I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 06

I Called For Help, He Called It Jealousy Chapter 06

The next day, at the county morgue, the DNA results came back. The medical examiner confirmed that the

burned body was mine: Claire Bennett.

Ethan sat on a bench outside the morgue, utterly hollowed out. He gripped the half-melted radio and didn’t

move.

Lily appeared at the far end of the hallway in a plain white dress, supported by two firefighters. Her face was

pale, and tears clung to the corners of her eyes.

“Ethan…”

The moment she saw him, she rushed over and dropped to her knees at his feet.

“I’m sorry. This is all my fault. If I hadn’t had that asthma attack, you would’ve had time to save Claire. She

loved you so much. I know she wouldn’t blame you.”

Tears covered her face, and her shoulders shook with sobs. From where I floated above her, though, I could

see the little smile she couldn’t quite hide when she lowered her head.

Jake and the other firefighters stood nearby, looking disgusted. One of the younger men couldn’t help

muttering under his breath.

“If she’s that sick, why didn’t she stay home? Why was she hanging around the fire in the first place? Even if it

was an asthma attack, why did she have to take the only fire blanket?”

Jake shot him a look that told him to stop. Ethan, however, seemed to come back to himself.

He slowly looked down at Lily, who was pressed against him. His stare was empty, unfocused.

“Lily,” he said hoarsely. “When you had the radio yesterday, did Claire talk to you?”

Something flickered across her face. She shook her head at once.

“No. Nothing came through. I thought she’d already gotten out safely, so I kept quiet. I didn’t want to interfere

with the rescue.”

Ethan watched her for a long time. By the time he finally looked away, even Lily was beginning to look

uneasy.

“It must have hurt so much.”

He buried his face in his hands, a broken sob escaping him. “She hated pain. If she nicked her finger chopping vegetables, I’d have to comfort her for ages. That fire… locked in there all alone. How terrified must

she have been?”

Jake’s phone suddenly rang. He answered, and the color drained from his face.

“What? How is that possible?”

He ended the call and looked at Ethan, his expression troubled.

“Captain, something’s happened. Claire scheduled an email before she died. Every major news outlet has just received the security footage from inside the fifth-floor records room.”

Ethan raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Jake. “Footage?”

Jake held out his phone. What was playing on the screen was horrifying.

The recording began with Ethan wrapping the fire blanket around Lily. Then, ignoring my calls, he casually pulled the blast door shut.

But the most damning detail was a small movement caught clearly in the corner of the frame. As Ethan turned away, Lily slipped a coin out of her pocket and quickly wedged it into the lock.

The rest of the video showed me burning alive, all the way to the moment the falling beam struck me. There

were no screams of pain. Only a terrible silence.

Floating above them, I watched Ethan’s pupils widen in shock. Now the real show could begin.