Before the guest could even finish the sentence, Mathias was already charging for the exit.
The engagement banquet descended into chaos, a whirlwind of uncertainty.
I didn’t think; my body moved on its own, following Mathias into the car, driven by something beyond reason.
The silence in the car was suffocating. He dialed the number again and again, his fingers trembling with urgency.
Once. Twice. Three times.
It wasn’t until the seventy-eighth call that the line finally connected.
Mathias’s hand shook so violently that his phone almost slipped from his grip. His voice cracked, raw with desperation.
"Nathalia, where are you? Why won’t you answer? Do you want me to die?!"
I had never seen him so broken, so utterly lost. It squeezed at my chest, a tight, painful knot I couldn’t ignore.
The chaos on the other end was overwhelming, debris crashing, screams echoing through the phone, while Nathalia’s voice remained eerily calm.
"Mathias, I can’t forget you. But you’re about to marry someone else."
"I can’t watch you belong to another."
"So… don’t come looking for me. If I die in this fire, it won’t hurt as much."
The moment she spoke, a deafening crash shook the line, the sound of a beam collapsing.