He Chose His Comrade’s Widow Over Our Child’s Birthday Chapter 04

1 Day Until I Left

I took Mia to a shopping center downtown to buy the last things we’d need before leaving.

The mall was packed.

As we passed a pizza restaurant, Mia suddenly stopped.

I followed her gaze.

Through the glass windows, I saw Julian.

He sat across from Leo, carefully cutting a slice of pizza into bite-sized pieces.

After blowing on one to cool it down, he held it gently to the boy’s mouth.

Vivian sat beside him, smiling like the happiest woman in the world.

She casually reached over with a napkin and wiped sauce from the corner of Julian’s lips.

The picture-perfect family.

Warm.

Happy.

Complete.

I stared at them.

Then I almost laughed.

So this was the “emergency” that had kept him from his daughter’s award ceremony.

Seeing the lie exposed so blatantly would’ve been funny if it hadn’t hurt so much.

Mia’s hand tightened around my sleeve.

“Mom…”

Her voice was small.

“Wasn’t Dad supposed to be working?”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

I took her hand and turned to leave.

Then a piercing alarm ripped through the mall.

The next second, a deafening explosion erupted from the restaurant level below.

Flames burst through the glass partitions as thick black smoke poured into the building.

People screamed.

Crowds surged toward the exits.

“Mia!”

I grabbed her hand instinctively.

But panic spread like a virus.

The crowd became a stampede.

A large man slammed into me from the side.

I lost my footing and crashed to the floor.

My hand went empty.

“Mom!”

I heard Mia’s terrified scream.

By the time I struggled back up, smoke had already begun spreading to the second floor.

I searched frantically through the chaos.

Then I saw her.

Through the haze.

Mia had fallen near a corner display.

A collapsed advertising sign blocked her path.

She was trapped.

And then someone appeared.

Julian.

He had already begun helping evacuate people.

His eyes landed on Mia.

He saw her.

He saw his daughter trapped.

Then another scream rang out.

“Julian! Help!”

Vivian.

“Leo’s trapped under a shelf!”

Julian froze.

He turned toward Mia.

For a split second, I saw conflict in his eyes.

A struggle I couldn’t decipher.

It lasted less than two seconds.

“Mia!” he shouted.

“Don’t move! Daddy’s taking Leo outside first! I’ll come back for you!”

Then he turned.

And ran.

I watched him race toward another woman and another child.

He lifted Leo into his arms and shielded Vivian as he rushed toward the emergency exit.

At the edge of life and death, he abandoned his own daughter again.

I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.

One sentence.

Just wait.

And he had chosen someone else over his child.

Again.

Amid the rolling smoke, Mia stared after him.

She didn’t cry.

She didn’t call for help.

She simply stood there.

Motionless.

Then slowly lowered the hand covering her nose and mouth.

She let the smoke pour into her lungs.

A single tear slid down her cheek.

Her lips trembled.

“Mom…”

Her voice was barely audible.

“Daddy went to save someone else.”

A pause.

Then:

“Mia doesn’t have a daddy anymore.”

The words shattered the last piece of restraint inside me.

“MIA!”

I grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall and swung it wildly at the debris blocking her path.

“I’m here!”

“Mom’s here!”

Again.

And again.

And again.

Finally, the obstruction gave way.

I rushed forward and scooped Mia into my arms just as she began losing consciousness.

Covering her face with my jacket, I ran.

I didn’t stop running until we burst out of the building.

An ambulance had just arrived.

I climbed inside with Mia in my arms.

Outside the emergency room, the red light illuminated the hallway.

I collapsed onto a bench.

Then I pulled out my phone.

Opened my lawyer’s message thread.

And typed:

[I’ve signed the divorce papers.]

[I’m proceeding with litigation. I want every tie between Julian and me permanently severed.]

After sending the message, I opened the airline app again.

The tickets scheduled for tomorrow were gone.

I rebooked us onto the earliest flight leaving that night.

I couldn’t stay here another second.

Julian Thorne.

You had lost us forever.