Chapter 56

Rachel was surprised by how much she missed Derek. After that conversation with her family, she’d tried to take a nap but her mind kept going back to him and how she wished she could be with him now. She remembered how distant he’d been to her in the morning when she took Zoe to his room to say goodbye. He had barely looked in her direction and instead focused all of his attention on his daughter who had been upset about the prospect of leaving her daddy behind in England.

She wondered if she should call him and tell him that they had landed in New York, although she knew that Shane had already informed him about that. So, what other excuse did she have to call him now?

It occurred to her just then that she hadn’t spoken to Alfred since they got home, so she picked up her phone and dialed his number. He answered almost immediately.

“Hello, Rachel. How are you?” He said cheerfully.

“Hi, Alfred. I am well, and you?”

“Fabulous. How was your flight?”

“Uneventful. I just want to say a huge thank you to you for letting us borrow your jet. I don’t know how I could ever pay back your generosity, Alfred. You are amazing.”

“Oh, stop it. You’re family now, so there’s no need for you to pay me back for anything. How’s my little Zoe?”

“She’s hanging out with her nanny, I’m starting to get jealous of Elaine,” she laughed.

“Aww… My adorable Zoe. I miss her so much already.”

There was a bit of awkward silence for a few seconds before Rachel cleared her throat and took the bulls by the horn. “How is Derek?” She asked tentatively.

Alfred sighed. “In my study. He has been in there for hours, sending and responding to emails, making phone calls, working…”

Rachel’s heart sank. “He’s trying to distract himself.”

“Yes. He has been quiet withdrawn since you guys left. We’ve barely spoken since and it breaks my heart to see him this way.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said sadly.

“Ah, well… I’m sure he’ll be fine. I don’t know how much longer he’ll remain here before jetting off to his next destination, but now that your vacation is canceled, he might return to New York. Anyway, whatever happens, don’t forget to keep in touch with me. And if it’s not a bother, could you video call me soon and let me see my little Zoe?”

She smiled. “Of course, I will. Thank you once again.”

“You’re always welcome, dear. Bye.”

After she hung up, she lay flat on her bed and stared at the ceiling while tears ran down her face. She felt terrible for putting Derek in such a depressive state but she also knew she did the right thing by walking away from a relationship that was bringing her more disappointment than happiness. He had asked her to marry him not because he loved her and couldn’t live the rest of his life without her, but because he felt lonely and he saw her as an escape from his emotional roller coaster. She didn’t want to marry just for the sake of it, she wanted to marry someone who loved and cherished her, and right now, that person wasn’t Derek Fraser.

She must have cried herself to sleep because when she opened her eyes, she saw that it was dark outside and the house was quiet. She went to the bathroom to wash her face before leaving the room, then she walked down the hall to Rob’s old room where she found Elaine and Zoe asleep inside. She suspected that her mother was also asleep in her room, so she tiptoed downstairs, not wanting to wake anyone.

Rob and Taylor were asleep on the foldable couch in the den, so she quietly made her way to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. She checked the time on the smart refrigerator and saw that it was 10:05 p.m. which meant she had been asleep for over 6 hours and now she would spend the rest of the night awake while everyone else slept.

When her coffee was ready, she poured herself a cup and tiptoed back upstairs, and settled on her bed to savor her brew while reliving the last couple of days. She knew for a fact that she had never had that much fun in her entire life; she had traveled luxuriously, eaten the best foods, shopped at high-end boutiques, and been treated to the most lavish birthday party of her life!

Derek had gone above and beyond to put a smile on her face and return, what had she done? She had accused him of using her and made him feel like a jerk, while she was the actual drama queen in all of this. So what if he didn’t declare his undying love to her before proposing marriage? His actions had shown to her that he cared very much about her and Zoe, so why was she so obsessed with hearing him say, ‘I love you’ to her? Was she a victim of the fairytale life she had dreamed up in her head? Had she pushed away the love of her life because of her impatience and stubbornness?

“What have I done?” She whispered to herself.

Feeling miserable, she put her cup of coffee on the bedstand and hugged her pillow in preparation for having a good cry but then she heard a crash downstairs and her ears perked up. Were the guys awake or did someone go into the kitchen to make some coffee?

