Chapter 1 - The Burden of the Rookie
The rookie firefighter named Mark gently scooped my exhausted body into his strong arms.
I was barely conscious, but I could feel the desperate urgency in his racing heartbeat.
The suffocating heat of the broken elevator faded as he carried me toward the blinding lights of the department store lobby.
He carefully navigated past the discarded emergency tools and the shouting paramedics.
I forced my heavy eyelids open just enough to see my husband standing a few yards away.
Alex was kneeling on the polished tile floor, gently cradling his ex-girlfriend in his arms.
He was softly stroking Valerie’s hair and promising her that she was completely safe now.
He had not even bothered to look back at the terrifying metal box where he had left his pregnant wife to die.
Mark stopped walking for a brief moment, his jaw clenching with pure disgust as he witnessed the scene.
I weakly reached out with my left hand and pressed my platinum wedding ring directly into his soot-stained palm.
I quietly begged him to give it to Alex and tell him that we were no longer waiting for him.
Mark nodded solemnly, gently placing me onto a waiting medical stretcher.
He marched directly over to my husband and violently threw the platinum ring onto the floor by his heavy boots.
Alex looked up in confusion, his eyes slowly following the shiny metal as it rolled across the tile.
He suddenly realized exactly whose ring it was.
The color entirely drained from his face as he looked past Mark and finally saw me lying completely motionless on the stretcher.
He dropped Valerie onto the floor and tried to sprint toward me in a state of absolute panic.
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Before he could even take a single step, the lead paramedic shouted a terrifying phrase that shattered the noisy lobby.
She screamed that my blood pressure was bottoming out and they were losing the baby's heartbeat.
