Page 119 of Sweet Ruin

I shook my head in disbelief. “What were the chances you would both arrive here at the right time? Just in time to rescue us?”

“I keep asking myself the same thing,” Matthew said. “I just wish we’d arrived sooner…”

I glanced at my mom once again. If they’d gotten here sooner, perhaps they would have made it to us before Mom inhaled too much smoke. Perhaps she’d be sitting here smiling with us now instead of lying in a bed with all these wires attached to her.

Matthew’s phone started to ring, and he glanced down at the screen. “I should take this,” he said before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

“So, how are you really doing?” Noah asked.

I tore my gaze from my mom to look at him. “By some miracle, we’re all still alive, so I’d say I’m doing okay.”

He was looking deep into my eyes as he nodded. “I can’t tell you how terrifying it was to see you collapsed on the floor in your apartment. And then you begging me to take your mom…” He shook his head. “That might haunt me forever. You honestly thought I could just leave you in there?”

“She needed help more than I did.”

“I still don’t think I could have left you. It was like you were asking me to leave my own heart to be eaten by the flames.”

The emotions between us were too intense, too powerful, and I glanced away, unable to bear them. They felt too big for me, like I couldn’t contain them and they might soon burst from my body. I didn’t know how I could have denied their existence for so long.

The door opened as Matthew returned, and I was relieved when Noah backed away and murmured something about going to get coffees. As he left the room, I wondered if he too was overwhelmed by the emotions between us.

“That was the fire chief,” Matthew said as he sat in the seat between my mom’s hospital bed and mine.

“How’s the apartment? The café?”

Matthew drew in a breath and rested his hand on top of mine. “Not good, I’m afraid. They were able to salvage some of your belongings, but they couldn’t save the café, and the apartment is unlivable.”

“What?”

“I’m so sorry, Isobel. The fire spread quickly, and by the time the firefighters arrived, the flames had already destroyed so much.” He gave me a sad smile. “I have more than enough room at the place I rented for the break. It’s just down the road from the café. You and your mom can stay with me once you’re out of here.”

My eyes grew wet as I nodded. I didn’t care about losing the material things in the apartment. Not one bit. But that café was my mom’s life. And that apartment was our home. Almost every single good memory I had growing up had come within those walls, and to know we wouldn’t be making any more happy memories there was completely devastating.

I glanced at my mom and struggled to withhold a sob. I didn’t know how she was going to get over the loss of her business and her home, and after everything she’d been through recently, I couldn’t bear to see her suffer any further.

“Don’t tell Mom about how bad it is until we get out of here,” I said to Matthew. “I want her to focus on getting better.”

He looked apprehensive at first, but he slowly started to nod. “If that’s what you think is best.”

“It is.”

I glanced at her bed once more. Despite the news about our home, I was so thankful we were both alive. I was filled with a tremendous sense of loss and gratitude all at once.

“Do they know how the fire started?” I asked, focusing on Matthew once again.

“Not yet. They think it may have begun in the café kitchen, but there will be an investigation.”

I suddenly felt exhausted. My mom already had enough to deal with, but this on top of everything else? Matthew rubbed a hand along my arm. I was surprised by how much I needed his comfort, by how much I needed him. I had no idea how I could have managed this on my own.

“Noah told me your mom let you know about her diagnosis,” Matthew said

“She did.” I’d been angry at him when I’d first found out because he’d known all this time and kept it secret from me. But surviving a fire really put things in perspective, and I didn’t care anymore that he’d followed her wishes.

“She said you have her in some trial?”

“That’s right,” he replied. “We’re hoping to avoid surgery, and the treatment I have her on will hopefully do that. But we’re monitoring her closely, and if the tumor increases in size at all, she’ll have it taken out.”

“And her outlook is good?”

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