She Let Him Burn

My brother was the best Fire Captain in the state. During a chemical plant explosion, he was trapped deep inside the inferno, covering the retreat of a rookie.

The entire structure groaned, threatening a secondary blast at any second. The Battalion Chief gave the final order: no one else goes in.

I knelt on the ground, sobbing, as I dialed my girlfriend’s number. My Ava.

She’s one of the top structural engineers in the country. Only her modeling, her analysis, could find the safest rescue path in the sliver of time we had left.

Ava’s voice on the phone was calm, resolute.

“Wait for me, Leo. I’m bringing my team and the equipment now. Keep the scene stable. Don’t let them give up.”

But as I stood guard at the police tape, locked in a standoff with the Chief, a text from her lit up my screen:

[An important academic conference just came up. You’ll have to find someone else for the rescue.]

I clutched my phone, kneeling in the muddy earth, listening to the muffled booms from within the blaze. I called her back, again and again.

On the 99th try, she finally picked up. The background was filled with the clinking of glasses and cheerful chatter.

My voice was a raw whisper. “Ava, my brother is dying. You’re the only one who can save him. Please, come back.”

A brief silence, then the line went dead.

The next second, a new post popped up in my feed, from her old college mentor.

It was a photo. Ava, beaming, laughing with several men in sharp suits.

The caption read: [A huge thank you to Dr. Ava Chen for her critical technical support, clearing the final hurdle for us to land the project.]

So, the mandatory conference… was helping her mentor secure a multi-million-dollar contract.

While my brother’s life hung by a thread, she chose another man’s future.

1

By the time I rushed the police tape again, the entire building had collapsed.

When they carried my brother’s body out, he was so blackened by smoke he was unrecognizable.

The rescue captain took off his helmet and just shook his head at me.

“No chance, son. Asphyxiation, then crushed by the debris. When we got to him, he was still shielding a rookie with his own body.”

My world imploded. My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the ground.

The firefighters from my brother’s unit came to help me up.

“Your brother is a hero, Leo! He saved all of us!”

Their eyes were filled with grief, with regret, but mostly, with a quiet, burning anger.

They knew, just as I did, that the one person who might have given my brother a fighting chance, Ava, was at a champagne toast, celebrating her victory.

The Chief took off his own jacket and draped it over my brother’s remains.

My heart felt like it was being carved out of my chest, but I tried calling Ava one last time. The number had been disconnected.

I couldn’t hold on any longer. I collapsed next to my brother’s body, sobbing, my trembling hands trying and failing to close his wide, staring eyes.

My tears fell onto the badge pinned to his chest.

My brother, Ryan, never took that badge off.

He said it was to remind himself that lives were on his shoulders.

Running on nothing but fumes, I escorted my brother to the morgue and personally saw to his cremation.

At the funeral, the Chief clapped my shoulder and made a promise.

“What your brother did… he’s being put in for the Medal of Valor.”

“As soon as the incident investigation is closed, we will hold a full honors memorial for him.”

The funeral had just ended when my phone rang. A new number. It was Ava. Her tone was clipped, impatient.

“I had to change my number, too many work calls. What’s wrong with you? Is this some kind of tantrum? You’re not even answering my texts?”

I couldn’t form a single word.

After scolding me for a few more seconds, she hung up in a huff.

I opened her last text, sent two days before:

[Marcus’s project is critical for my future. I’ll be back as soon as this is over. Tell your brother’s colleagues to figure something else out.]

But by then, my brother was already gone.

My already numb heart was pierced again. I opened her mentor’s social media feed.

In just three days, he’d posted half a dozen times.

From the group photo at the celebration dinner, to a brag about how Ava had dropped some “unimportant” personal matter to help him.

The latest post was a picture of the two of them at a cocktail party, bathed in low light, smiling into each other’s eyes.

A flood of comments from mutual friends poured in below.

[Dr. Chen is usually so reserved. Looks like you’re the only one who gets to see her smile, Marcus.]

[That’s what years of friendship will do.]

Every word was a searing brand on my soul.

It made sense, I guess. Ava and Marcus, they’d known each other for years, came up through the same program. To everyone else, they were the golden couple of the engineering world. If Marcus hadn’t gone overseas for his post-doc, I probably never would have had a chance.

It was only after Ryan died that I finally understood. If you don’t live in the same world as someone, you can never truly share their joys or their sorrows.

I sent Ava a single text message.

[Ava, we’re done.]

Then I blocked and deleted her from everything.

I placed my brother’s ashes in a small wooden urn and set it carefully in my bedroom.

I wanted to display all the medals and commendations Ryan had earned over the years next to him.

But I couldn’t find them.

I was tearing the apartment apart, frantic, when I ran into Ava and Marcus in the hallway.

“See, Ava? You’re a miracle worker,” Marcus was saying, holding a box. “I mention wanting to build an architectural model, and you find me the perfect metal materials, with real heft.”

“But these medals look pretty valuable. Are you sure it’s okay for me to melt them down?”

Ava gave him a playful little punch on the arm.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got your back. It’s just some honorary stuff. Not nearly as important as your work.”

I never dreamed she would take my brother’s medals—his honor—to win points with her mentor.

I stared at the box in her hands, my throat closing up.

Those medals were bought with every fire my brother walked into, with every life he snatched back from the jaws of death.

“Ava. Those are my brother’s medals. Give them back to me.” My voice was shaking uncontrollably as I advanced on them.

Ava shifted the box behind Marcus’s back, her brow furrowed.

“What are you yelling about? It’s just a few pieces of tin.”

Marcus jiggled the box, a smug grin on his face.

“Hey, it’s Leo. Isn’t your brother still on that rescue? Heard it’s looking pretty optimistic.”

“What’s with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Don’t be so cheap, it’s just a couple of old medals.”

His words made Ava’s eyes turn to ice.

“Leo, I can’t believe you. You’d even lie about something like that just to get me to come home early.”

“I’m not lying!” I roared.

My next-door neighbor opened her door, poking her head out to see the commotion.

“My brother is gone, Ava! You chose to help Marcus instead!”

“Gone?” Ava laughed, her voice dripping with contempt. “My friend at the fire department told me the rescue was a success. The man is out.”

Marcus fanned the flames from the side. “Ava, I told you he was just trying to manipulate you, trying to make you abandon the project. You didn't believe me.”

“Good thing you stayed to help me, or you would’ve fallen right into his trap.”

“Getting this worked up over a few worthless medals. I bet he was planning to sell them for cash.”

“You’re a liar!” I lunged forward, trying to grab the box, but Ava stuck her foot out and tripped me.

I hit the ground hard. A sharp pain shot through my knee, but my eyes were fixed on that box.

Ryan’s Distinguished Service Cross, his Firefighter of the Year plaque, his Medal of Courage…

Behind every single one was a scar left by the flames.

And now, they were going to be melted down into a cold, lifeless architectural model.

I scrambled back to my feet and lunged again, clamping my hand around Marcus’s wrist.

“Give me the medals!”

He struggled, and the box fell, spilling the medals across the floor.

I reached for them, but he stomped his foot down hard on the back of my hand.

The ribbon of one of the medals snapped under the heel of his leather shoe.

With a yell of pure rage, I shoved him away and gathered the medals, clutching them to my chest.

Marcus stumbled to the ground, a flash of malice in his eyes before he looked up at Ava, his expression turning to one of hurt.

“Ava, it’s fine, if Leo doesn’t want to, we can forget it. He’s obviously just jealous that you were helping me.”

“My project is secured now. You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ll be fine on my own…”

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