Rachel wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or not, but she could swear that she was perceiving smoke as if something was burning in the house. She bolted off the bed and ran to the door and as soon as she opened it, her jaw dropped. There was thick smoke coming up the stairs and it was growing bigger and bigger as she stared at it.

“Mom! Rachel! There’s a fire!” Rob screamed from downstairs.

“Oh my God! Rob, are you ok?” She screamed back at him through the haze. “Where is Taylor? Is he ok?”

“I’m fine,” Taylor replied. “I’m coming upstairs to get you guys.”

“What is going on?” Rosemary asked as she stepped out of her bedroom and as soon as she saw the smoke, her eyes rounded in shock. “Jesus! What is this?”

The smoke was now swirling around them and they began to cough. Rachel ran into Rob’s old room to carry Zoe. Elaine was already awake from all that loud conversation outside of the room and was looking terrified to see the thick smoke that was slowly entering the room.

“What’s happening?” She asked.

“There’s a fire outbreak downstairs and we need to get out of the house right now,” said Rachel.

Elaine sprang into action immediately. She ran into the bathroom and soaked a big towel in water and then she gave it to Rachel.

“Cover Zoe with this and see if you can find your way out downstairs,” she said before running into the bathroom again.

Taylor barged into the room just then. “Come on, girls, we have to get out now!”

“Where’s Rob?” Rachel asked as she followed Taylor out of the room with Elaine behind them.

“He’s with your mom and they’ve both gone downstairs. Come on, let’s go.”

They followed Taylor’s lead, coughing and squinting as they walked through thick smoke. When they got to the top of the stairs, an explosion went off downstairs, shaking the building and collapsing the lower steps. Zoe started to cry because the loud noise had frightened her and the wet towel covering her face was making her uncomfortable.

“Get back!” Taylor screamed at them because the fire had spread to the bottom of the stairs. “Let’s go into Rosemary’s room.”

They ran back and hurried into Rosemary’s bedroom which was also filling up with smoke.

“We’re going to have to jump out through the window,” said Taylor. “That’s the only way for us to get out of this house alive.”

“This is crazy,” said Rachel. “What started the fire?”

“I don’t know but it started from the kitchen,” replied Taylor. “Look, we will get into all of that later, but right now, we need to get out of here fast.”

He opened one of the windows and looked down to see where they would land if they managed to jump down. Taylor heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the window opened to Rosemary’s flower garden.

“I guess we’ll have some soft landing down there even if it means killing some of Rosemary’s precious flowers,” he said. “We can tie some bedsheets together and fasten it to the bedpost and then we use it as a rope to get us down.”

Elaine was already on it, ripping the bedsheet off the mattress and twisting it to form a rope, while Taylor rummaged through Rosemary’s wardrobe to find another bedsheet to link with it. Once the bedsheets were tied together and secured to the bedpost, Elaine climbed out through the window while holding onto their makeshift escape rope, and she let herself down to the garden below.

“Rachel, throw Zoe to me,” Elaine called out from the garden. “I’ll catch her and then you can come down alone. It would be easier that way.”

“She’s right,” said Taylor. “It’s time for Zoe to get out of here.”

She let him carry her terrified child and watched him bend low over the window before releasing the toddler into the waiting arms of her nanny.

“Now, it’s your turn,” said Taylor who now looked exhausted.

“You go first, I insist,” she said.

He hesitated only for a moment before grabbing the bedsheets and climbing out the window. Once he landed in the garden downstairs, he looked up and gestured to Rachel to follow suit.

When she grabbed the bedsheet, she felt herself gasping for air and feeling dizzy. When she coughed, her head pounded painfully and she could barely focus on the task at hand.

“Rachel, come on!” Taylor yelled from the garden.

By now, she could hear the sirens of the fire truck coming in the distance and there were more voices in the garden now but the haze in her head didn’t let her focus enough to decipher which voice belonged to whom. She finally managed to get herself on the window sill but when she stepped off it, she lost her grip on the bedsheet and blacked out as she fell.