Chapter 5

The club was already in chaos. The sudden blaze caused by some faulty wiring was spreading fast. Amidst the heavy smoke, Brandon was only focused on searching for Nicole. As for Roxanne, she had just barely made it out of the private room when she got shoved back in by the other panicked patrons who were making their escape. Somehow, the door had gotten locked too. She banged on the door frantically. "Help! Anyone! Open the door!" Everyone was in a rush to escape, and no one heard her cries for help. Heavy smoke seeped in from under the door, causing Roxanne to cough uncontrollably. She hurriedly took off her coat and used it to cover her nose and mouth, then ran over to the window. Just as flames licked their way into the room, she gathered all her courage, smashed her body against the glass, and then leaped out. Roxanne was on the third floor of the club, so when she plummeted to the ground, the pain she felt was so intense that she couldn't even sit up. She had a feeling she had broken her leg. When she glanced up at the crowd of survivors, she noticed that the rescued Nicole was clinging to Brandon, who was lying unconscious on a stretcher. Filled with worry, Roxanne forced herself to stand up. Just then, emergency responders arrived and brought her into an ambulance too. When they reached the hospital, Roxanne couldn't be bothered with her own treatment. She was in a rush to see Brandon, whose legs were covered in burns and blood. He was on his way to the trauma room. "Brandon!" Roxanne stumbled after the stretcher, eyeing him worriedly. However, when Brandon groggily opened his eyes, the first words that came out of his mouth were, "Where's Nicole? Is she safe?" Roxanne froze in place. Brandon continued in a weak voice, "Let me see her. I need to make sure she's okay…" The doctors were in a rush to send Brandon into the trauma room, but he was still relentlessly calling out for Nicole and insisting that he see her. Roxanne said to him helplessly, "Brandon, listen to me. The doctors need to take care of your injuries. Your burns are very severe. They can't wait!" But Brandon was only concerned with whether Nicole was safe or not. Nothing Roxanne said got through to him. "Nicole! Let me see Nicole…" His cries for Nicole made Roxanne stumble backward in pain, and tears welled up in her eyes. Brandon had deserted her in the fire and, instead, braved the flames to go save Nicole. Now, he was even disregarding his own life just to make sure Nicole was safe. Did he really not know that this was more agonizing to her than just killing her? At that moment, Nicole finally rushed over to Brandon's side and held onto his hand tightly. "Brandon, don't worry. I'm fine. You're the one who needs to get treated right now. I'll wait for you!" Nicole merely needed to say a few words, and Brandon obediently agreed to be wheeled into the trauma room. Right then, the doctor approached with surgery consent forms. "Who's the patient's family?" Roxanne instinctively stood up, but Nicole grabbed the forms first. She said to the doctor, "I'm legally the patient's mother. I'm qualified to sign." She then gave Roxanne a smug look. Roxanne stiffened. Indeed, her marriage to Brandon was a secret, and so she didn't even have the right to claim to be his family in public. Nicole, on the other hand, could. She was his stepmother. With that connection, she could forthrightly claim the spot next to him. No one knew that Roxanne was Brandon's wife. Brandon often forgot this fact as well. Roxanne lowered her eyes despondently. As she sat on the bench, the pain in her heart started to grow to unbearable levels. Right then, Nicole walked over to her. "I'm sure you've seen how irreplaceable I am in Brandon's heart. He's willing to forsake his own life for me. He only married you to hide our relationship. I showed you all this for your own good. This way, you can completely give up and stop clinging to any hope that he'll love you." Roxanne closed her eyes as she tried hard to hold back her tears. "Do you really enjoy watching him risk his life for you that much?" "I just want him to constantly prove his love for me, just as I have loved him with my entire being." "If you love him so much, why did you dump him and marry his father instead?"