𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 age of 18 years old, 𝗔𝗗𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 decides to move down to California to pursue in her older brother's footsteps into becoming a firefighter. After four years of dedicating her life to saving people...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬 𝗢𝗡𝗘 "𝖥𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳 𝖮𝖱 𝖥𝖫𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳"
𝗔drienne and Estelle were forced into the back of the car while Maddie sat in the front next to Doug. Doug was fuming while driving on the road. He was angry with Maddie.
"Damn it, Maddie!" He screamed, slapping Maddie in the face. Estelle was thankfully a heavy sleeper, so Adrienne was thankful she didn't wake up at the sound of his screaming. She didn't know what Doug would do if Estelle randomly started crying.
"This is your fault. I told you, I told you you couldn't leave me," He spat, then glanced back at Adrienne and Estelle, "I warned you. You've dragged your niece and her mother into this too!"
Tears started well up in Maddie's eyes. It wasn't really her fault, Adrienne just happened to be there at the wrong time.
"...Is he dead?" Maddie asks.
"If he's not, he will be. He's not our problem anymore," Doug replied.
"Why would you do that? He's-he's such a-a kind man. He was so good. Adrienne and Ellie didn't deserve to be dragged into this," Maddie says.
"You think I don't know that? I didn't want to hurt him. I liked Chimney and I like Adrienne."
"The feeling isn't mutual, Doug," Adrienne hissed. Doug looked at her through the rear view mirror, his anger slightly rising. He only kept her alive because he needed her for something... he just didn't know what.
"You cloud me, Maddie. You fog up my head. You always have. If you'd have just stayed—," Doug says, only to be slightly cut off by Maddie.
"Doug, how long have you been here?" She asked.
"I needed to make sure you were safe. I saw you with Buck, I thought, all right, fine. She needs some time, just give her some space," Doug explains, "She'll come home. She always comes home. And then Chimney told me you asked him out, and I knew... I knew I waited too long."
"No. No, can you just pull over? We can talk. It's not too late."
"Of course it's too late. I just killed a man for you, Maddie. And I took your niece and her mother. There is no coming back from that."
⁂
They'd been driving for hours now. The car's gas was running out of fuel, and Doug tried to use a GPS to find the nearest gas station.
Unfortunately for him, since it was dark outside, the GPS was of no use.
Estelle started to stir in her mother's arms. Adrienne tried to calm her down to get her to prevent her from waking up, but her efforts were proven to be of no use. Estelle woke up and started crying.
