted his head and let out a hoarse, broken roar.

Kneeling in the mud, he sobbed until he could barely breathe.

I floated in midair and watched him like that, like a wounded animal.

My legs began to dissolve into points of light.

I looked at Zachary one last time.

“Serena, come back.”

“I’ll give you my life to make it up to you.”

No one could answer him.

I looked away, closed my eyes, and my soul vanished completely into that rainy night.

After that, I never saw Zachary’s ending.

I heard he went insane.

He bought the empty lot and built a house just like the children’s home that used to stand there.

Every day, he sat at the front gate and asked everyone who passed, “Have you seen my Serena?”

“It’s getting dark. She’s afraid of the dark, so I need to go find her.”

Day after day, he waited.

He waited for someone who would never come back.

He spent the rest of his life paying for the sin he had committed.

The evening wind swept past.

No one would ever stand in that wind and wait for him again.