Chapter 2

The Second Chance Program facility was sterile, impersonal.

They asked me questions. Was I sure? Did I understand the risks?

I understood. I understood that seven years of being a ghost in my own life was a risk I wouldn't take again.

Brenda, my stepmother, had taught me about misery. Jake had perfected the lesson.

"I want to go back," I told the technician. "To the wildfire."

The world dissolved into a dizzying blur, then solidified into smoke and heat.

Fire. Everywhere. The roar was deafening.

Panic clawed at me, the memory of that day, the terror.

I was pregnant again, just like before. The program sent you back as you were.

Then I saw him. Jake.

His firefighter uniform, smudged with soot. His eyes scanned the chaos.

They met mine.

A flicker of something. Recognition?

Then his gaze shifted, locked onto something beyond me.

Chloe.

She was there, screaming, terrified, just as I remembered from Jake' s endless retellings.

He moved. Not towards me.

Towards her.

He reached Chloe, pulled her towards his rescue vehicle.

I tried to call out, but my voice was lost in the inferno.

I had to move, to save myself, save my baby.

I stumbled through the burning trees, debris falling around me.

Then, headlights. Jake' s vehicle.

He was driving, Chloe beside him, her face buried in his shoulder.

He didn't see me. Or he didn't look.

The vehicle swerved, trying to avoid a falling branch.

It collided with me.

A searing pain shot through my side, my abdomen.

I crumpled to the ground.

Jake stopped the truck. He got out, rushed to Chloe's side, checking her.

He glanced at me, lying there.

"Sarah?" His voice was distant, annoyed.

Chloe was whimpering, "My leg, Jake, my leg!"

He helped her gently back into the truck. He didn't come to me.

He drove away, leaving me in the smoke and advancing flames.

Pain. So much pain.

I dragged myself, inch by agonizing inch, away from the worst of it.

Someone found me. Another firefighter. Not Jake.

The world went dark.