Thick smoke quickly filled the room,and she coughed until her lungs burned.Just then,the chandelier above came crashing down,and fierce flames erupted beside her.
Shards cut across her skin,blood gushing from her wrist.
Outside,Astrid looked anxiously at the growing blaze.“Aurelia is still inside…”
Santino’s heart lurched,but the words that left his lips were cold.“She’ll be fine.Someone like her wouldn’t die so easily in a fire.”
He ignored Astrid’s frantic cries and pulled her away,yet his grip was so tight his own fingertips dug into his palm until the skin nearly broke.
Aurelia was finally pulled out by the firefighters,but the flames had left severe burns across her back.
The doctor warned that the wounds were too deep and would surely leave scars.
She didn’t care.She was going to die anyway;what difference would scars make?
When she stepped out of the ward,she saw Santino again.He was holding Astrid in his arms,his face tense as he studied the blisters on her hand.
“I told you not to go near the kitchen,to wait for me to cook.Look at your hand,it’s burned so badly.Do you know how much it hurts me to see this?”