When Mom Burned, I Left My Cheating Husband

Chapter 2

Sarah? His first girlfriend, Sarah Eaton?

My chest tightened a little, but I had no desire to pick a fight with him right now.

"Wait, Mom is trapped—" Before I could finish, the line went dead with a beep.

I was torn between anxiety for my mother-in-law and resentment at Jason's impatience.

Madam Ford saw I looked off and came over to check on me.

"What's the matter? Is Jason too busy with work to come? If he's on a mission, that's one thing, but if he's not…"

"But that's his own mother!"

Right, this was Jason's own mother!

I gritted my teeth and kept bombarding Jason with calls.

Finally, he picked up the phone.

This time, before Jason could speak, I said straight out, "Jason, our mom's house is on fire. Get back here right now!"

But a soft, fragile female voice came from the other end of the line instead. "Eunice, I know you're upset that Jason is helping me, but you shouldn't curse his mother like that! Just wait a minute. Once he finishes fixing my water pipe, he'll come over to check on things."

I was so frantic I snapped at her, "Sarah, I would never joke about something like this. Hand the phone to Jason right now!"

The next second, I heard Jason speak, "She has the phone on speaker. I've been here the whole time. Eunice, are you done yet? You'd even curse my own mother just to make me come home? She's always been so good to you. You're completely out of your mind! Just ignore her, Sarah."

The call was cut off for the second time.

Though it was the height of summer, I felt as cold as if I had been completely submerged in ice water.

On the day Sarah came back, I had already thought that maybe one day Jason would leave me for her, but I never imagined it would happen under these circumstances.

Sarah was Jason's first love. They dated from university all the way into their working lives, only to split up later due to practical realities.

Before I got together with Jason, I had heard about this long relationship that had ended without closure. He had also promised me that he was not the type to stay tangled up with an ex.

As it turns out, a promise only holds when the person who made it wants to keep it.

Once Sarah got divorced and moved back to this small town, he forgot every word he had said before.

There were multiple times he told me he was busy with work, only to be over at Sarah's place helping her out.

Even though his heart had clearly drifted away, he stubbornly refused to admit it, claiming he was just doing a few small favors for an old friend out of consideration for their past relationship.

He acted so self-righteous about it, as if I, his actual wife, was the one being unreasonable and throwing a tantrum for no reason.

I clenched my fists, gazing worriedly at the situation upstairs.

The wind was blowing in the southeast direction. With no firefighters on the scene yet, the fire seemed to be spreading faster and faster.

My mother-in-law is already old. Even if she doesn't get burned, prolonged exposure to the thick smoke will definitely damage her lungs.

I paced frantically downstairs. After waiting another ten minutes, there was still no sound of approaching fire truck sirens.

The neighbors also sensed that something was wrong.

"The fire is already this bad—why haven't the firefighters shown up yet? Didn't we make the address clear when we called just now?"

"Oh, this is so irresponsible! What on earth are we going to do about Jason's mom?"

I grew restless, and a weird, bad feeling came over me. I hurriedly called the fire department again.

This time, the person who answered the phone was not the female operator I talked to just now, but a voice that was somewhat familiar to me.

"Eunice, is this really you?"

The moment I heard his voice, I recognized him immediately.

It was Edward Leeds, Jason's colleague and his closest friend in the fire brigade.

I tried my best to steady my voice, but it still trembled slightly despite my efforts.

"There's an active blaze on the seventeenth floor of Rosewood Towers, Unit 1, Building 3! Can you please send help as soon as possible?"

But Edward laughed.