Chapter 14
“A firefighter just carried the young woman’s body out. Man, it’s going to give me nightmares. I wonder which member of the Shore family it is… The poor thing,” someone said. “I saw them bringing it out of the guest room. It was probably a maid. It’s a shame; she was so young,” another said.
The Shores and Jordan heard everything the onlookers said. Melinda had just regained consciousness, but she almost fainted again at the sight of the burned house.
“My daughter! My daughter is in there! I have to find her!” she cried. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to charge inside.
Philip stopped her, trying hard to keep his devastation at bay. “I’m sure Ro is fine. Let’s check with the firefighters, okay? Maybe they saved her! Maybe the body isn’t Ro’s!” Roland had always been proud and arrogant, but he couldn’t help looking, broken as he stood there dazedly, his eyes red and bloodshot. He felt his ears buzz; he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
Jordan wasn’t any better. His eyes were also bloodshot, and he looked incredulous. His gaze was so dark that it was as if no light could enter his eyes.
He pushed the crowd aside and staggered toward the guest room Rowena had occupied. The fire had only been put out a short while ago, so there was smoke and ash everywhere. Everything was so scorched that it was hard to tell what was what.
Many things were still smolding and hot, but Jordan didn’t care about that. He had to find Rowena. He wanted to see her standing before him without so much as a scratch on her! He couldn’t let anything happen to her!
“Ro can’t be dead. She’s yet to marry me–she must be waiting for me to marry her! She can’t be… Ro! Rowena!” He shoved aside everyone who tried to stop him and ran to the debris without any protective gear. He started digging for any signs of Rowena.
It was too bad the fire had swallowed up everything. It had all ceased to exist. He dug until he was covered in dirt; his clothes were so dark that the people could only vaguely make out his figure.
Jordan’s slender fingers had burns and cuts from the lingering heat and sharp objects. They bled profusely, but he didn’t seem to feel them. He didn’t seem to get tired, either. All he could think of was that he needed to find Rowena.
The three members of the Shore family joined him. They refused to believe the charred corpse the people had talked about was Rowena.
However, they didn’t manage to find any traces of her under the debris even as night fell. The fire had started in the guest room she’d occupied, so none of the things in the room had survived the flames. The only things the Shores and Jordan had left of her were the parental termination agreement and engagement annulment letter.”
The firefighters grew tired after some time, and the crowd eventually dispersed. However, the Shores and Jordan continued digging until the next morning.
The police officers couldn’t help pitying them when they saw this. Ultimately, they had the four removed from the scorched building. A police officer shook his head helplessly at the sight of them looking dirty and disheveled.
He suppressed his sympathy as he said, “We only found one body in the villa, and the surveillance cameras were destroyed by the fire. We can’t determine the cause of the flames. However, based on clues we found at the scene, this was arson. There were copious amounts of gasoline everywhere–that’s why the fire was so strong.”
