“Dana…” nothing I said was registering with her. It was horrific to see, how she was coming apart. This woman, who’d always been only professional, capable, and so efficient, was completely coming undone. Due to me. Skye had been right; I had expected too much of Dana. And I’d never made it clear that I wasn’t interested in her personally. Perhaps I suspected that her having feelings for me helped me, made her more devoted to me. I shouldn’t have told security to block her, but I’d been angry about what she’d done to Ethan and Natalie.
“You have taken everything from me! Now I will take everything from you!”
I could only watch as she ran towards the house with her can of gasoline, going in the open front door and pouring gasoline on everything before setting it alight. I should have run over there to stop her, but I found myself watching her, like in some horrible horror movie where the crazy ex-girlfriend decides to destroy the boyfriend. I watched the flames spread through the house with morbid fascination, seeing them jump into the kitchen. I wanted to call the fire brigade but my phone was inside the house.
I made my way to the house, but the smoke was thick and the heat from inside was making my turn my face away. Was Dana still inside? My last thought was to cover my head with my sweater and try to go in to look for my phone. But the flames must have reached the kitchen gas because there was a huge explosion that knocked me off my feet and sent me flying back onto the gravel.
I lay on my back, stunned by the force of the blast.
Struggling onto my elbows I looked towards the house and saw the entire building going up in flames. I got onto my feet, and it was as if for the first time, I realized what was happening. My house was on fire, with everything inside. I wanted to go back inside to salvage what I could. There were computers, laptops, phones, all sorts of documents. Once I started thinking of things that were valuable, I started to panic. What about photographs and Ethan’s toys? I had lived here for so many years, there were so many memories here. I rushed forward but a second explosion shook the house and I felt something hit me on the head.
Then there was only darkness.